Adobe boosts paid parental leave for new parents

Adobe Systems Inc., a tech firm based in San Jose, California, has followed in the footsteps of Netflix and Microsoft by announcing it will provide new parents with additional paid time off.

Starting Nov. 1, new mothers working at the company will be given 26 weeks of paid leave. Additionally, Adobe has pledged 16 weeks of paid time off for primary caregivers, up from 12 weeks off. Previously, two weeks out of the 12 were paid.

“We join an industry movement to better support our employees while striving towards increased workforce diversity,” Donna Morris, Adobe senior vice president of People and Places, wrote on the company’s blog.

Of Adobe’s 13,500 employees across the world, 6,500 of which are in the United States, nearly 30 percent are women.

In an interview, Morris said the new leave program was being planned for some time and was not a response to similar recent announcements made by Netflix and Microsoft.

“Our employees are our intellectual property and our future. The investment is unquestionably worth it,” Morris said.

Last week, Netflix announced it would allow its employees up to one year of paid maternity or paternity leave following the birth of a child or an adoption.

Microsoft Corp. also announced earlier this month that it would extend fully paid leave for new parents to 12 weeks.

The technology industry is home to a number of talented individuals in the US, particularly in Silicon Valley, where it is booming and where salaries for recent engineering graduates can hit six figures. However, even with the opportunity to work in prestigious companies and free food, the Wall Street Journal reported that some wonder if the long working hours tech companies demand works out with parenthood.

Unlike many developed nations, the United States does not guarantee some paid leave for new mothers.

“That means companies must navigate the tough balance between supporting employees during major life events and meeting business goals,” Morris wrote in her blog post. “Too often, employees have not had the support they need.”

Other stipulations in Adobe’s new policy include 10 weeks of paid medical leave for childbirth, illness, medical emergency or surgery. The company will also grant workers a maximum of four weeks paid leave to care for a sick family member. (With reports from Fortune, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal)