Plaxo's Personal Card: On Paid Parental Leave

I want to thank Mischa for volunteering to be Plaxo’s “test case”! Mischa is our newest mom, at Plaxo. Mischa worked with me in order to help me “come up to speed” on the issues. Mazel Tov and congratulations to you, Mischa! Also, thank you, Ben, for championing this new policy, approving of one of the most generous and unique paid parental leave policies in Silicon Valley for a new Internet startup.

So, you might be asking, “what is the problem”? Did you know that parental leave is guaranteed as a result of federal and state legislation? California has led the way in the U.S. and has one of the most progressive parental leave standards in the U.S. However, this is poorly paid or unpaid leave! Have you ever tried to live on your state disability insurance? The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have fully paid parental leave other than Australia. There are 163 countries in the world that give women paid leave with the birth of a child, and 45 countries that give fathers the right to paid parental leave.

As I researched Plaxo’s new policy, I found myself sort of blazing new territory on this one, especially when it came to defining a fully paid parental leave policy. Some of the local Silicon Valley profitable firms offer paid parental leave. But how many pre-IPO startups offer fully paid parental leave to their employees?

In California, the only way for a parent to take paid parental leave is to file for State Disability Insurance or Paid Family Leave. However, when you calculate it all out, these sources of income are dismal at best. So, we decided that parental leave, before, during, or after the birth of a child, for whatever reason, isn’t necessarily a disability. It is natural (did you know that a vast majority of all women become mothers?) and we, at Plaxo, believe corporations need to support our parent’s and children’s needs. And, we mean really support them, with financial support.

We decided to look at supplemental approaches to state disability insurance. One way we came up with is to provide fully paid parental leave to supplement their state sponsored disability and paid family leave insurance. We will pay our Plaxo parents an amount equal to their current salary (minus whatever the state or feds give them) for up to 6-weeks in order to care for their newborns before, during or after birth, for whatever reason.

Although we lose our employee’s productivity during their paid parental leave, we believe they will become more thoughtful and more productive Plaxo employees when they return to work.

So that’s it. I work for Plaxo, a leader in paid parental leave. If you wish to sponsor such a policy at your own company and you would like to chat, please feel free to contact me directly.

Respectfully submitted,

Stuart Liroff
Sr. Director of Human Resources
stuart@plaxo.com

Posted by stuart at May 16, 2006 @ 11:24 AM | permalink

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There is a lot of “tech talk” on this site; for a change, I wanted to take a moment to do some reflection about a new Plaxo benefit. During the past 8-weeks, I have researched and designed a new paid Parental Leave policy here at Plaxo. I want to thank Mischa for volunteering to be Plaxo’s “test case”! Mischa is our newest mom, at Plaxo. Mischa worked with me in order to help me “come up to speed” on the issues. Mazel Tov and congratulations to you, Mischa! Also, thank you, Ben, for championing this new policy, approving of one of the most generous and unique paid parental leave policies in Silicon Valley for a new Internet startup. So, you might be asking, “what is the problem”? Did you know that parental leave is guaranteed as a result of federal and state legislation? California has led the way in the U.S. and has one of the most progressive parental leave standards in the U.S. However, this is poorly paid or unpaid leave! Have you ever tried to live on your state disability insurance? The U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have fully paid parental leave other than Australia. There are 163 countries in the world that give women paid leave with the birth of a child, and 45 countries that give fathers the right to paid parental leave. As I researched Plaxo’s new policy, I found myself sort of blazing new territory on this one, especially when it came to defining a fully paid parental leave policy. Some of the local Silicon Valley profitable firms offer paid parental leave. But how many pre-IPO startups offer fully paid parental leave to their employees? In California, the only way for a parent to take paid parental leave is to file for State Disability Insurance or Paid Family Leave. However, when you calculate it all out, these sources of income are dismal at best. So, we decided that parental leave, before, during, or after the birth of a child, for whatever reason, isn’t necessarily a disability. It is natural (did you know that a vast majority of all women become mothers?) and we, at Plaxo, believe corporations need to support our parent’s and children’s needs. And, we mean really support them, with financial support. We decided to look at supplemental approaches to state disability insurance. One way we came up with is to provide fully paid parental leave to supplement their state sponsored disability and paid family leave insurance. We will pay our Plaxo parents an amount equal to their current salary (minus whatever the state or feds give them) for up to 6-weeks in order to care for their newborns before, during or after birth, for whatever reason. Although we lose our employee’s productivity during their paid parental leave, we believe they will become more thoughtful and more productive Plaxo employees when they return to work. So that’s it. I work for Plaxo, a leader in paid parental leave. If you wish to sponsor such a policy at your own company and you would like to chat, please feel free to contact me directly. Respectfully submitted, Stuart Liroff Sr. Director of Human Resources stuart@plaxo.com