Ford Expands Paid Time Off for New Parents
Wages may have stagnated, but companies know they can still curry the public’s favor by other means. Because corporations aren’t people, despite the government saying otherwise, they can’t really be good or evil. This frequently results in meaningless pandering, perplexing business decisions, or disingenuous marketing that pushes an empty moral narrative in an attempt to bend to rampant social pressures. Still, it occasionally leads to those in charge making a decision to do the right thing and getting some deserved praise.
Ford Motor Co. is significantly expanding the amount of paid time off available to new parents among its salaried workforce in the United States.
Effective immediately, the automaker will provide fathers with 8 weeks of paid time off, with mothers eligible for between 14 to 16 weeks off. That’s up from 2 and 8 to 10 weeks, respectively. Additionally, Ford will also start allowing new parents to work part time for up to 4 weeks at full-time pay once their paternity or maternity leave has ended as they transition back to work.
There are, of course, rules to be followed. According to Automotive News, parents must take at least 6 of the 8 weeks consecutively. Any leave of absence must also be taken within one year of procuring a child, regardless of whether parents decided to adopt, foster, or take the traditional route of combining their DNA in a Burger King bathroom after a night of heavy drinking.
From Automotive News:
The automaker communicated the moves internally to employees late last month. It’s expected to announce the changes publicly later today.
Additionally, Ford will begin to allow new parents to work part time for four weeks at full-time pay once their paternity or maternity leave is up as they transition back to work.
It will also let U.S. salaried employees use all 80 hours of their allotted sick days for personal business, like caring for a sick family member.
We’ve heard tell of other arrangements where babies have been traded for the ability to spin straw into gold, so Ford has a pretty sweet arrangement here. For comparison’s sake, General Motors offers 6 weeks of paid maternity leave, 9 weeks of unpaid maternity leave and 2 weeks of paid paternity leave — based off data from a few years ago. Financial assistance is available for adopted children, but all time off is unpaid. Meanwhile, Google gives mothers 22 weeks of paid leave, while fathers or adoptive parents receive 7 weeks.
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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A Mormon Ford employee with six wives could spend the entire year at home bonding with his progeny, as long as he times their births right. He would only have to stop by the factory once a year, to visit the HR office, in order to request four weeks of accumulated vacation time. The next year, he could do the same, and the next, and the next. He would become the country's leading expert in bonding with newborns, while forgetting entirely how to work on an assembly line.