Twitter CEO’s paternity leave sparks question of how much is enough

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When Twitter Inc head Parag Agrawal stated this week that he’ll take “just a few weeks” off following the beginning of his second youngster, he was praised for breaking a taboo surrounding prime executives and paternity leave. Others stated his plans don’t go far enough.

In an indication of how shortly norms are evolving at US corporations, the massive question sparked by Agrawal’s announcement was why he wasn’t utilizing extra of the 20 weeks that Twitter presents. Reddit Inc co-founder Alexis Ohanian urged Agrawal to “take the time you want.” Others famous that by taking extra leave, Agrawal may reinforce to workers that it is secure for them to do the identical.

“You can break up parental leave up, like take just a few weeks to ensure the whole lot at house is A-OK, then take each Friday off to make use of the remainder of the leave,” Ohanian, who has been a vocal advocate for parental leave, prompt on Twitter. His enterprise capital agency, Initialized, at present presents 4 months of parental leave to workers. In October 2021, co-founder Garry Tan stated he took benefit of the total 4 months when it was out there to him “to ensure everybody at Initialized felt like they may do it.”

Agrawal, Twitter’s former know-how chief, was named to the chief govt officer function in November, taking up for co-founder Jack Dorsey. During his leave, Agrawal “plans on being linked with the manager crew all through, which is what works greatest for him, his spouse and the corporate,” stated Laura Yagerman, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based firm.

“At Twitter, we encourage and totally help workers taking parental leave in no matter manner works greatest for every individual,” she stated in a press release.

California legislation mandates that employers provide qualifying employees as much as 12 weeks unpaid parental leave; different state provisions guarantee as much as six weeks paid leave for some workers who’re new mother and father.

There is no federal minimal for paid parental leave, although the Biden administration included 12 weeks of paid leave in an early draft of its Build Back Better plan. That quantity was later adjusted to 4 weeks. Only 23% of employees within the US have entry to paid parental leave, whether or not by means of employers or authorities applications.

Nine in 10 males take some kind of parental leave following the beginning or adoption of a baby, although most take fewer than 10 days. They are additionally 50% much less seemingly than girls to take the total quantity of time afforded to them.

In a report final yr, the US Census Bureau discovered that 33% of males took paid parental leave within the first 12 weeks following a baby’s beginning, in contrast with virtually 45% of girls. Men have been even much less seemingly than girls to take unpaid parental leave, however extra seemingly to make use of paid trip time as a kind of parental leave.

There is nonetheless lingering stigma surrounding paid leave for fathers, as evidenced by the response to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg saying he would take parental leave to bond along with his twins. Meta Platforms Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in the meantime, took two months of paid leave following the births of his daughters in 2015 and 2017; the corporate presents 4 months. If males are frowned on for really utilizing their paternity leave, “that carries with it this assumption that the girl’s going to do all of the work,” Buttigieg stated in October.

“We’re virtually the one nation left on the planet that doesn’t have some sort of coverage,” he stated. “When mother and father take that parental leave, they must be supported.” – Bloomberg



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