At Johnson & Johnson, we are firmly committed to living Our Credo. A key tenet of this is to respect the dignity of our employees, foster a workplace culture of health and provide equal opportunity for everyone. This focus on diversity and inclusion makes us a more caring company, and enables our people to truly come together to solve the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
To that end, we are thrilled about the announcement we made this morning: a significant upgrade to our parental leave policy in the United States. Starting May 1st, all new parents – maternal, paternal, and adoptive – will have the opportunity to take eight weeks of paid leave during the first year of the family’s birth or adoption.
This new policy is in addition to our current leave policies, which means moms who give birth can take up to 17 paid weeks off. The time doesn’t need to be taken consecutively, so our people can enjoy some much-needed flexibility during such a critical time in their lives. We’re also making it retroactive for employees who became parents on or after May 2014.
We are especially proud of the changes instituted today because they underscore our strong support for the modern-day family, no matter what shape that family takes. In addition to the obvious benefits for mothers, our new policy is also a great stride forward in terms of fathers’ and adoptive parents’ leave.
As President Obama said at a recent Working Families Champions of Change event in Charlotte, North Carolina, as a nation, it is our responsibility to “[bring] workplaces stuck in the last century into this century, and this is something that I’ve made a priority as President. Because our workplaces have changed, we have to change with them.”
Johnson & Johnson is immensely proud to be at the forefront of driving the type of critical change needed to align workplace policies with the realities of the 21st Century family. Today is a perfect occasion for J&J employees to celebrate our company’s commitment to the health & wellness of families, to work-life balance, and to putting first the needs and well-being of the people we serve.