Dive Brief:
- Ninety percent of companies offer more benefits to employees with spouses than to single employees, according to a report by Thomsons Online Benefits.
- Employees who are married enjoy an average of 3.6 more days of paid time off each year than their single colleagues. In fact, 22% of the 300 H.R. practitioners surveyed said their employers offer additional PTO for weddings and honeymoons.
- Employers also contribute an average of $462 each month to married employees' healthcare plans, as opposed to their $344 contribution to plans of single employees, the report found. And nearly three-quarters of companies offer paid family leave only to employees with children.
Dive Insight:
Singles aren't the only employees missing out on benefits. LGBTQ couples often lose out, too — particularly when it comes to family-oriented benefits.
Same-sex male couples get shorted on paid parental leave when compared to same-sex female couples and opposite-sex couples, a study in Cambridge University's Journal of Social Policy revealed. Thirty-three countries offered national paid parental leave at the time the study was published. In 19 of those countries, same-sex female couples got the same amount of paid leave as opposite-sex couples. Same-sex male couples received equal amounts of leave in only four of those countries, the study revealed.
It may appear logical to give birth parents leave, as part of maternity leave involves medical recovery. But mothers also benefit from fathers being able to take time off following the birth of a child, recent research concluded. When fathers have access to workplace flexibility after welcoming a baby, mothers experience fewer postpartum health problems and improved mental health, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found.
