Amazon Increases Their Paid Parental Leave Policy on the Heels of Recent Bad Press

Following on the heels of a New York Times investigative piece about the less-than-pleasant working conditions at Amazon, Jezebel reports that the company has quietly been implementing better paid leave policies for their employees. Of course, there’s no mandate here in the United States that would require the company to do this, unlike in other countries; as displayed in The Atlantic‘s research (pictured above), the good ol’ US of A is pretty far behind on this issue. It’s to a point where a massive company deciding to offer paid leave actually will earn them some good press in response. For example, Microsoft, Netflix, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google have all revamped their own paid parental leave programs in recent years—to the relief of their employees, no doubt.

This seems like a no-brainer type of popular decision on Amazon’s part, to a point where it feels strange to congratulate them for it—especially given the “convenient” timing, following on the heels of the bad press that the company’s gotten recently. Prime Now workers at Amazon are in the midst of suing the company due to unfair working conditions, such as getting cheated out of wages and break times. Speaking of “convenience,” I guess all of those two-day and one-day shipping speeds came at a cost, huh?

(via Jezebel, image via The Atlantic)

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