CITIGROUP is increasing the time-off allowance for new parents in the US and introducing leave for staff to care for ailing family members, bringing it more in line with Wall Street rivals as they fight to attract and retain talent.
Under the expanded policy, all new parents in the US and Puerto Rico will receive 16 weeks of paid leave, including those who adopted or had children through surrogacy, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. Birth parents will receive an additional paid recovery time of as much as eight weeks, reaching a potential total of 24 weeks.
In addition, Citigroup will now allow colleagues two weeks of paid leave annually to care for an immediate family member who’s seriously ill and incapable of self-care. Previously, it offered only unpaid leave. Some rivals already offer as much as four weeks of paid leave for that purpose.
While the new family-leave allowances help make the firm even more competitive with US peers, they’re less than policies in other parts of the world, bolstered by stronger cultural demands for parental leave as well as statutory mandates. In the UK, Citigroup employees are entitled to 26 weeks’ leave at base pay and more time at a lower-paid or unpaid status.
In India, where women comprise less than a quarter of the work force, banks have expanded their policies for female employees in a race to hire more. HSBC Holdings pays for bankers’ nannies in the country, while Citigroup allows new mothers to work from home for a year after their maternity leave ends. BLOOMBERG
