JP Morgan Chase, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, is set to expand the benefits for fertility treatment and surrogacy services. This was written in an internal memo sent to all the employees.
Prior to this the benefits for fertility treatment would apply only to couples who were diagnosed with infertility. HR-department has realized that such condition undermines LGBT-employees’ rights to build families. Now any US employee without a medical diagnosis of infertility can receive up to $30,000 in fertility services, such as in-vitro fertilization. The bank will also increase reimbursement of costs associated with surrogacy up to $30,000.
“We recognize that there are many pathways to building a family and we’re making it easier to follow them,” the bank said in a letter signed by human resources chief Robin Leopold.
This move is very important as the Wall Street firms tend to follow each other to not fall behind. Unfortunately, many financial institutions are lagging behind in protecting their employees’ right to building families and using assisted reproductive technologies. According to the data from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, only 31 per cent of the companies with 500 or more employees allow to tap reproductive benefits.
Recently we covered another example of increased benefits for employees using assisted reproductive technologies. The policy was implemented by Target, an American retail company. Perhaps we will see many other examples of such generous policy in the future.
Photo by Financial Times
Based on the article by CNBC
