Amazon pays paternity leave for first time

Retail giant Amazon has expanded its parental leave package, allowing new fathers paid holiday to spend time with their family.

Amazon will now be offering up to 20 weeks of subsidised leave for mothers, as well as giving any employee who has worked for the company for over one year at least six weeks paid time off. According to the Seattle Times, this is the first time that Amazon has offered paid parental leave to fathers, with the policy going into effect on 1st January 2016.

The move to allow parents paid leave follows in the footsteps of companies such as Netflix and Microsoft, both of which deployed this benefits package earlier in the year. However, Netflix was then publically shamed when it was revealed that these generous schemes did not include junior workers. Amazon, in turn, has promised that every single worker will be eligible for these packages.

Amazon’s new Leave Share Program allows parents to share their six-week paid leave with their spouse, provided he or she doesn't get any paid time off through their job.