Surrogacy and Adoption; part of the new employee benefits

Uplifting news across the pond: Pinterest are adding to their available employees benefits a package of financial assistance for surrogacy and adoption.

Its fabulous to see such a high profile company adopting this policy, aimed not just at ticking some inclusion and diversity tick box but actually offering something really life-changing to an employee looking at surrogacy or adoption. This route to parenthood is already fraught with uncertainty, expense, delay and stress: so the knowledge of a financial benefit like this, not to mention a supportive employer is going to mean an enormous amount to an employee in these circumstances.

Here’s hoping that this financial game-changer will be taken up by other progressive employers, and even reach the point of being just one of the benefits a prospective employee will come to expect.

Pinterest will launch a financial aid scheme on 1 July to help its employees cover the cost of adoption and surrogacy.

Employees will receive a reimbursement of $20,000 for surrogacy costs, and $5,000 for adoption costs.

In a blog post, Candice Morgan, the website’s head of inclusion and diversity wrote: 'Diversity and inclusion are woven into the fabric of our culture.

'As our organisation grows, so do the needs of each employee, including those starting families.”

She also wrote that the idea came from a male employee in a same-sex relationship, who was seeking to start a family with his husband.

'Our People team often speaks with employees to learn more about how we should expand our benefits, and we recently spoke with a colleague who’s been looking into surrogacy with his husband,” Candice added.