Deloitte and Zoom’s trims to parental-leave benefits may hurt them in long run, experts say

The Zoom headquarters in San Jose, California. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenThe Zoom headquarters in San Jose, California. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesBusinessDeloitte and Zoom’s trims to parental-leave benefits may hurt them in long run, experts sayThe firms said last week that they will be reducing parental leave and other benefits for employees starting next yearEric BergerTue 28 Apr 2026 07.00 EDTLast modified on Tue 28 Apr 2026 07.02 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleRecent moves by US companies Deloitte and Zoom to reduce how much paid parental leave they offer employees could signal a larger reduction in benefits in corporate America, according to labor market experts.American workers are already seen as having less benefits and labor protections than many of their counterparts across the world, especially in Europe.Leadership at huge accounting and communication technology companies likely made the decisions because the labor market has stagnated, meaning that people looking for jobs do not have the same leverage when considering a job opening, the experts say.But while cutting the benefit might help companies save money in the short term, some consultants argue that the moves will ultimately hurt companies because it will make workers less productive, among other negative consequences.“It feels like someone is just looking at a spreadsheet saying, ‘How can I get more hours?’” said Bobbi Thomason, a professor of applied behavioral science at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. But that is “overlooking the fact that there are human beings on the other side and overlooking” the question, “what state are people going to be in when we’re in the office”?The United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee paid parental leave. The remaining 37 countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development offer at least some paid maternity leave, mostly through social insurance funds that are supported by employer, worker and government contributions, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.For example, Austria offers 16 fully-paid weeks of maternity leave; Denmark guarantees 22 weeks with an average payment rate of 48%, according to a Syracuse University report.Still, 13 US states and the District of Columbia have enacted mandatory paid leave systems. Most federal employees are also guaranteed up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave. And last year, US House members introduced bipartisan legislation to establish a program in which the Department of Labor would provide grants to states that establish paid family leave programs through public-private partnerships.Parental leave policies not only help new parents, but also have larger societal benefits, according to advocates.Each $1,000 in taxpayer-funded paid parental leave creates more than $20,000 in societal benefits, including increases in the mother and infants’ health and in infants’ earnings in adulthood, according to a study from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.“We have seen when people have access to paid parental leave through their companies or publicly pretty dramatic improved outcomes from a health perspective and also from an economic perspective,” said Abby McCloskey, a nonresident fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution who has advocated for paid parental leave.Despite those benefits, Deloitte, which employs more than 470,000 people and generated more…

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