Paw-Ternity?

The United States still remains the only industrialized country without paid parental leave for newborn or adopted children.  The low unemployment rate, however, has encouraged some employers to revisit their parental leave policies.  Other businesses have also been creative in trying to develop benefits that would keep workers from seeking other jobs.  One Minnesota company has attracted a lot of attention for its policy related to "Fur-Ternity", which gives workers flexible leave to spend time with new pets.  From an article in the Star Tribune:

"Nina Hale, a Minneapolis digital marketing company, offers employees one week of flexible hours to care for new pets. . . The policy at Nina Hale includes 'any animal that doesn’t primarily live in a cage,' . . . The new perk centers around the idea of work-life balance, understanding that life extends beyond the office."

This and other policies signal a shift in the labor market in recent years, where employers must be more pro-active in finding ways to retain workers, creating new op"paw"tunities for some employees. 

- Joe Seiner