Goldman Sachs is offering a new perk to working mothers

Goldman Sachs isn’t the
first company to establish this benefit.
cowardlion/Shutterstock

• Goldman Sachs is offering
  employees a new perk that allows them to ship their breast milk home while they’re
  traveling for work.
• It’s the latest company to offer this benefit, which is
  meant to support working moms.
• In the US, expressing breast milk at work isn’t a perk
  — it’s a right.
• But some companies have gone above and beyond in
  providing perks tailored to the experiences of employees with
  new babies.

Goldman Sachs is the latest
company to offer working moms the perk of shipping breast milk home.

CNN reported that the bank’s
US-based employees can now receive reimbursements for LifeCare‘s MilkShip service. The service allows
individuals to ship breast milk “anywhere in the world” in
refrigerated kits. The idea is that new mothers won’t have to
pump and dump while on business trips.

Goldman Sachs isn’t the first company to unveil this particular
benefit. Twitter introduced the perk back in
2015, Business Insider reported.

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that employees who
wish to take advantage of the benefit will identify a cold
shipping supplier of their choice, and the company will reimburse
them for the cost.

Before that, IBM, Accenture, and EY were on the ball, according to HRDrive. EY also provides new
parents with free, hospital-grade breast pumps, according to
Care@Work.

An EY spokesperson told Business Insider that the company has
“been offering both break milk shipping kits and pumps to new
parents since 2007.” According to the spokesperson, the company
has delivered 405 breast milk shipping kits so far in 2018, and
typically distributes about 1,600 pumps to new parents.

Both Twitter and IBM previously indicated that,
while only small numbers of employees typically take advantage of
the perk at a time, the benefit has made a huge difference for
the new mothers who do put it to
use.

“As long as it appeals to a segment of our population and they
feel that they can better balance their work and home, we will
continue it,” Barbara Brickmeier, the then-IBM VP of benefits who
now serves as the tech giant’s VP of HR told Fortune in 2015.

In the US, pumping milk at work isn’t a benefit — it’s a right.
As of 2010, employers have had to provide time and space for most
“for most hourly wage-earning and some salaried employees
(nonexempt workers) to express breast milk at work,” according to
the United States Breastfeeding
Committee.

But some companies like those that have introduced breast milk
delivery services have gone above and beyond when it comes to
better supporting new moms.

It’s a trend that likely reflects the increased support for
parent-friendly policies in the US. High profile companies like
Netflix and Facebook have established generous parental leave policies. And
Business Insider reported that a bipartisan
majority of 93% Americans agree that the US needs a federal
parental leave policy, according to a 2017 MSN poll.

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