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