JPMorgan Chase Reportedly Will Offer 16 Weeks Paid Parental Leave

Every new parent at JPMorgan will get 16 weeks of paid parental leave, according to company documents, Insider reported Friday. The policy reportedly begins in January.

JPMorgan Chase was the subject of what was thought to be a record-breaking lawsuit filed in 2017 on the heels of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint by Derek Rotondo.

Rotondo filed it after he said he was denied more than two weeks of parental leave and said the company told him only women are considered “primary caregivers” and thus eligible for 16 weeks of paid time off.

The suit contended “that J.P. Morgan discriminates against men by designating biological mothers as the default primary caregivers… while presumptively considering fathers to be non-primary caretakers, who are eligible for just two weeks of paid parental leave,” according to The American Civil Liberties Union, which took up the case.

It became a class action suit where other dads at the company said the bank had denied them adequate leave. It settled in June 2019.

The JP parental policy before this newly-reported change is 16 weeks of primary caregiver leave and six weeks for the nonprimary caregiver. It still was gender neutral, which was another condition of the 2019 settlement.

Now, all new parents at the financial giant get paid four months leave. The company says it has over 240,000 employees around the world.

Unequal parental leave likely makes gender inequality worse, research has shown. It can be even more complicated for LGBTQ+ parents.

JPMorgan Chase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.