Manhattan-New York

Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers

workingmom.jpgBy Heather Chapman (New York City)

While finding a ‘good’ job—one that you enjoy, with livable hours and health insurance—can be difficult for a single woman, it can be even more difficult for working women who have to factor in their children. Juggling a job and its requirements with the responsibilities that come as being a parent can be extremely frustrating, especially when it feels like you have to shortchange one to fulfill the other. While not every company recognizes the need to offer benefits like flextime, telecommuting, on-site childcare, and paid parental leave, the number that do is growing every year. Here is a list of the best of the best – the Top 100 Companies, as featured in the October 2008 issue of Working Mother.

Each company had to submit a questionnaire—containing more than 500 questions—covering everything from their workforce profile, child care programs, flexibility programs, parental leave policies, compensation, to their work/life balance and were then judged. Those that met the strict list of criteria were ranked and the top 100 made this year’s list.

The top 10 companies, in industries from accounting to publishing to manufacturing, are:

  1. Abbott Laboratories has made Working Woman’s Top 100 list 8 years in a row. This Abbott Park, IL, company—manufacturing pharmaceuticals, health-care devices, nutritional products, and diagnostic and medical products and devices—offers, among other benefits, to pair personal nurses with female employees who are struggling with infertility. The personal nurses review treatment options and connect the employees with care providers. Travel benefits are also offered to hopeful moms-to-be to visit faraway medical experts.
  2. Baptist Health South Florida, a Coral Gables, FL company that manages six nonprofit hospitals, is on the list for the 16th year. This company has recently completed an apartment building, creating affordable housing for nurses in the Miami area, and is in the process of completing another. Baptist Health South Florida also has a financial assistance program, which offers interest-free emergency home loans to employees facing foreclosure.
  3. Bristol-Myers Squibb has been on the list for 11 years. This New York City firm develops, produces, and markets biopharmaceutical and other health-care products, offers mentoring to their employees, encourages their employees to leave at 12:30 p.m. on Fridays during the spring and summer months, and covers mental health as completely as any other medical condition in their mental health plan.
  4. Ernest & Young, a New York City tax, audit, and financial advisory services firm, has been on the Top 100 list for the past 12 years. Breastfeeding mothers here have access to an on-call lactation consultant and free hospital-grade breast pumps; new fathers and domestic partner can also request the pumps. In addition, free travel kits are offered to nursing employees who are away on business trips to ship milk to their babies.
  5. The Armonk, NY firm IBM, on the list for its 23rd year—1 of only 2 companies able to claim that honor—provides technology and consulting services worldwide. It also offers 6 weeks of paid maternity leave, with the option of 3 years unpaid job-guaranteed leave. For those who would rather come in to the office, IBM has 3 childcare facilities on-site, in addition to 120 near-site facilities nationwide.
  6. KPMG has made Working Woman’s Top 100 list for the past 12 years. This firm stands out for its offering of a Disabilities Network, which offers peer-to-peer guidance and raises awareness of related workplace issues to employees who are disabled or who have a child (or dependant) with special needs. It also offers discounts for childcare at national chains, with in-home and center-based backup care is also available, up to 20 times per year. Employees who don’t need their annual allotment have the option of donating it to coworkers.
  7. The McGraw-Hill Company is on the list for the 4th year. This publishing firm offers free counseling by licensed social workers to anyone raising a child with special needs can request free counseling by licensed social workers; employees living in New York or New Jersey are eligible for in-home sessions. Health benefits for employees also cover their kids with special needs throughout adulthood, as long as they are enrolled before their kids turn 23.
  8. Making this its 3rd year on the Top 100 list, the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman offers its employees back-up babysitting sites and 18 weeks of job-guaranteed paid leave.
  9. PricewaterhouseCoopers, on the list for 14th year, offers employees up to 26 weeks of maternity leave, with 12 of those weeks being paid leave. Employees at the New York City office are also so encouraged to use the flexible scheduling that the firm offers that managers monitor their hours to make sure they are.
  10. S.C. Johnson & Son, the consumer products manufacturing giant, has been on Working Woman’s Top 100 list for 20 years. This family-friendly company spent $2.5 million last year to provide children ages 5 and under 10 classrooms at its on-site day care centers.

In addition to the 10 companies above, there are 90 other companies that Working Woman has listed; the full list can be found online at their site. They also have additional information on each company listed, as well as links to the previous years’ lists.

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