The Washington Post is making its paid parental leave policy much more generous: It will expand it from four paid weeks to 20 as of January 1, 2020, for all new parents, whether or not they gave birth.

💯🚨💯🚨The Washington Post just changed it’s parental leave policy: Now each parent gets 20 weeks — five months — of PAID leave. Yet another reason the Post is such a great place to work…

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) October 17, 2019

.@washingtonpost just announced 20 weeks paid parental leave. That's 5 months. ANY parent is eligible for after the birth or adoption. Prior to this it was 4 paid weeks, and you had to work at the company a year before qualifying. Not anymore! (a thread)

— Libby Casey (@libcasey) October 17, 2019

The Post’s new policy matches The Wall Street Journal’s, which has been in effect since 2017. (What’s the situation at your news org? Tweet at me, my DMs are open.) Bloomberg’s policy is the most generous we could find, at 26 weeks, but it varies wildly, as you’ll see below.

Mandatory credit: The @WSJ policy for 20 weeks of paid parental leave implemented in 2017.

Seriously—Congrats to the Wapo newsroom! It's an important improvement in benefits for new moms and new dads … and new babies, and raises the standard for other media companies to match. https://t.co/FWbPjrXOPS

— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) October 17, 2019

The New York Times offers 16 weeks of paid parental leave for mothers who give birth vaginally, 18 weeks for mothers who give birth via C-section, and 10 weeks for non-birth parents. The Boston Globe offers 10 weeks to all new parents.

The Post’s policy does not apply to parents who are currently on parental leave right now — although a Post PR person said that if a parent is on leave as of January 1, 2020, their leave can be extended.

man i should've waited to have my kid next year https://t.co/qCRlkS1PuR

— pumpkin spice liz bruenig (@ebruenig) October 17, 2019

We’re collecting other news organizations’ parental leave policies and will update this post as we get them. (My DMs are open and you won’t be identified.)¹ Here’s what we’ve got so far:

Advance: Birth mothers can use short-term disability for 6 fully paid weeks; nothing for fathers/non-birth parents.

The Atlantic: 12 paid weeks for all new parents.

Bloomberg: 26 paid weeks for primary caregivers (“24 weeks of fully paid parental leave, plus 10 transition days (one day off per week for 10 consecutive weeks) immediately following an employee’s return to work”)

Cox Media Group: 8 weeks paid maternity leave, 2 weeks paid paternity leave

The Daily Beast: 16 weeks for primary caregivers

The Dodo: 8 paid weeks for “primary” care providers, 4 weeks for secondary

Fast Company: 12 paid weeks for all new parents

The FT: 20 paid weeks for moms and up to 6 paid weeks for dads (globally; policies may be more generous in UK)

Gannett: 6 weeks of paid leave for any parent (“within the first 12 months following the birth, adoption, surrogacy or foster care placement of an employee’s child)”); birth mothers get an additional 6 weeks of paid short-term disability for vaginal births and 8 weeks for C-sections.

Gimlet: 6 months paid parental leave. (Gimlet is owned by Spotify.)

(The former) Gizmodo Media Group: 12 paid weeks for all new parents

The Intercept: Four months for all new parents

McClatchy: Zero. Employees can use saved sick time, birth moms can take short-term disability at 60 percent of pay.

Minneapolis Star Tribune: 8 weeks parental leave at 50 percent of pay.

NBC/MSNBC: 16 paid weeks for primary caregiver (may take up to an additional 10 weeks unpaid), 2 paid weeks for secondary caregiver (may take up to an additional 24 weeks unpaid)

NPR:

NPR offered four weeks until 2018, when it was doubled to eight. Should have had my kids later!

— Elise Hu (@elisewho) October 18, 2019

Slate: 8 paid weeks for all new parents

Talking Points Memo: 10 paid weeks for all new parents

Texas Tribune: 8 weeks paid family leave, and up to 16 weeks of job protection for those who take unpaid time; employees can use up all of their PTO to get 4 additional weeks of paid parental leave.

Tribune Publishing: Zero. Birth moms can use short-term disability.

Vox Media: 16 paid weeks for all new parents

1. U.S. parental leave laws are often a confusing mishmash of straight paid time off, short term disability at reduced or full pay, state-mandated leave in a handful of states, and so on. A company that offers four pay weeks of paid leave may also, for instance, offer 8 additional weeks of short-term disability at full or partial pay, bringing an employee’s total parental leave to twelve weeks. We’ve tried to be as specific as possible here and welcome clarifications if you have them. In addition, leave may not be offered to all employees of a company and may differ depending on how long you’ve worked there, and union and non-union employees in the same companies may have different policies. Yes, non-U.S. readers, it’s crazy, we know. [↩]