Both Apple and Facebook have revealed groundbreaking new plans to pay for their female employees to freeze their eggs.
Extracting and freezing eggs can extend a woman’s childbearing years, allowing them to delay motherhood and have more choice over when they become parents.
It is also used by women who need to undergo medical treatments which damage fertility, such as chemotherapy.
Egg freezing is becoming more and more common as an option for women, with the numbers choosing to have the procedure increasing by 400% over the last four years.
Apple will start this programme in January, paying up to $20,000 for anyone who wants to freeze their eggs. This procedure typically costs €10,000, with an additional $500 a year for storage.
“We continue to expand our benefits for women, with a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cryopreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments,” an Apple spokesperson said.
“We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”
This is just one of the many benefits these two companies have in place for employees wanting to start a family.
Apple currently offers 18 weeks paid maternity leave – a rarity in the United States where paid maternity leave is not mandatory. Facebook offer new parents a special bonus payment of $4,000 on their birth of their child.
