From HSBC to Citi, global banks expand maternity benefits to retain women in India
HSBC pays for bankers’ nannies in India for up to six years. Morgan Stanley allows pregnant staff to expense cab rides, and Citigroup Inc. lets new moms work from home for a year after their maternity leave runs out.
Across India, global financial firms are expanding maternity benefits to include perks rarely seen elsewhere, part of an effort to attract and retain female employees. Overall, less than a quarter of adult women in India work, among the lowest rates in the world.
“We will never become a developed country without women’s participation,” said Aditya Mittal, chief human resources officer of Citi India & South Asia. The bank last week announced that new moms will now have the option to work from home for up to a year after their paid leave ends.
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India already mandates a minimum 26 weeks of maternity leave at full pay — among the most in the Group of 20 economies, according to the World Bank’s Gender Data Portal — and employers with more than 50 employees must offer a creche, or daycare, onsite or close by. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government also launched a job training program for women in 2021, and last year touted that adopting flexible hours could be a way to encourage women to work outside the home.
It offers a stark contrast with the US, where there’s no legal provision for paid leave at all. There JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. both offer 16
