Legg Mason Expands Parental Leave Policy

Legg Mason has announced that it will offer US employees 12 weeks of parental leave to both men and women, effective January 1, 2018.

Expanding this benefit is consistent with Legg Mason’s efforts to improve diversity and inclusion across the company by treating all new parents equally – both male and female.  All new parents with at least one year of service qualify for the benefit.

The company also announced that it will reimburse mothers who are traveling for business for expenses related to shipping breastmilk home for their children.

Previously, Legg Mason provided 12 weeks of paid leave for a primary caregiver and two weeks for a secondary caregiver.

This move is also consistent with Legg Mason’s business strategy of expanding client choice. The company recognizes that its employees have evolving needs which should in turn be supported by its policies. Caretaker duties are increasingly being shared in the modern family, and Legg Mason’s agile workforce can continue to deliver for clients while a new parent is on leave.

Enhancing parental leave in the US is a move that represents Legg Mason’s global approach to workplace policies; parental leave policies are commonly mandatory and more generous outside of the US.

In a Financial Times interview on our new policy on December 4th, Sarah Fleisch Fink, director of workplace policy and senior counsel at the National Partnership for Women & Families, said: “Until we get a national policy, we operate on an employer-by-employer approach and there are stark differences in what they provide. It’s really up to a worker to win the boss lottery.”

Legg Mason’s management team believes that policies like these will help the company win the “employee lottery,” will help Legg Mason empower an agile, innovative and diverse workforce, and continue to build shared passion for its corporate mission of Investing to Improve Lives^TM.

For more information:

• Review Legg Mason’s 2017 CSR Report

• Read “Legg Mason launches new parental leave policy,” Baltimore Business Journal, 11/30/2017