(ECNS) - Chinese online travel company Ctrip.com has announced expanded maternity benefits for female employees, including financial support for freezing human eggs and an additional seven days of paid leave.
Following moves by Facebook and Apple, which began offering to freeze eggs for female staff in 2014 and 2015 respectively, Ctrip said it will offer from 100,000 yuan to two million yuan for egg preservation, but only for female managers at the middle and senior levels.
The company said that by saving women’s eggs when they are in their 20s, they will have a better chance of becoming pregnant later, so the idea behind “fertility preservation” is more like birth insurance.
James Liang, Ctrip's executive chairman of the board, said the company provides additional maternity benefits to address the worries of female employees of childbearing age. This helps them fully enjoy devotion to work in their golden period of career development without affecting their effort towards the next generation.
Women account for over 61 percent of Ctrip’s employees, 50 percent at the middle manager level and 34 percent among senior managers, according to the company’s report.
Ctrip introduced other incentives for fertility support, such as providing additional allowances of 3,000 yuan for pregnant employees and reimbursements for their commutes to and from work during pregnancy. It’s estimated that Ctrip will spend more than three million yuan a year for commuting reimbursements alone.
Among other measures, the company provides special lounge chairs for pregnant employees and has set up nursing rooms on each floor of the office.
