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Career Perks and Adoption

Are You Entitled to Employer-provided Adoption Benefits?

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Some employers allow employees to take more than the required 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Employees may be permitted to combine accumulated paid leave (such as vacation or sick leave) with unpaid leave to extend their total leave. Some employers even offer paid leave for employees who adopt a child. Certain employers may be bound by public and private union contracts that have provisions for adoption leave.

In addition to the federal law, many states require employers to offer parental leave to adoptive parents. To find out about a particular state, contact the state's Adoption Specialist. The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse's online National Adoption Directory lists contact information for each state's Adoption Specialist.

Eligibility for adoption benefits usually depends on employment status (for example, policies sometimes specify that full-time employees are eligible while part-time or occasional employees are not). Employers also might tie eligibility to length of employment or participation in a company-sponsored health plan.

The type of adoption also can affect the benefits offered. For example, some employers do not provide benefits when a stepparent adopts his or her stepchild or stepchildren. Some employers specify that the child being adopted cannot be older than 16 or 18 years. Others offer enhanced benefits for the adoption of a child with special needs.