Parent Time

The job market for working parents has never looked better. In the five years we’ve been publishing this list of companies offering the best and most progressive benefits for Canadian employees with children, there has been a distinct surge in the availability of parental leave top-up payments, particularly for adoptive parents and fathers. And these changes aren’t being brought in by just the expected types of employers, such as governments and not-for-profits: Gradually, more “non-traditional sectors” are offering family-friendly policies and benefits, according to Richard Yerema, editor of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, the annual guide from which our list is taken. To wit: For the first time this year, the top 10 list includes a video-game developer and an oil-industry equipment firm.

Thanks to new technologies, he adds, there’s also been a jump in the number of companies offering alternative work arrangements, whereby employees can work from home, but stay seamlessly in contact with the office.

Read on for information highlights of the entire top 10; employers are listed from largest to smallest.

University Health Network
Canada’s largest academic health sciences centre, operating three major hospitals and a research institute, Toronto
Full-time employees: 7,240
• tops up maternity and parental leave benefits to 85%–950f salary for up to 25 weeks
• provides fathers taking parental leave with top-up payments to 850f salary for 10 weeks
• offers 12-hour on-site daycare, plus partnerships with off-site daycare providers in the suburbs for employees who commute
• permanent part-time staff qualify for same benefits as full-time staff

Simon Fraser University
Mid-sized university, Burnaby, BC
Full-time employees: 4,503
• tops up parental leave benefits to 1000f salary for 37 weeks, for new mothers, fathers and adoptive parents
• offers on-site daycare, including summer day camp programs

Toronto Hydro Corporation
Distributor of electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers, Toronto
Full-time employees: 1,726
• tops up maternity and parental leave benefits to 950f salary for 52 weeks
• provides fathers taking parental leave with top-up payments to 950f salary for 37 weeks

Trican Well Service Ltd.
Provides equipment and technology for oil and gas well drilling, completion and production, Calgary
Full-time employees: 1,312
• tops up parental leave benefits to 1000f salary for 36 weeks, for new mothers and fathers, including adoptive parents

Jacques Whitford Ltd.
Environmental consulting firm, Dartmouth, NS
Full-time employees: 1,231
• tops up maternity and parental leave benefits to 750f salary for 52 weeks
• provides fathers and adoptive parents taking parental leave with top-up payments to 750f salary for 35 weeks

Originally published in Today's Parent, December 2007