Employers Move Gingerly on Improving PTO, Family-Planning Benefits

Employees have largely come to expect from their employers flexible working arrangements and certain specialized benefits, but it remains unclear whether employers’ present approaches will be enough to attract and retain talent, according to recent surveys from Marsh McLennan Agency and Goldman Sachs Ayco.

Family-Building Benefits

According to Goldman Sachs Ayco’s “Navigating the New Frontier of Total Rewards,” released Thursday, 95% of employers reported providing parental leave coverage to birthing, non-birthing and adopting parents. However, many employers maintained a tiered structure regarding the length of that leave. The most common durations they offered were between nine and 12 weeks, for birthing parents (offered by 26% of employers); between five and eight weeks, to non-birthing parents and adopting parents (offered by 32% and 33%), and four weeks or less to foster parents (offered by 35%).

Meanwhile, Marsh McLennan recently reported, in its 2026 National Benefits Strategy Survey, that very few employers are planning to make changes to their childcare benefits or flexible work arrangements over the next year.

Nearly all (96%) organizations surveyed stated they had no plans to change their childcare or eldercare benefits, and slightly fewer (88%) reported no intention to change their flexible work arrangements. Only 2% of respondents said their organizations planned to increase the former, and 6% reported having plans to increase the latter—with 1% planning to make reductions to flexible work arrangements and 1% having already reduced childcare or eldercare benefits.  A small share (1%) of employers had already increased their childcare or eldercare benefits, while 5% planned to increase them.

Both reports concluded that generous parental leave allowances could serve as critical tools for employers to attract and retain talent—with room for employers to improve.

Of respondents to Goldman Sachs Acyo’s survey, 15% offered birthing parents 21 weeks or longer for parental leave. The report recommended offering even 13 to 16 weeks, which 17% of respondents did, could “provide a competitive edge over the majority of the market (63%) while maintaining better control over operational continuity and budgetary dollars.”

Separately, in the Marsh McLennan survey—which collected responses from 616 employers “across all major industries and geographies”—only 6% of all employer respondents said they support family planning as part of their benefits package. Among the rest of the surveyed employers, who covered aspects of fertility and family benefits, the most frequent benefits included in vitro fertilization (74%), along with specialist evaluations and fertility medication coverage (both 55%).

Contrastingly, the Goldman Sachs Ayco survey—which collected responses from 89 Goldman Sachs Ayco partners, 43% of whom were in the Fortune 500 and more than one-third of whom worked in financial services, healthcare—found that 83% of employers surveyed covered IVF and intrauterine insemination treatments. A majority of employers implemented a monetary cap on IVF and IUI benefits—most frequently $15,000 (24%)—which approximates the typical cost of a single treatment cycle. While the coverage could provide a significant subsidy for employees accessing it, the report cautioned that rising costs for treatment and medications could make IVF and IUI inaccessible to most employees without a significant level of employer support.

Less frequently than IVF and IUI coverage, employers covering family-building benefits most commonly offered adoption benefits, including financial reimbursement for qualified legal and agency fees, with a $10,000 lifetime maximum (28%); egg freezing, including financial and clinical support for oocyte cryopreservation and storage, with a $20,000 lifetime maximum (28%); and surrogacy, including financial assistance for legal, agency and medical costs, with a $20,000 lifetime maximum (17%).

“Family-building benefits could affect someone at any point in their career,” said Maegan Wells, a vice president and corporate benefit specialist at Goldman Sachs Ayco, during a webinar discussing the report. “With people now generally starting their families later in life and in their careers, [these] benefits are quickly becoming non-negotiable when it comes to attracting and retaining top-tier talent.”

PTO in Play

Aside from managing their parental leave policies, employers could also consider how offering additional paid time might play into the total benefits equation, the surveys found.

Some 23% of respondents to MMA’s survey said they have used an offer of additional PTO or vacation policies to help recruit employees within the past year, down from 2025 (25%) and 2024 (28%) levels. The proportion using those kinds of policies to retain employees also dropped slightly (to 20% from 22%) year-over-year, and the share reporting a commitment to “ongoing flexible work arrangements and policies” dropped to 38% in 2026 from 40% last year. The share of employers offering adjustments to the traditional 40-hour work week fell to 11% from 14% year-over-year.

In MMA’s survey, 6% of respondents planned to increase the number of vacation or PTO days offered in the next year, while 2% reported plans to increase their sick leave offerings over the same period. The majority, however, had no plans to change their sick leave (93%) or vacation or PTO (86%) policies.

“Research indicates that when employees have sufficient paid time off, they are more likely to recover from illness, attend medical appointments and recharge, resulting in better health outcomes,” MMA’s report stated. “Furthermore, regular vacations are associated with increased job satisfaction and reduced stress, which can help prevent burnout—a growing challenge in today’s fast-paced work environment.”

Broader Benefits Cuts

The surveys were published against the backdrop of some corporate benefits cutback. TTEC, a global customer experience outsourcing and technology provider, recently announced it has paused its 401(k) matches for U.S. staff through the rest of 2026, effective in the second quarter of the year, a TTEC spokesperson confirmed to PLANSPONSOR. TTEC previously matched up to 3% of an employee’s salary in the 401(k) plan, if the employee contributed at least 6%, Business Insider first reported.

“While difficult, this was done to invest aggressively in the capabilities that will define our competitiveness and create long-term opportunity for our employees and clients,” a spokesperson wrote to PLANSPONSOR in a response to emailed questions. “The investments include [artificial intelligence]-enabled tools and training, performance coaching, automation, AI certifications and workforce education programs.”

TTEC’s benefits rollback comes on the heels of Deloitte’s announcement in April of cuts to parental leave; annual paid time off; and in-vitro fertilization funding, as well as pension benefit freezes, effective January 2027, as first reported by Business Insider. The cuts would apply to employees in Deloitte’s “Center” talent model, which includes information technology and finance roles. Earlier this year, Zoom also scaled back its parental leave benefits, a spokesperson for the company confirmed. Birthing parents now receive 18 weeks of paid parental leave, down from 22 to 24, and non-birthing parents get 10 weeks, down from 16.

Goldman Sachs Ayco collected survey responses among compensation and benefit professionals at public, private and not-for-profit organizations between September 23 and December 31, 2025.

MMA surveyed employers in January and February 2026.