From multinational behemoths to smaller consulting outfits, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption has again ranked the 100 American employers that best support workers who are adoptive parents.
At the top of the annual list of adoption-friendly workplaces is NVIDIA, a Santa Clara-based artificial intelligence company that offers all employees — who work full and part time — unlimited financial aid to cover adoption costs. The company also offers up to 20 weeks of paid parental lead for parents adopting a child. It was the fourth year in a row that the company topped the list.
The foundation and its partner, independent research institute RTI International, surveyed employers across 22 broad industry categories and of all sizes to ensure the fullest possible picture of organization-level support for workers who open their hearts and homes to adoptive kids.
Participants were scored based on three criteria: financial reimbursement (45%), paid leave (45%) and the percentage of employees eligible for those benefits (10%). On average, employers that completed the survey offer $10,961 in financial reimbursement. That’s up 7.9% from 2020. They also offered an average of roughly 7.7 weeks of paid post-adoption leave — about the same as on the 2020 list.
“Adoption expenses or the inability to take time off of work to bond with a foster or adoptive child should not stand in the way of a family pursuing adoption,” said foundation President Rita Soronen. “It is our hope that robust adoption benefits, like those offered by several of this year’s survey participants, will soon become the norm.”
American Express, Snap, S&P Global and Bloomberg rounded out the top five.
The survey was also broken out by industry, size, paid leave, foster care benefits and impact.
Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s hamburger chain, made the adoption of foster children and youth a key goal. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption was founded nearly 30 years ago, in 1992.