How to Obtain Workplace Benefits for Adoption

There's no denying that adoption can be expensive, depending on what route you decide to take in your adoption process. Fortunately, there are some employers who will help you with the cost of adopting. Find out if your company has a benefit package for adoptive parents, and learn how to obtain workplace benefits for adoption.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Know that under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as long as your company employs more than 50 people, you are entitled to take 12 weeks of unpaid leave when you adopt a child. This is the same benefit that people who welcome a biological child into a their family receive.
2. Find out if your company offers anything in addition to FMLA. Some companies will give some of the weeks as paid time off, or will assist financially in some way. Programs that cover a flat amount per adoption, or a percentage of actual adoption costs, exist in a growing number of companies in the United States.
3. Meet with your human resources director if your company already has a benefit package in place for adoptive parents. Learn what you need to do to trigger these benefits. There may be forms you need to fill out or documentation you need to provide.
4. Encourage your company to provide benefits to you as an adoptive parent if they don't already do so. They should at a minimum provide you with the same benefits as any other new parent in the form of paid leave. Obtain information from the Adoption Friendly Workplace website which will outline for your company why it's advantageous for them to provide workplace adoption benefits (see Resources below).
5. Realize that for the company, for the number of adoptions that will take place in a given year, the outlay of benefits for adoptive parents usually isn't going to subtract much from the bottom line of most companies. But the goodwill it fosters among its employees, and the loyalty that stems from that, is often worth more than the cost.