Dive Brief:
- Forty-two percent of U.S. employers now offer fertility benefits, according to a report recently released by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans — up from 30% in 2020.
- More employers now offer every type of fertility benefit IFEBP collected data on, with fertility medications and in vitro fertilization leading at nearly one-third of employers offering both (compared to 24% of employers in 2020). Corporations were more likely than public employers to offer every type of benefit, a review of the report showed.
- “The increasing number of plan sponsors offering family-forming benefits indicates that they are a highly-valued benefit by employees,” Julie Stich, vice president of content at IFEBP, said in a statement emailed to HR Dive. “Additionally, these benefits are a positive way to create a more inclusive workplace.”
Dive Insight:
IFEBP’s findings add to a growing body of evidence that fertility benefits are on the rise.
A survey of 600 HR professionals released in March 2023 by healthcare company Maven found that the majority of employers — 63% — said they planned to increase family health benefits within the next few years. And more recently, employers responding to a Business Group on Health and Fidelity Investments survey said the same — with 86% of employer respondents saying they planned to offer family-forming and reproductive support in 2025.
Employers know the benefit is popular, surveys have shown. That is likely due to the way businesses can transform workers’ lives by providing a financial bridge to fertility care, especially for expensive procedures like in vitro fertilization. An analysis by The New York Times put the cost of IVF at approximately $25,000 with medication.
A Carrot Fertility survey, also from March 2023, found that just one-third of workers said they could afford fertility treatments if needed, with another 29% saying the pursuit of these treatments may put them in debt.
Stakeholders have long emphasized the positive impact of fertility benefits on recruiting and retention. That assertion is reaffirmed by the data as well; Maven found that more than one-third of employees said they’d left or considered leaving a job because of inadequate family benefits, and 65% of workers told Carrot Fertility they’d change jobs to work for a company that provided fertility benefits.