For many Grindr workers, the path to parenthood is through adoption or surrogacy, CEO George Arison told HR Dive.
At the company, which offers a dating app for gay, bi, trans and queer people, a plurality of workers are gay men, many of whom get left out of conversations about fertility benefits, he said.
To meet the needs of its employees, Grindr recently started offering up to $300,000 over five years to workers to cover adoption, surrogacy and fertility treatments. The benefit is available to anyone who has been with the company for 18 months and is managed through the Carrot Fertility healthcare platform.
In an ideal world, Grindr would have been able to offer complete coverage for surrogacy through the health insurance it offers to reduce the tax burden on employees, Arison said. But that world doesn’t exist – at least not yet.
A new law goes into effect in California, where Grindr is based, starting July 1, that expands fertility coverage, including treatment of infertility in same-sex couples and IVF treatment.
“Notably, SB 729 applies to same-sex couples. However, the extent to which policies will be required to cover costs associated with infertility treatments for same-sex couples (e.g., the cost of a surrogate pregnancy or artificial insemination) remains to be seen,” law firm Ogletree Deakins said in a blog post.
Arison, who has two children through surrogacy, knows firsthand the financial burden it can be. His hope is that more states follow California’s lead, which will encourage health insurers to offer the benefit more broadly.
“That’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “But, obviously, the really expensive part of the surrogacy process is the actual surrogate compensation, and that’s not done through health insurance right now at all.”
Arison hopes, too, that Grindr’s example will both lead other companies to follow suit and to show other employees what kind of benefits are possible.
“Grindr’s mission is to build the neighborhood on your phone but also to help make a world that’s more equal and fair and just for our employees,” Arison said.
Expanding fertility benefits also is part of Grindr’s retention strategy, the CEO explained.
“We want people who are here to be here for a long time and feel very committed to the business and for them to feel like we’re committed to that,” Arison said.