As the first employer in the engineering sector in Iceland, COWI now offers all full-time employees six months of fully paid parental leave.
Becoming a parent is a beautiful experience, and there is nothing more important than supporting your partner and getting to know your new family member during this precious time. With our new parental leave scheme, we want to give parents at COWI the best conditions for thriving by offering them fully paid parental leave.
Parents in Iceland are each entitled to six months of parental leave, during which they receive 80 per cent of their salary from the Maternity/Paternity Leave Fund, with a cap on the amount. With our new initiative, COWI compensates full-time employees for the difference between their salary and the payments from the fund, ensuring them a full salary during their leave.
Our aim is to improve the conditions for new families and parents. We believe that this will help to make it easier for all parents, regardless of gender, to take leave and thereby support gender equality in the labour market.
At COWI, we want to provide excellent conditions for parents-to-be. We are confident that this new initiative will be well-received, and offering this kind of support to families helps us and our employees to protect the balance between work and private life in the first valuable year of family life.
The initiative is part of our diversity and inclusion strategy to ensure that everyone feels welcome and embraced at COWI at all stages of their lives.
"We believe that well-being is essential to being your best at work and to those who mean the most to you. By providing the best possible conditions for thriving, we create a good foundation for retaining and attracting the most talented and skilled employees in the market," adds Örn Guðmundsson, Senior Vice President, COWI in Iceland.