The CEO of America’s most iconic blue jeans company is calling on businesses to create paid family leave policies for their employees.
In a recent blog published by CNN, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh says not mandating paid family leave is “inexcusable” and disproportionately impacts women and people of color.
Bergh adds that “policymakers and business leaders have a moral and economic imperative to provide more assistance.”
He urges Congress to pass the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act, which would offer American workers up to 12 week paid time off to care for a child or family member.
But he encourages business leaders to avoid waiting for mandates, saying they should act now to create their own policies and use their platforms to advocate for systematic change.
Bergh says Levi Strauss’s family leave program wound up costing the company just ten percent of what they’d projected.
He says, “The question isn't whether America can afford to institute paid family leave; it's whether we can afford not to.”
Back in 2019, Bergh told CNBC that it’s important for companies to take a stand on social issues, and Levi Strauss has done so on gay rights, gun control and DACA.
