Happy Families, Happy Unitherians: Benefits that Serve Generations

Workplaces started to adopt policies like parental leave and adoption assistance in the 1970s and 1980s. These policies were driven by a growing recognition of the need to help employees reconcile work and family life. In the United States, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which provided unpaid leave for family and medical reasons to employees, helped drive business to adopt a broader range of family-friendly policies to attract and retain talent.

The story of UT’s family-friendly benefits is more personal. “I was a law student at UCLA in the 1970s and a single parent,” Martine explained. “The school was going to eliminate childcare services because of state budget cuts. The other parents and I decided to take a page from the playbook of activists on campus and hold a sit-in to demand reinstatement of childcare services,” she said. “This meant we spent a lot of time together as we took shifts, day and night. I learned how many of the other parents—mostly women who came from less privileged backgrounds than I had—would not have been able to attend college without childcare support. After that experience, I vowed that if I were ever to start my own company, I would find a way to offer childcare.”

According to recent research by the consulting firm KPMG, 76 percent of parents say that becoming a parent boosted their motivation at work.² At the same time, parents report feeling significant stress because of the need to juggle career and parenting obligations. That is why recent surveys also show that 94 percent of workers surveyed described family benefits as “important” or “extremely important”, and almost 75 percent said they would switch companies for better benefits.³

“That was on my mind!” Lana Abuelhawa, a Senior Tax Planning Manager at UT, explained. “I accepted UT’s job offer in part because of the childcare benefits—and I hadn’t even started my family yet. But I knew I wanted to be a mom; at the same time, I also wanted to continue growing my career.”

Cost matters. The cost of childcare is the single most critical issue facing working parents. The average monthly price of childcare for many U.S. families is more than the price of one month’s rent, according to research by the U.S. Department of Labor.⁴

This is why UT subsidizes access to the onsite childcare programs offered by Bright Horizons, the leading provider of onsite corporate childcare. “It’s one of the best benefits UT offers,” Robert Breslaw, UT’s Associate Corporate Real Estate Director, said. Like Robert, Lana appreciates having the facilities onsite. “Many of us [parents] check in on our little ones during lunch. It provides great peace of mind to know your child is safe but nearby if they need you.”

Quality counts. “My kids were in a great childcare center,” Maeve Knight, Product Complaint Intake Specialist with Global Patient Safety, explained. “We’d been paying a similar cost, but when I was able to enroll them in Bright Horizons at UT, it was no contest!” Katie McMahon, Associate Manager, Medical Device Operations R&D, agreed. “It’s like they [the childcare staff] are part of your village. In fact, I try to recreate the activities they do with my kid on weekends because he loves it so much!”

Help getting started. Sometimes starting a family can be challenging. One out of every 42 babies in the United States in 2021 was conceived using IVF or other assisted reproduction technology.⁵ Most workplaces don’t offer coverage of IVF,” Sam Olinger, Lead Talent Acquisition Partner, shared. Sam and her husband conceived their two children—including the most recent addition to their family—using IVF. “We joke that our babies are UT babies. Anywhere else,” she continued, “and I think we would either not have the family we have, or we might have gone bankrupt starting our family!”

Easing the transition to the office. In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act was amended in 2022 to provide protections for nursing employees under the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act. The PUMP Act allows for reasonable break time to pump breast milk in a private space set aside for this purpose. Nonetheless, if Reddit discussion threads are any indication, the interpretation of what meets this legal obligation vary considerably.

Maeve shared that she had worked for a hospital that encouraged lactating employees to use hands-free pumps “so you could continue to work.” Katie was ready to advocate for her rights when she returned to work after caregiver leave. “I had heard horror stories about lactation rooms in other workplaces,” Katie said. “Happily, I discovered UT already provided the accommodations I would have wanted—better, in fact, than I imagined.”

Traveling while parenting. Trying to manage parenting obligations while on work travel is hard for anyone. There are some additional complications for lactating moms.

MilkStork was founded by a mom who faced these very issues. Today, UT offers free-to-use MilkStork services to working parents who are traveling so they can safely send their breastmilk back home for their nursing babies.

“I am in a role that requires that I travel to hospitals to educate nursing staff on how to use one of our products,” said Kali Eddy, a UT Clinical Oncology Liaison. “After I had my second child, I was really anxious about how to manage nursing while traveling. I was also nervous about using this service—having someone else handle my milk. But it [using MilkStork] just took all that stress away. I could order a cooler box to show up at my hotel and arrange for overnight delivery to my husband—multiple times on a trip if I needed it. It was such a relief!”

Evolving needs. UT recognizes that family needs change over time. According to a Pew Research Center study, a quarter of adults in their 40s are raising a young child or supporting a grown child and have a parent who may also need support.⁶ Unitherians are among those in this so-called ‘sandwich generation’. “When my Dad caught COVID at the height of the pandemic, I couldn’t travel to help him,” Sam shared. “But, I was able to use the elder care services through Bright Horizons to get him support. The same thing happened when I had a gap in nanny services for my kids. I was able to find vetted, accredited people to provide temporary support.”

The Bright Horizons solutions offer support to Unitherian parents who have multi-generational needs. “I used Bright Horizons’ college coaching services for my son’s senior year in high school and I was impressed,” said Alyssa Friedrich, UT’s Chief People Officer.

It's the culture. Establishing benefits and amenities such as these are important, but the culture is what entrenches them. “On my first day at UT, I was a temporary employee. I had to pump, and I was nervous to ask if I could take time,” Maeve explained. “Yes, I know there’s a law that should protect me, but there’s always that thought in the back of your mind—‘will I be seen as a team player?’ Turns out, I didn’t need to worry.” Lana felt similarly: “I feel very supported by my managers and team members.”

Martine sees this as part of the culture that makes UT unique. “Our ancestors strove to provide a better life for us, their descendants, than they had. We owe it to them and to the next generation to do the same,” Martine explained. “And once we start, it will grow if the environment is right. I may have kicked this off with childcare, but all these other benefits—our HR team deserves a lot of credit here—they grew in response to Unitherian needs.”

Oh, and if you are wondering about the sit-in demanding reinstatement of childcare services at UCLA in the 1970s—that worked, too.

UT’s benefits programs align with multiple goals, but especially UN SDGs 5, 8, and 10.

      

1. IVF is a fertility treatment. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/in-vitro-fertilization/about/pac-20384716

2. KPMG. “Opportunity to Attract and Retain Highly Motivated Working Parents via Enhanced Flexibility, Stronger Support Systems.” February 4, 2025. Accessed February 6, 2025. https://kpmg.com/us/en/media/news/kpmg-working-parents-survey-2025.html

3. Travis, Michelle. “Key Trends in Work-Family Employee Benefits from 2024.” Forbes. November 17, 2024. Accessed December 12, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelletravis/2024/11/17/key-trends-in-work-family-employee-benefits-from-2024/

4. U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau. “Cost of childcare for one child can be more than rent in some counties.” November 19, 2024. Accessed December 12, 2024. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/wb/wb20241119

5. USA Facts. “How many IVF babies are born in the US.” April 19, 2024. Accessed February 11, 2025. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-ivf-babies-are-born-in-the-us/

6. Horowitz. “More than half of Americans in their 40s are ‘sandwiched’ between an aging parent and their own children.” April 8, 2022. Accessed February 11, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/08/more-than-half-of-americans-in-their-40s-are-sandwiched-between-an-aging-parent-and-their-own-children/

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United Therapeutics became the first publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company to convert to a public benefit corporation (PBC) in 2021. Our PBC purpose has two parts: to create a brighter future for patients through the development of novel pharmaceutical therapies and technologies that expand the availability of transplantable organs. Our first purpose helps delay or avoid the need for a transplant, while the second purpose enables a patient to have a transplant when they need one. We align our PBC purpose with three pillars—our patients, our people, and our planet. We believe our people are the key to our success in our other two pillars, which is why we seek to be a destination employer.