Goldman Sachs to ship breast milk for travelling staff

The British investment firm will pay for working mothers to courier their expressed breast milk home during business trips.
By: | August 23, 2018

New mothers working at Goldman Sachs in the UK and US will now have the option to courier their breast milk back to their babies.

The investment bank will pay for breastfeeding staff – at least, those who must travel for work – to send their expressed milk home.

An internal memo reportedly notes that “Parenting and work can sometimes feel at odds. Goldman Sachs aim[s] to make the balancing act a little easier.”

Goldman Sachs is not the first to offer such a service – it is said that IBM, Twitter, and Accenture already do so for US employees.

However, the latest news might still signal a culture shift at Goldman Sachs. Only three years ago, an executive director at the bank sued the bank for discriminating against her after her pregnancy.

The executive, Sonia Pereiro-Mendez, claimed she was underpaid in the millions, and forced to resort to breastfeeding in her car. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court.

“But Goldman really is good to women now,” an anonymous employee at the firm told The Evening Standard.

“It offers six months’ full-paid maternity leave and doesn’t pile on pressure to return before that. Most take nine months.”