超强福利：苹果和Facebook将为女员工出钱冷冻卵子

    苹果（Apple）和Facebook将为女性员工冷冻卵子买单。这可能被视为力求在职场实现性别平等的颠覆性举措。

    据NBC新闻报道，Facebook已经从今年1月份开始提供这项新福利，苹果也将从2015年开始实施。这两家高科技公司是率先提供此项福利的大型企业。

    冷冻卵子可以使女性延长自身生育期，但此项服务价格不菲。每次摘取卵子的费用为1万美元，每年还需支付500美元的卵子储存费用。两家公司的报销上限将高达2万美元。

    在男性占主导地位的高科技企业里，这项福利将使女性员工在选择生育时机上更具灵活性，尤其是鉴于许多女性将生育黄金期用于寻求事业发展。这项福利还可能使更多女性留在科技行业。

    在《彭博商业周刊》（Bloomberg Businessweek）一篇名为《冻结卵子，解放事业》的文章中，作者爱玛•罗森布鲁姆写道：“自避孕药问世以来，没有哪项医疗技术像冷冻卵子这样，在改变家庭与职业规划方面具有巨大潜力。”

    美国生殖医学会（American Society of Reproductive Medicine）评论道，此前冷冻卵子被视为“实验性”做法，直到最近才摆脱了这一标签。现在医生们认为，只要卵子是在女性年轻时冷冻的，用冷冻卵子进行体外受精，与用新鲜卵子进行体外受精的成功率一样高。

    苹果和Facebook的新福利政策，有助于女性提前作出冷冻卵子的决定，使她们能够更加专注于事业，减轻对年龄日益增长的担忧。但是，有些人可能认为，这只是让女性在黄金生育年龄推迟生育以换取升职的伎俩。

    苹果公司发言人表示：“我们希望赋予女性权力，让她们在苹果有最好的工作，同时能照顾亲人和家庭。”这需要增加女性福利，包括“新的产假延长政策，以及冷冻和保存卵子的补贴，作为女性生育补贴的一部分。”

    这项补贴只是苹果和Facebook众多丰厚福利的一部分，最近几个月，两家公司都在增强福利政策，大搞“福利竞赛”。两家公司还为生育治疗和收养提供补贴，Facebook还为初为父母的员工提供4000美元的“婴儿基金”，其用途由员工自行决定。（财富中文网）

    译者：Lina

    In what is a likely to be seen as a game-changing move in the drive for gender equality in the workplace, Apple and Facebook will pay for female employees to freeze their eggs.

    Facebook offered the new perk as of January this year, and Apple’s benefit will go into effect at the beginning of 2015, according to NBC News. The two tech companies are among the first major corporations to offer the benefit.

    Egg freezing allows women to extend their years of fertility, although the procedure can be pricey. It can cost about $10,000 for every round of harvesting and another $500 or more each year to store the eggs. Both companies will cover costs up to $20,000.

    In the often male-dominated world of tech firms, the perk will allow women more flexibility in choosing when they want to build a family, especially as many women devote prime child-bearing years to building their careers. This perk may even help more women stay in tech.

    In a Bloomberg Businessweek article titled ‘Freeze your eggs, free your career’ author Emma Rosenblum wrote: “Not since the birth control pill has a medical technology had such potential to change family and career planning.”

    The practice of freezing eggs was previously considered “experimental” and only recently lost that label, as reviewed by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. Doctors now consider in vitro fertilization with frozen eggs to be as successful as IVF using fresh eggs, as long as the patient was young when the eggs were frozen.

    Apple AAPL -1.06% and Facebook’s FB 0.82% new policy could help women make the choice to freeze their eggs earlier, freeing them up to focus on their careers and worry less about a ticking biological clock. However, some may see it as a cynical ploy to put women off bearing children during prime fertility years in exchange for higher promotions.

    “We want to empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families,” said a company spokesperson. That includes expanding benefits for women, including “a new extended maternity leave policy, along with cyropreservation and egg storage as part of our extensive support for infertility treatments.”

    The coverage is just part of Apple and Facebook’s generous benefits packages, which both companies have been beefing up in a ‘perks arms race’ in recent months. Both companies also offer coverage for fertility treatment and adoption, and Facebook provides $4,000 of “baby cash” for new parents to use however they please.