Health care, and how far companies should go to insure their employees, has always been a touchy subject. Now, two technological giants are addressing an even more controversial health issue.
Facebook and Apple is offering women the opportunity for freezing their eggs. They will be the first corporations in US history to cover egg freezing for non-medical reasons. Facebook has already started the process. Apple will start covering egg freezing in January 2015. Here’s how egg freezing works: A woman donates her egg to a fertility clinic and has them frozen. When the motherhood clock starts ticking, she can go back and retrieve them. While this is no guarantee for a future baby, success rates are getting better. This procedure isn’t cheap. It can run someone $10,000 just for one procedure, plus an annual storage fee that can easily run $500. But starting in January 2015, Apple and Facebook will cover as much as $20,000 for egg freezing.
Now why would Facebook and Apple would invest in such a cause? It’s no secret by now Silicon Valley has been working around the clock to recruit women in technology fields. They know the statistics and things aren’t what they used to be. Several times as more women are having children later than they did back in the 1970s. Some say this will encourage women to stay with the same company longer, boosting loyalty cred, cutting down on hiring and recruiting cost, and stopping the ‘revolving door’ effect, when many employees are here today and gone tomorrow. Others say this will give women employees years to build up their career and advance in the company. But critics say that there’s no guarantee egg freezing will produce a child in the future. Some critics say women would compromise their souls to these companies. For instance, if she resigns, quits, or gets laid-off or fired in the future, will that company hold her frozen eggs for random or hostage? Where do you stand on this issue?