Sarah Mahalchick and her future husband talked on one of their first dates about the fact that they want to adopt. There were many children there who needed parents, they told each other from the beginning.
But when they were ready to expand their family, they opted for fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization. It seems to make sense: Ms. Mahalchick’s employer would pay for a large portion of the treatments through her health insurance; it offers almost no help with adoption.
Fertility benefits are becoming almost trendy at companies with blue chips, and more businesses are offering to help reduce the cost of IVF and egg freezing. But in many cases, companies that offer fertility benefits offer no financial assistance to employees who want to adopt, and when they do make their adoptions, it is much less generous.
Estimates of how many companies offer benefits for fertility or adoption are unclear. Most employers do not give one. But the gap is clear.
The Association for Human Resource Management estimates that as of 2018, 27% of employers have offered some form of infertility cover and 11% adoption assistance. FertilityIQ, a website that offers courses and other information on family building, is regularly advertised by thousands of employers. In a report released on Saturday, it is calculated that only one in five businesses that provide fertility coverage also provide adoption assistance.