When it comes to supporting those affected by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Inc., No. 19-1392 (Supreme Court, June 24, 2022)), employers are split on what kinds of benefits to offer, if any, according to Society for Human Resources Management research shared with HR Dive the same day. SHRM surveyed 1,003 HR professionals from May 24 to June 7, following the leak of the draft decision in early May.
The top three reproductive care benefits employers currently offer are paid time off to access such care (32%), unpaid time off to attend protests (18%) and PTO to attend protests (15%), according to the research and SHRM’s own coverage. When asked what reproductive care benefits they might now offer in light of Dobbs, top responses included PTO for employees to access reproductive care (7%), relief funds for employees to access such care (7%) and travel expense benefits outside of a health savings account (6%).
More than one-third of employers (35%) said they would not be more likely to provide travel expense benefits outside of an HSA for employees to access abortions and reproductive services, even if such funding was tax-deductible. The vast majority (87%) of employers said they would not change their HSA contributions if they knew employees could use funds for abortion-related travel, while 10% said they would consider increasing contributions and 3% said they would consider decreasing contributions.