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We asked the top US financial firms to disclose their employee benefits

When Saira Rahman decided to look for a new job, she had clear priorities. The money, of course, but also the benefits. Namely: those related to starting a family.

When Saira Rahman decided to look for a new job, she had clear priorities. The money, of course, but also the benefits. Namely: those related to starting a family.

In her 30s and single, she wanted to make sure her job provided adequate parental leave and good health insurance coverage for treatment for her autoimmune disease.

She had one offer in hand and was still interviewing at a few companies when she put in her two-weeks notice at her job as an assistant vice president at Alpine Bank, in Denver, Colorado. She figured she’d take a few weeks to consider her options—briefly forgetting that, in a country where healthcare is tied to employment, such a break meant she’d lose insurance coverage in the middle of a pandemic.

When she realized it, she panicked. “The only thing going through my head was: what happens if I catch Covid?”

The offer she had, and liked, was from fintech firm HMBradley. Executives there offered to kick in health insurance coverage before her start date. The firm provides a 12-week parental leave. And Rahman asked to add egg freezing into the firm’s benefits, for all employees.  The company agreed.

She knew it was an expensive request, she said, but she felt some duty to ask on behalf of others, as well as herself. “If you want to breed a 50/50 culture,” she said, “I think you have to have a female executive in a position of power that wants to advocate for other women.”

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While HMBradley was receptive, Rahman’s experience demonstrates how opaque corporate benefits often are, and what a frustrating task getting information can be for job applicants. Workers like Rahman learn of what competitors offer in interviews, through backchannels, or very rarely on the website of a firm that does publicize its benefits. So it’s difficult for prospective employees to compare their options across firms.

The pandemic forced US working policies to the fore, with employees examining sick leave and family leave policies and insurance coverage, all while attending video conferences with kids performing gymnastics in the background. Many corporations have risen to the challenge, adding or expanding policies for employees who fall ill or whose family members do, or for those with children with canceled school and camp plans. And now, amid increasing signs of a........

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