Coinbase Joins the Ranks of Google, Apple and Facebook in Offering Egg-Freezing Health Benefits to Employees

How far are you willing to go to recruit and retain talent for your company? Silicon Valley crypto giants, Coinbase apparently will go very far.

For a few months now, Coinbase has been offering a insurance of up to $5,000 a year for egg-freezing through the fertility benefits startup Carrot. Carrot, a startup began working with employers to offer fertility care like egg-freezing and in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a workplace benefit. They partner with modern companies to expand fertility coverage for the millions of employees who need it regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or marital status.

Women are asking for these benefits, so offering them can help your company jump to the top of the list for competitive candidates. Egg freezing employee benefit are still rare; according to FertilityIQ, only 37% of those undergoing fertility treatments in 2017 had any form of coverage at all. This depends on the industry, though. Fertility benefits, including egg freezing coverage, is much more common in the technology and finance fields than in other industries.

Offering these benefits will demonstrate that your company is listening to what its employees really want, and give your business a hiring edge. Fertility coverage, such as egg freezing employee benefits, have been demonstrated to increase employee loyalty (61% of respondents) and commitment (53% of respondents).

A Coinbase employee says:

“It's definitely a luxury, which is why I feel fortunate that Coinbase and Carrot help make family planning more simple and affordable. It's frankly a relief not to have to worry about family planning on a day-to-day basis.”

Egg freezing benefits have been a trend in Silicon Valley with companies like Google, Apple and Facebook already offering such services.

Nat McGrath, Coinbase's VP of people says:

“With possibilities for egg freezing, IVF [in vitro fertilization], fertility preservation, surrogacy, and more, our fertility benefits can serve a wide range of use cases for our diverse group of employees.”

McGrath stressed that these benefits are accessible to all employees and their partners, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.