The biggest companies of Silicon Valley have been offering cushy perks long since for attracting top talent and keeping their employees happy longing on countless hours on their jobs. However, apart from the regular luxuries that are offered by companies, Apple and Facebook have announced that they will now pay $20,000 in terms of benefits in order to aid their employees in paying for sperm donors, infertility treatments and even for freezing their eggs. This move is made by the two tech giant amidst tough competition for skilled engineers and as various big firms attempt to diversify their male-dominated workforce to include and also appeal to females in the tech world.

An expert was of the opinion that for professional women, anything that would provide them with a greater degree of control over the time of their fertility will turn out to be very beneficial. This issue is basically addressing the conflict that exists between the clock of women’s careers and their biological clock. The normal fertility time for a woman will usually clash with the time that’s of the utmost importance in their work for getting their careers off the ground and well-established. But, if Apple and Facebook do offer the option of egg preservation, it will push off the issue of women fertility in the future and resolve the conflict.

This year, Facebook had started reimbursing its workers for about $20,000 worth of costs that were related to reproduction treatments during the course of their employment. Similar perks will be offered by Apple Inc. from next year. The process of freezing eggs means that the eggs of a woman are removed and then cooled to subzero temperature for the purpose of future preservation and to stop the egg from developing or changing. Generally speaking, the viability of a female’s egg decreases a little bit when she turns 27 and drops steeply at the age of 34 to 35.

In the past 20 years, the number of women who had children between the age of 40 to 44 doubled because they wait to have their first child by freezing their eggs. This gives them the option of focusing on their career wholeheartedly. The problem is that this project can cost about $10,000 along with storage costs that total several hundred dollars each year. There are some big banks that are covering these procedures for their female employees and law firms will have to do the same if they are interested in retaining their employees.

Facebook and Apple, on the other hand, have gotten ahead of their game and are using the offer of covering for these procedures not just as a retention tool for existing employees, but also for recruitment. Lesbian and gay couples may also appreciate the policies offered by the two tech firms who wish to use a sperm donor or surrogate for having a baby. Adopting costs will also be reimbursed by Apple along with infertility treatments, which are also offered by other big companies in other sectors.

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