The great resignation may see another, more conscience-driven wave as US workers debate exiting companies whose responses to the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade left something to be desired.
A new survey by equality nonprofit Catalyst found that 30% of employees are thinking about leaving their jobs because of how their employers responded to the Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal right to an abortion. In the days leading up to and after the ruling, companies across the country said they would pay for travel-related costs should employees need to go out of state for abortion services.
Those statements may have been too little, too late. In response to the Catalyst poll, 44% percent of respondents said their company isn’t doing enough to protect abortion rights. That includes those that don’t cover abortion care in their health-care plans as well as those that didn’t offer travel as an additional benefit. Catalyst polled 1,200 US-based employees for the survey, 33% of whom said they want their company’s chief executive officer to be vocal about abortion rights.
“Employees are assessing their careers and making decisions based on how their leaders address this issue, said Lorraine Hariton, the CEO of Catalyst, who called abortion access “a critical workplace issue.”
The stakes seem particularly high for workers between ages 18 and 34, almost half of whom said the fall of the Roe v. Wade decision might impact their professional futures. Forty-six percent of employees in that group, including 47% of women and 44% of men, are worried they may not have the kind of careers they planned, the poll found.
