Bank Of America Adds Additional Week Of Paid Maternity Leave For Employees

New mothers working at Bank of America will receive an extra week of paid maternity leave the company announced on Wednesday, bringing the total time full-time employees can take off without a loss of pay to 112 days.

"We're expanding our parental leave to better meet needs of our employees and their families," a post to the company's Twitter account reads.

Seen by some analysts as a national trend towards more perks for US workers, the move is the first enhancement of maternity leave in seven years, when the amount of paid time off was raised from eight weeks to the current 12.

"It's really about our employees," said Jim Huffman, a Bank of America health and wellness benefits executive. "We know that their families are critical to them, and it's very important for us as a business to support them."

Though the timing could raise an eyebrow for some, Bank of America's chief competitor, JPMorgan Chase & Co., raised their amount of paid maternity leave from 12 to 16 back in January, according to the Charlotte Observer, the important thing for Bank of America Global Human Resources Executive Sheri Bronstein is that it's the moral course of action.

"Supporting the needs of our employees is one of the most important things we do," Bronstein said, in a statement tweeted by the financial institution's official account.

Bank of America's new maternity leave policy goes into effect on Monday.