Credit rating agency Moody's expanded its global parental leave program earlier this month to offer new parents a minimum of 16 weeks paid leave, says Francisco Martinez-Garcia, chief inclusion officer at Moody's. The organization joins a growing list of employers that have extended paid parental leave benefits to at least 16 weeks over the past decade. Such efforts come as more companies employ a global workforce and encounter vastly different paid parental leave laws worldwide. Meanwhile, experts say that changing employee expectations of work/life balance drive employers to embrace more generous leave benefits.

Moody's joined companies such as Thomson Reuters and JPMorgan, which expanded their leave benefits to 16 weeks last year. According to Fairygodboss.com, more than 180 companies in the U.S. now offer at least 16 weeks of paid leave to new mothers and, in some cases, fathers.

Moody's 16-week paid parental leave program is equally available to all 14,000 employees in the more than 40 countries where the organization operates and applies to the birth, adoption or surrogacy of a child.