Dow Announces Enhancements to Support the Balance of Work and Family and Help Working Parents Thrive

MIDLAND, Mich.

The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) today announced enhancements to its Global Parental Leave Policy, providing greater flexibility and work-life balance for mothers and fathers. Parents have a minimum 12 weeks of paid leave for the mother and two weeks of paid leave for the non-birthing parent, which can be taken during the 12 months following the birth of a child.

“At Dow, we are committed to providing benefits that help our employees thrive,” said Johanna Söderström, Dow chief human resources officer. “This expanded policy reinforces Dow’s strong support for the well-being of its employees and their families.”

“A 12-week global minimum maternity leave policy supports Dow’s Health Strategy and the recommendations of global medical experts for a balanced family life and a focused, productive employee, as well as adequate time to ensure that a child’s wellbeing is properly provided for when the mother returns to work,” said Catherine Baase, M.D., Dow’s chief medical officer.

Flexibility Puts Families First

Dow encourages a work schedule which assists new parents with adjusting to a new family member while simultaneously providing an opportunity to remain engaged in the workplace. This enhanced policy includes benefits designed with flexibility for the family in mind.

• Parental leave following the birth of a child can be used in consecutive weeks or periods as needed by the family upon approval of the leader and country-specific regulations.
• Mothers will work with their leaders to identify ways to gradually return to work and ease the transition to full-time responsibilities. The policy also supports requests to limit travel for new mothers during the first year following the birth of a child.
• Dow will provide resources to assist nursing mothers who are required to travel for company business through reimbursement of the cost of packaging and shipping of breast milk.

Additional Resources Support the Balance of Work and Family

Dow also provides many additional resources for working parents, including four weeks of paid time off for adoptive parents, adoption expense reimbursement, company-wide nursing rooms and breast pump assistance, a family illness policy, and counseling and support through its Health Services group.

The Company was recently named to the 2015 Working Mother 100 Best Companies list. This award honors companies that demonstrate a commitment to progressive workplace programs, including advancement of women, flexibility and paid parental leave.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the world’s most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow’s integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high-growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2014, Dow had annual sales of more than $58 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Company’s more than 6,000 product families are manufactured at 201 sites in 35 countries across the globe. References to “Dow” or the “Company” mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

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The Dow Chemical Company
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