By Ken Picard, Seven Days VT

James Marks of Putney is luckier than most new fathers in Vermont. His employer, Bellows Falls-based Chroma Technology, offers paid leave for all new parents.

The high-tech optical coating manufacturer enacted a generous new parental leave policy for all of its 120 Vermont-based employees just weeks after his second daughter, Laura, was born in December of 2015. It covers all employees who are welcoming a new child into the family, including non-biological parents in same-sex marriages and parents adopting a child.

Employees who’ve been with the company five years or more are eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave — without interrupting their health insurance or other benefits — at 80 percent of their salary. The percentage drops for employees with shorter tenures. Marks, who at the time had been with the company for three years, could receive 60 percent of his salary.

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