Roe v. Wade ruling has older and younger employees at odds in the workplace

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and instantly made abortion care inaccessible for millions of Americans, employees across organizations are looking to leadership to see how their employers will react and respond. But along generational lines, colleagues are divided on what that response should be. 

“The main driver of whether or not employees really want companies to do something about a political issue — whether that is to make a statement internally or externally, offer a benefit or cancel events in a state — was their age,” says Emily Killham, director of research and insights at employee insights platform Perceptyx. 

In a new survey conducted by Perceptyx, 60% of more progressive employees aged 44 and younger want their companies to take a stand on the SCOTUS ruling, compared to only about 16% of conservative employees aged 45 and up. Young conservatives, however, are more than twice as likely to crave a public stance from their employer as compared to their older political counterparts. 

Read More: Employers grapple with providing benefits and avoiding legal trouble post-Roe v. Wade

In today’s unpredictable labor market, politics has become an additional thorn in employers’ sides. Among older employees, one in four will consider a company's public politics when choosing an employer. Younger workers are 2.5 times more likely to choose work based on that factor. 

“Over the past 15 to 20 years that millennials have been in the workplace, they want work that provides meaning, where they feel like they make a difference,” Killham says. “But it was a little shocking to me that the folks just slightly older than that were feeling that same way — that an employer’s stated values [over political issues] would make a big difference in terms of whether or not they wanted to work there.” 

For younger workers, three in four report that some kind of public statement or monetary donation in support of a cause is an appropriate action, the survey found. Six in 10 prefer private action, like canceling events or closing offices in states where policies differ from company values. Forty percent would like to see a combination of both.

When asked about their employers’ past responses — or lack thereof — to hot-button political issues, the Perceptyx data indicates that employers would rather proceed with caution than anything else: fewer than one in seven respondents reported that their employer recently took a stance on gun control or abortion rights. 

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But if there’s anything both sides can agree on, it’s that whatever employers choose to do — or not do — it needs to be consistent with the company’s mission and values.

“The biggest thing employers need to do is to ensure that any action or inaction that they take is in alignment with the value proposition that they're offering to employees,” Killham says. “In a lot of ways, it would be much more dangerous to say something and have it not line up.”

Killham uses the way Disney handled Florida’s recent Don’t Say Gay bill, which prohibited public school teachers from discussing or acknowledging sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Disney — an early adopter of same sex-benefits and loud about their support for the LGBTQ community and their queer employees — was silent on the matter. The inconsistency led to backlash. 

“If you came out last week and said you really believe in women's reproductive justice but when it comes time to actually offer it, an employee is treated poorly by a manager for using that benefit or the company makes it difficult to get the time off they would need, that’s where you might see a miss,” Killham says. “If you're not prepared to do all of the work associated with what you say, it's probably not a great idea then to say anything at all.”