Facebook and Apple to pay for female employees to freeze their eggs

Two of the biggest technology companies in the world will offer to freeze the eggs of their female employees.

Apple and Facebook will now pay for the expensive treatment, allowing them to retain the best talent in their workforce by enabling female employees to start families later in their life.

The procedure can cost up to $20,000 (£12,577) to perform and an additional $500 (£314) a year to keep the eggs frozen, however the companies have offered to cover the whole thing.

The announcement comes in stark contrast to the comments made by Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella last week in which he claimed female staff should rely on ‘karma’ rather than ask for pay rises or promotions to proceed in the workplace.

While the move has been praised as an example of promoting gender equality in the workplace, some groups have warned that the freezing of eggs does not guarantee a future family, and therefore the companies may be inadvertently depriving their female staff of children. See more at