Working Mother magazine recently released their list of the top 100 companies to work for as a working mother, the companies considered to be the most family-friendly.

It is hard enough when you are a working mother to balance family life and work life let alone if you work for a company that doesn’t recognize that challenge. Working for a family-friendly company is one way to make that balancing act a little easier. So, Working Mother magazine set out on a search of the companies that offer the best for working moms. Their criteria for including a company on their list were:

• Workforce profile
• Compensation
• Child care availability
• Flexibility of work schedule and work environment
• Time off and leaves
• Family-friendly programs
• Company Culture

What they found in their search were companies that offered benefits that have historically only been part of a dream world for working moms. Companies that offer 16 month maternity leaves, free back-up child care in the event that your normal set up falls through, phase-back programs allowing women to return to work more slowly after the arrival of their new baby, and companies that offer $10,000 adoption cost reimbursement. For the full list of the 100 best companies, and for their profiles, visit Working Mother magazine’s website.

Unfortunately not all of us can work for these great, progressive thinking companies. But hopefully as other companies see the benefits of offering such family-friendly programs they will jump on board. The more companies that offer these benefits the more it will become the norm and eventually everyone will be offering them. We can only hope that happens sooner rather than later.