Earlier this year the United Kingdom announced plans to allow couples a full year of family leave—six months each for mom and dad, partly subsidized by the government. To American ears, that sounds incredibly generous, but according to a recent paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., many countries already offer substantial job-protected, subsidized leave.

In fact, the United States was one of only two nations studied to offer families no financial assistance of any kind — and it ranked 20th for the amount of mandated job-protected leave offered (as required by the Family and Medical Leave Act [FMLA]). What’s more, because small firms are excluded from FMLA requirements, a whopping 40 percent of all American workers are ineligible for any leave at all.

That’s the backstory on family leave in the United States. And it makes the efforts of those businesses that do offer paid parental leave—just a quarter of U.S. companies in all—all the more impressive. Even more impressive are the five organizations that lead all of the Working Mother 100 Best Companies in terms of parental leave offered to not only birth moms, but dads and adoptive parents as well.

See pictures from the following companies

Washington, DC-based law firm Arnold and Porter takes excellent care of its working moms.  Whether they’ve just delivered or adopted, new moms can take 18 weeks off—at full salary. Dads, meanwhile, can stay home for six weeks with pay.

Charlotte, NC-based Bank of America boosted the time moms and dads can stay home to care for a newborn by 50 percent, to 12 from eight weeks.

Global financial-services giant Citi provides new mothers with 13 fully paid weeks off, while primary caregivers of an adopted child can take eight weeks of paid leave.

At Discovery Communications, based in Silver Springs, MD, moms can take 11 weeks at full salary to care for their newborn, with another four weeks at partial pay. Adoptive parents and dads receive three paid weeks.

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics’ working moms receive 2.5 weeks off with full pay after delivering, with another two weeks at partial pay. Adoptive primary caregivers and dads get 2.5 paid weeks.

See Parental Leave in pictures