Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced on his Facebook page that he will take two months of paternity leave after his daughter's birth, a strong statement from one of the busiest and most powerful U.S. executives on the importance of family time.

Facebook, the world's biggest online social network, allows its U.S. employees to take up to four months of paid maternity or paternity leave, which can be used all at once or throughout the first year
of their child's life, a policy which is generous by U.S. standards.

Comparatively, Google gives 18 weeks' maternity leave and 12 weeks' paternity, Microsoft gives new parents 12 weeks off, and Netflix recently announced that employees can take one whole year.

Here is what Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page:


Zuckerberg announced in July that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were expecting a baby girl.