Detroit ― Ilitch Companies, which owns the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings among several other business ventures, sent a memo to all employees earlier this week to announce it is launching a paid maternity-leave program.

A spokesperson for Ilitch Companies’ Olympia Entertainment confirmed Friday night that the maternity-leave program has been created. The spokesperson declined to provide additional details.

In early September, The Athletic, as part of an investigative report into alleged incidents of misconduct by multiple high-ranking Tigers officials toward female employees, reported that the Tigers were one of three Major League Baseball teams that didn’t offer paid maternity leave. The Tigers said in that article that they were planning on launching a maternity-leave program for birthing mothers, even before the publication of that story.

The Athletic previously reported that the program will start Jan. 1, and reported again this week that the program will provide 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for birthing mothers, as well as two weeks of paid maternity leave for secondary caregivers.

According to The Athletic, that will leave the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels as the only two of 30 MLB teams not to offer paid maternity leave, though California has family-leave laws for which Angels employees are covered.

Detroit-based Ilitch Companies, founded by the late Mike Ilitch, and wife Marian Ilitch, is the umbrella company for all Ilitch-owned ventures, including the Tigers, Red Wings, Ilitch Sports & Entertainment, Little Caesars, 313 Presents and Motor City Casino Hotel and Olympia Development of MIchigan, among others. It operates multiple entertainment venues in the region, including, in downtown Detroit, Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena and the Fox Theatre.

Ilitch Companies, a private entity now run by president and CEO Christopher Ilitch, employs more than 23,000 workers across the country and had revenues exceeding $5 billion in 2024, according to estimates by Forbes.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984