G T Water Products

IBM grants new mothers leaves of up to three years with benefits. Media giant Gannett offers $2,500 in adoption aid. SAS Institute, a computer software developer in Cary, N.C., runs a free on-site child-care center, according to a survey of the best companies for working mothers released Tuesday. But the clean diaper award--if there were such a thing--would go to Apple Computer, the Cupertino-based computer manufacturer.

Marsha Klipp has a challenging, lucrative job at a tiny Moorpark company that routinely wins plaudits for being a great place for women to work. So why is Klipp planning to quit? "I've been doing accounting for 20 years now," said Klipp, 40. "I have an artist inside me, and I want to explore that."

Benjamin Hatcher's role at G. T. Water Products Inc. in Moorpark lets him get out of company headquarters to see the world quite a bit. The same goes for Jennifer Tash and Shannon Gabrilson. Some days, they're off to the zoo. Other days, it's whale watching or a visit to the Getty Museum. But when they're at G. T., which makes plumbing equipment, it's always work, work, work: not marketing or inventory control but lots of math, social studies and science.

The job scene in Southern California today is like a river in a storm--the surface is troubled, but below, the current continues on course, cutting new grooves and pathways in the earth. With the region in recession and the security of most jobs brutally uncertain, it may come as a surprise that Southern California remains home to some of the best places to work in America. These are companies that offer good benefits, especially child care, and a challenging environment--and do not look upon their benefits as frills.

At 7:30 each weekday morning, Paramount Pictures employees--actors, executives, electricians--drop their preschool children off at the day-care center on the studio lot. At the downtown office of Arthur Andersen & Co., a major accounting firm, accountants and other employees have access to free on-site child care between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturdays during tax season, roughly from Jan. 21 to April 15. At Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, children of nurses and other staff start arriving at 7 a.m.