Starbucks giving big boost to paid parental leave benefit for store employees
Starbucks Corp. is more than doubling one of its key U.S. store employee benefits.
Staring this spring, the coffee giant will offer 18 weeks of fully-paid parental leave for birth parents, up from its previous benefit of six weeks. Non-birth parents (including adoptive or long-term foster parents) will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave. The expanded benefit applies to U.S. store employees who work an average of 20 hours a week of more.
The expansion of the benefit comes as Starbucks works to turn around its business under new CEO Brian Niccol, who took the reins of the company in September. He outlined the change in a letter to employees entitled “Making Starbucks the Best Job in Retail.”
“No other retailer offers a better parental leave benefit for new parents,” Niccol wrote. “Our benefit was already the best in retail, but after hearing from some partners who shared the leave as new parents wasn’t adequate, we reviewed the program and have decided we’re making a change.”
In addition to extending certain benefits, Starbucks is working to improve scheduling and increase the number of hours per employee, reported FoxBusiness, with a goal of employees receiving at least 24 hours of work per week.
In announcing the new parental leave policy, Starbucks noted that, in 1988, it became the first major retailer to offer full health benefits to eligible full- and part-time employees.
Since then, the company has adopted other an array of other benefits including:
•College degree, “on us”: Starbucks College Achievement Plan covers 100% upfront tuition costs, which can otherwise cost an average of $75,000 for an ASU online degree. To date, 15,000 partners have graduated and another 25,000 are currently participating.
•Savings growth: Through the Bean Stock program, eligible partners receive Starbucks stock. In November, over 230,000 partners received a grant, and since 1991, 1.5 million partners have collected $2.4 billion in stock.
•Career growth: In November, the company announced a new goal to fill 90% of retail leadership roles internally, creating economic opportunity for more than 200,000 hourly partners and paving the way for them to grow with us.
