New parents who work at Starbucks are going to get a lot more time off.
The Seattle-based coffee shop giant is tripling the parental leave for birth mothers who work at least 20 hours per week and doubling it for non-birth parents, the company said Monday.
Birth mothers will now get 18 weeks of leave. Non-birth parents whose spouse or surrogate gives birth, who adopt or take on a foster child, will get 12 weeks. The chain’s workers, which Starbucks calls “partners,” will be paid at their average pay during their time off. The benefits will start in March.
“Our benefit was already the best in retail,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a letter published on the Starbucks website. “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.”
Paid leave is among the most in-demand benefit for prospective employees, behind only health insurance, according to the benefits provider Met Life. Nearly three-quarters of employees in a survey told the firm that paid leave was a “must have” benefit, while 20% said it was “nice to have.”
But paid leave was the top priority among younger, “Gen Z” workers, a key portion of the Starbucks workforce.
Starbucks has long boasted that its benefits were among the best in all of retail. The company allows its partners to acquire company stock and covers tuition costs for workers who get the degrees online. Last month the company promised to fill 90% of retail leadership roles internally, which would give employees the ability to advance into management—another key requirement.
Starbucks and other restaurant chains have bolstered their benefits in recent years to remain competitive as labor grew difficult to find. Yet the coffee chain had another reason for that push: The unionization of a growing number of its locations.
“We want every partner to know that Starbucks is the best place to work and grow their career,” Niccol said.
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