Starbucks Ramps Up Parental Leave

Starbucks is significantly expanding its parental leave benefits, tripling the amount of time off for birth parents and doubling the time for nonbirth parents after welcoming a child.

The coffee giant is increasing its paid parental leave for birth mothers to 18 weeks from six weeks, the company announced Dec. 16. It’s also increasing the paid parental leave offered to nonbirth parents, including adoptive and long-term foster parents, to 12 weeks from six weeks. The expanded parental leave is available to workers who work at least 20 hours a week.

The changes will take effect in March.

The paid parental leave program changes are a result of employee feedback after workers told company leaders the time off they received was not sufficient, Starbucks said.

“Supporting our people is just good business, and it fuels our shared success,” said CEO Brian Niccol, who joined Starbucks in September. The company said the changes are part of its mission to become the best retail employer. Starbucks also offers a slew of other competitive benefits, including stock options, free and discounted college tuition, and free mental health coaching and therapy sessions.

Part of a Larger Trend

The move by Starbucks follows a larger trend of employers enhancing their parental leave benefits this year to meet the needs of working parents while also aiming to improve employee attraction and retention.

Financial services firm Citi announced in June that its employees in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, will receive 16 weeks of paid parental leave, “ensuring more time to bond with a child and supporting all paths to parenthood.” Birthing parents will receive additional paid recovery time of up to eight weeks, to total up to 24 weeks.

Insurance company QBE North America also enhanced its paid parental leave this year and now provides 12 weeks to all parents, regardless of gender. In addition, the firm—which has more than 2,700 employees in North America—provides two weeks of prepartum leave, as well as six to eight weeks of short-term disability, to parents giving birth. When this is combined with the paid parental leave, birthing parents can take up to 22 weeks total of paid time off.

The Universities of Wisconsin and UW-Madison also rolled out a policy giving eligible employees six weeks of paid time off following the birth or adoption of a child, which took effect July 1. And Liberty Mutual Insurance enhanced its parental leave policy in recent years, now offering all parents with new children eight weeks of paid time off and birthing parents an additional eight weeks.

Despite progress, the U.S. is one of the only industrialized countries with no federal paid parental leave, and workplaces with paid parental leave remain rare. Roughly 27% of all private-industry workers have access to paid family leave, according to  data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Workers who can least afford to take unpaid time off are also the least likely to have access to paid leave: According to the BLS, just 14% of workers in the lowest 25% wage category get that benefit, compared with 48% of those in the top 10%.

That’s why, many experts say, employers are making strides on their own as employees increasingly call for better benefits to help manage their personal lives.

Overall, according to SHRM’s 2024 Employee Benefits Survey, the number of employers offering parental leave and family leave benefits has grown since 2022. Forty percent of employers currently offer paid parental leave, according to the survey, up from 33% two years ago.

“Attitudes are really shifting around parental leave. It’s a topic that has been evolving, and it’s a real opportunity as an employer to drive broader societal change,” Rachel Pollack, chief people officer at QBE North America, told SHRM earlier this year.