Starbucks Expands Parental Leave For Baristas Despite Cutting Back On Other Perks In Desperate Move As It Faces Union-Organizing Push – CoffeeTalk

Starbucks, a leading coffee giant, has been facing a tense relationship with its employees over the past few years, particularly after a recent change in management. In 2021, Starbucks faced growing unionization efforts from hourly employees due to issues such as short staffing, low wages, harassment, and unpredictable scheduling. By 2022, a report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that 25% of U.S. Starbucks baristas quit within the first 90 days on the job, up from 10% before the Covid pandemic.

In January 2023, Starbucks faced criticism from its corporate employees after requiring them to work from the office three days a week after allowing them to work remotely full time. Shortly after Brian Niccol took over as Starbucks CEO in September this year, he doubled down on the company’s current return-to-office mandate during his first staff address, claiming that employees need to be working in the office “more often than not.”

Starbucks is now expanding a new benefit for its hourly employees in the U.S. to help attract and retain talent after recently scaling back a few other crucial job perks. Starting in March 2025, Starbucks will be “more than doubling” its paid parental leave for store employees who work an average of 20 hours or more each week. Parents who give birth will receive up to 18 paid weeks off, while non-birth parents will be eligible for up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Starbucks is dead set on not only attracting new workers but also maintaining its current workforce. Last month, it created a goal to fill 90% of retail leadership roles internally, which it hopes will encourage workers to elongate their careers at the company.

While Starbucks is making significant workforce changes, it is struggling to reverse shrinking sales in its stores. In its fourth-quarter earnings report for 2024, the coffee chain’s comparable store sales in the U.S. declined by 6% year-over-year, contributing to a 3% year-over-year decline in its total revenues during the quarter.

In response to the company’s recent poor performance, Niccol has launched his “Back to Starbucks” plan, which involves pausing price increases, simplifying Starbucks’ menu, cutting down wait times for orders to four minutes or less, and other changes.

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