Starbucks Just Made A Huge Announcement About Parental Leave

According to the Associated Press, Starbucks announced that it's making revisions to its parental leave policy — and that's excellent news for over 160,000 employees nationwide. As it stands, the coffee chain's parental-leave policy is already great by American standards. While federal law mandates 12 weeks of unpaid leave for births or adoptions, Starbucks' moms-to-be can currently take off six weeks and receive 67% of their usual pay. With the new policy, however, which goes into effect on October 1, that 67% will increase to 100% for 18 weeks. Moms can even elect to have an additional 12 weeks off, though that will be without pay. If that wasn't reason enough to celebrate, Starbucks is extending benefits to "non-birth parents," too. That means fathers, both members of a same-sex couple, and adoptive parents are also entitled to the same benefits, which goes far beyond what's required by federal law. Incoming CEO Kevin Johnson says it’s "one of many steps we are actively taking to evolve our benefits." The new policy will affect Starbucks partners (that's 'bux-speak for employees) that work, on average, 20 hours a week. While there's still a long way to go, we'll raise a latte to Starbucks' efforts and hope that other companies follow its lead.