“The people who most need paid family leave are the least likely to have it.”
That’s according to a report released Wednesday by nonprofit Paid Leave for the United States (PLUS), which found that among some of the largest employers in the U.S., paid leave benefits are largely reserved for salaried employees. And that’s not just the case for those working for the big-name brands: A November Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that just 6% of low-wage workers in the U.S. Have access to paid family leave.
The PLUS report singles out Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT)—the country’s largest retailer and job-creator—for not providing equal paid leave to its salaries and hourly employees. The retailer provides 10-12 weeks of fully paid leave for birth mothers who are corporate employees, but just 6-8 weeks at partial pay for birth moms who are full-time hourly workers. Among fathers, only salaried employees get paid time off (two weeks).
PLUS reports that of the company’s 1.4 million employees, 1.2 million are classified as hourly.
Blake Jackson, a Walmart spokesperson, calls the company a “leader in retail” for this policy. “We believe our people are able to do their best work when they have stability and consistency in their lives away from the store,” he wrote in an emailed statement to Coins2Day.
While calling Walmart a leader isn’t quite accurate—Ikea, Levi’s, Nordstrom and Apple are among the companies that provide equal leave to both hourly and salaried employees—it’s not trailing the pack either.
Other major employers who have distinct (and worse) policies for hourly workers include AT&T (T), Darden Restaurants, McDonald’s (MCD), Starbucks (SBUX), Supervalu, and Yum!Brands (which owns brands like Taco Bell and Pizza Hut).
And that’s just the companies that are transparent about their policies. PLUS reports that 13 of the 25 employers surveyed either refused to participate or did not respond to its survey—these include major U.S. Retailers like Whole Foods and Wegmans.
Among those that did provide information to PLUS, Starbucks’ policy stands out for its inequity. For employees at the corporate headquarters (who account for 3% of its workforce), the company provides 18 weeks of paid parental leave for mothers and 12 weeks for fathers. By contrast, in-store employees who become new moms get six weeks of paid leave, while dads get nothing beyond the federally-mandated 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Starbuck’s response to a request for comment was to refer Coins2Day to this blog post outlining the company parental leave policy, which notes that that company spent over $558 million on its benefits package for part-time and full-time workers in 2016.
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While it is easy to point fingers and shame corporations for not offering paid leave to all employees, Katie Bethell, founder and executive director of PLUS told Coins2Day in an interview about an earlier version of the non-profit’s report that “ultimately, solving paid family leave will require a national public policy.” Currently, no such policy exists and the U.S. Is the only OECD country without one.
Earlier this week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer released an official statement on behalf of the president. In it, President Trump wrote that he is “committed to working with Congress” to ensure mothers and fathers in the U.S. Have access to paid-family leave—an issue that his eldest daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump, has been a vocal proponent of.
However, the administration has yet to take any concrete steps to advance a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program.
