Target joins the ranks of large commercial retailers now offering parental leave benefits for employees. So how does the retailer stack up against competitors, like Walmart and Amazon, that also offer parenting incentives for employee retention?
The structure of parental leave in many corporate businesses seems to favor a tiered system of eligibility. Take for example the paid leave benefits of coffee chain and corporation, Starbucks, which offers six weeks paid leave to hourly employees, regardless of the parent’s gender. Salaried employee, however, is allowed 18 weeks paid parental leave. The tiered system is more blatantly identifiable in retailers like Walmart that provides no parental benefits for part-time employees, despite the fact that 40% of their workforce falls into this category. Walmart requires that female employees work for a period of 12 months before receiving eligibility for 10 weeks of paid maternity leave.
What makes Target’s parental leave and childcare benefits different is that the company provides the same benefits for all employees. All Target employees- part-time, full-time, and salaried- are eligible to four weeks paid time off for newborn care, and 20 days each month of in-center childcare services and resources.
It appears that Target is creating a culture that not only accommodates for parenthood but actually encourages it. The retailer recently announced that it will double the reimbursement amount afforded to all employees whose household incur adoption and surrogacy fees. The company is consistent in its commitment to inclusivity by providing benefits that serve every definition of family.
Target’s gender-neutral and inclusive parental leave benefits factor in the largely ignored LGBTQ family. While many businesses now include some rudimentary form of maternity leave policy, the name, as it suggests, serves to only benefit pregnant women. Basic forms of maternity leave policy neglect the needs of parents who give birth through surrogacy or same-sex couples who make up a majority of the demographic of families built through the foster or adoption process.
The socio-economic theory that finds that supporting parental care positively impacts family life, in turn positively impacting business results, is a notion recently adopted by many large retailers. The technology company, Microsoft, has made huge strides in keeping corporations accountable by requiring that all retailers that sell Microsoft products in their stores must provide a minimum of 12 weeks paid leave to birth and adoptive parents employed there. The company itself is notorious for offering its technology engineers five months paid leave for new birth mothers and three months paid leave for fathers, adoptive parents, and foster parents.
Corporate accountability, when it comes to parental leave, is necessary because the United States remains the sole industrialized country to not government mandate paid family leave. In fact, the only legislation pertaining to paid time off for families is the Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA, which requires that all businesses with over 50 employees provide 1,250 hours of unpaid leave to employees who have held the position for at least a year. These hours culminate from comprehensively earned vacation time and sick days.
Just this year Oregon became the 8th state to pass a paid family leave bill, requiring all retailers in the state to provide at least 12 weeks paid time off to all employees, regardless of position or gender. What makes Oregon’s family leave bill so comprehensive is that it is the first to offer low-income workers 100% of their working wages. “It’s the first law that reflects if you’re paid low-wages and literally living paycheck to paycheck, anything less than 100% is going to cause financial hardship,” said Vicki Shabo, financial specialist at the think tank, New America.
American retailers can take a cue from that of European retailers, like Swedish brand, Ikea. Ikea has become a driving force in the U.S. retail industry when it comes to supporting their employee’s family plan through paid leave and childcare services. The retailer offers all employees 4 months parental paid leave, first day of school leave, $5,000 provided in financial assistance for adoption and egg freezing procedures, and access to the childcare center services available in all Ikea retailers. The numbers don’t lie; Ikea has the lowest turnover rate of any retailer in the U.S., with most Ikea employees remaining with the company for over 5 years.
What companies need to consider when implementing an effective family benefits plan is that paid family leave needs to be inclusive of all families and be made available to all employees. Target is one retailer championing such change, but there is much to be done about ensuring that all employers recognize parental roles and offer suitable paid leave for family care.
By Rachel Ladeby