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Starbucks Corporate Employees Get More Maternity Leave Than Baristas

Maternity LeaveStarbucks made headlines recently for giving its hourly workers parental leave, but few people paid attention to the inequality stated in the fine print. The company is giving vastly better benefits to its already well-paid, white-collar corporate employees.

According to the Huffington Post, under their new policy, which takes effect in October, Starbucks white-collar employees who give birth to a baby are eligible for up to 18 weeks paid time off. That’s three times as much as the six weeks a woman working in a Starbucks store would get if she has a baby.

All other corporate employees can take 12 weeks paid time off after the arrival of a child, including fathers, adoptive and foster parents. Hourly workers? They get 12 weeks, too. Unpaid.

Now some Starbucks workers are protesting the policy, decrying the unfairness of giving one class of workers more time to spend with their children than another and shining light on a problem that plagues Americans across the country.