More than 180,000 Starbucks employees now get subsidized backup childcare, thanks to this VP

In 2017, Starbucks began offering birth mothers in its corporate offices 18 weeks of paid maternity leave and non-birth parents 12 weeks. In January 2018, the company announced it would give all retail workers six weeks of paid leave for a new child, whether they are the birth parent or not. Still, many employees felt overlooked. “Maybe you weren’t about to have a baby, but you have elderly parents. We wanted to provide care in the context of a full family,” says Ron Crawford, the company’s VP of global benefits. Last October, he spearheaded Care@Work, which provides subsidized backup care for children, adults, and the elderly, in partnership with care.com (“the only company that is set up for adult daycare,” Crawford says). Starbucks provides 10 subsidized backup-care days per year, at a rate of $1 per hour for in-home care, or $5 per day for daycare centers. The benefit also includes senior-care planning and access to care.com’s digital database of caregivers. Starbucks is one of the largest retailers in the country to provide this kind of benefit; Care@Work is available to more than 180,000 U.S. employees.