STARBUCKS KICKS IN FOR CHILDCARE WHILE BARISTAS SERVE COFFEE

Benefit provides 10 subsidized backup days

NEW YORK • After beefing up its parental leave policy this year, Starbucks Corp. will now offer subsidized childcare for all its U.S. employees, too.

The new benefit, a partnership with childcare provider Care.com Inc., will provide 10 subsidized backup daycare days for parents for instances when regular care falls through.

In-home backup childcare will cost $1 an hour or $2 an hour after the fourth child.

Care at a daycare centre will cost $5 per day.

Unlike some of Starbucks’s other benefits, which require employees to work 20 hours before they can access them, Care@work is available to more than 180,000 U.S. employees, regardless of how much they work.

Americans pay almost as much for childcare as they do for rent, and when it falls through or there’s an unexpected day off from school or daycare, a parent either has to stay home or scramble to find a solution.

Subsidized childcare is a rare benefit. Only two per cent of more than 3,000 employers surveyed by the Society of Human Resource Management in 2018 say they help employees pay for childcare fees.

Only four per cent offer backup child care services.

The news came as Bill Ackman said he has taken a new position in Starbucks Corp. at a conference in New York, according to a person in attendance. The activist investor has taken a stake worth about $900 million, said the person, who asked not to be identified.

The coffee chain has been struggling with slow afternoon sales and a decline in its signature Frappuccino line.

It’s also been facing pressure as customers trade up for more premium coffees.

In June, it announced plans to close about 150 company-operated stores in densely penetrated U.S. markets next fiscal year.

That’s three times the number it historically shuts down annually.