Wal-Mart’s New Parental-Leave Plan Is Even More Generous Than Starbucks’
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Lost in the wave of publicity surrounding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s decision to raise its minimum wage to $11 an hour was perhaps an even bigger announcement: The company is instituting one of the most generous parental-leave policies in the U.S.
The nation’s largest private employer said on Thursday that full-time hourly workers will receive 10 weeks of maternity leave at full pay. Fathers and partners will be eligible to take six weeks. The company had previously granted as much as eight weeks of maternity leave to hourly workers, but only at partial pay, and didn’t offer any benefit to dads, adoptive parents or same-sex couples.