Chobani CEO: Why we’re now giving all workers at least 12 weeks of parental leave
After Chobani owner and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya and his wife welcomed a baby in late 2015, he started to wonder whether his company was fully supporting its employees as they became parents. When he returned to work, he inquired about the company’s parental leave policy.
“I asked, what happens at Chobani when someone has a baby or a new member of their families?” Ulukaya recalled. “The response was: We don’t have [a policy]. We have disability insurance. That insurance in New York offers up to 75% coverage for six weeks, basically. And that’s what we offered for birthing parents.”
Ulukaya says he was “shocked” and immediately asked his team what they could do differently. That prompted a major change at Chobani: In 2016, the company started offering six weeks of fully paid leave for all full-time workers—including those in its manufacturing facilities—with the option of adding an additional six weeks at partial pay.
Chobani’s new parental leave policy
The company found that many birthing parents would take the full 12 weeks of leave, with some workers even tacking on an additional six weeks through short-term disability. As of this week, Chobani is expanding its leave policy further by offering 12 weeks of fully paid leave for all new parents, including those who are fostering or adopting a child.
Birthing parents will have access to a total of 18 weeks paid leave, since Chobani will also cover six weeks of short-term-disability leave at 100% pay for any reason—and the new policies will apply to all full-time and part-time employees who work at least 24 hours per week.
“Anything you do [for] your employees—anything—is an investment,” Ulukaya says. “It comes back 100% from my experience . . . People know that Chobani has been present on all kinds of social issues, but we start with our own people first. Investing in your people, recognizing the needs of your people, and being there with your people, especially frontline and factory [workers], is really the competitive advantage.”
“This is good for business”
Chobani has long been known for its progressive workplace policies, from hiring refugees and paying competitive wages to giving its employees a stake in the company’s future through an equity-sharing program. Even so, the parental leave policy has been one of the most popular benefits offered by Chobani, according to Ulukaya—and it has also helped the company attract new talent. “A lot of people come in and say, ‘I just got married, or I’m planning on [starting] a family,’” he says. “’Learning about your parenting policy, it was really attractive to come and join you.’ It’s massively important for a lot of people.”
It’s a message Ulukaya also passes along to his peers in the business world. “I tell my colleagues and other CEOs: This is good for business,” he says. “It’s not just a handout. When you have policies like this, what it does to your company is magical.”
The new update to its leave policy also makes Chobani somewhat of an outlier in the manufacturing space. A 2023 survey by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that a little more than half the respondents had some access to paid family leave. While a significant portion of people with young children (78%) reported having paid maternity leave, far fewer (46%) were entitled to paternity leave. More broadly, paid leave is still hard to come by at many workplaces in the country: As of 2024, only 31% of full-time employees and 14% of part-time employees had access to the benefit.
“We could fix this”
Some companies that offer more generous leave distinguish between corporate employees and hourly workers—though there are exceptions. Starbucks recently made a similar update to its policy, increasing paid leave for birthing parents to 18 weeks and 12 weeks for all other new parents. Amazon, on the other hand, provides 20 weeks of paid leave to all birthing parents (including hourly workers), though the company offers only six weeks of leave to other new parents or those who adopt.
While there has been little progress on a federal paid leave policy since the pandemic, states have continued adopting legislation that has expanded coverage for many workers. Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have now passed legislation that mandates paid leave. Still, most state laws only guarantee partial pay—and the onerous process of applying for leave stops many workers from taking advantage of those policies. Cultural norms also hold men back from taking leave, even when they’re entitled to do so.
With the latest changes at Chobani, Ulukaya is hopeful that lawmakers and business leaders alike will take notice. “We do a lot of things at Chobani [that] I don’t really see the value of talking about,” he says. “I talk about this because I’m hoping that this could impact other businesses and policy makers and society. It doesn’t matter who you are and what kind of view you have when it comes to politics. This is something [where] we can all unite, and we could really fix this.”