(BRK.A), (BRK.B)
Pilot Flying J, the 14th largest private company in America, with more than 28,000 team members, is adding paid, gender-neutral parental leave to its benefit package.
The benefit provides 100% paid parental leave for six weeks to all team members, both full- and part-time, who have at least one year of service and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months.
“As a family-owned business that is one of the country’s largest private companies, it is critical that we support our team members with growing families,” said Ken Parent, president of Pilot Flying J. “We recognize the importance of focusing on your family’s well-being and that welcoming a new family member can be an exciting and stressful time. We strongly believe that paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers is a much-needed benefit, especially for hourly workers in the retail and convenience store industries and we are proud to provide this benefit to our team members.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, as of March 2018, only 17% of all civilian workers had access to paid family leave.
In the retail industry, where many employees are part-time and hourly, this number is even lower at 7%. In addition, 7 in 10 fathers in the U.S. that took parental leave only used 10 days of leave or less.
Pilot Flying J’s workforce is comprised of a wide variety of full and part-time roles across its locations, including the headquarters in Knoxville, offices in Texas, and the more than 650 travel centers across the U.S.
In 2017, Berkshire Hathaway made a $2.76 billion investment in Pilot Travel Centers. Under the terms of the agreement, the Haslam family will continue to own a majority of Pilot Flying J and Jimmy Haslam will remain as chief executive officer. Pilot Flying J President Ken Parent and the Company’s management team will also remain in place. The Company will continue to be headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Berkshire will become the majority owner in three more years.
© 2019 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.