diff --git a/api/incubator/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/api/incubator/config/DeclarativeConfigProperties.java b/api/incubator/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/api/incubator/config/DeclarativeConfigProperties.java
index cf98312c9e8..425a3d768be 100644
--- a/api/incubator/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/api/incubator/config/DeclarativeConfigProperties.java
+++ b/api/incubator/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/api/incubator/config/DeclarativeConfigProperties.java
@@ -201,6 +201,22 @@ default DeclarativeConfigProperties getStructured(
     return defaultIfNull(getStructured(name), defaultValue);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns a {@link DeclarativeConfigProperties} configuration property, or {@link #empty()} if a
+   * property with {@code name} has not been configured.
+   *
+   * <p>This is syntactic sugar for the common operation of calling {@code
+   * config.getStructured(name, empty())}. If you need to distinguish between a property being set
+   * but empty vs. not set, use {@link #getStructured(String)}.
+   *
+   * @return a map-valued configuration property, or an empty {@link DeclarativeConfigProperties}
+   *     instance if {@code name} has not been configured
+   * @throws DeclarativeConfigException if the property is not a mapping
+   */
+  default DeclarativeConfigProperties get(String name) {
+    return getStructured(name, empty());
+  }
+
   /**
    * Returns a list of {@link DeclarativeConfigProperties} configuration property.
    *
diff --git a/sdk-extensions/incubator/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/extension/incubator/fileconfig/YamlDeclarativeConfigPropertiesTest.java b/sdk-extensions/incubator/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/extension/incubator/fileconfig/YamlDeclarativeConfigPropertiesTest.java
index 4e5bbbf9121..3e2d5bee2fe 100644
--- a/sdk-extensions/incubator/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/extension/incubator/fileconfig/YamlDeclarativeConfigPropertiesTest.java
+++ b/sdk-extensions/incubator/src/test/java/io/opentelemetry/sdk/extension/incubator/fileconfig/YamlDeclarativeConfigPropertiesTest.java
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ void treeWalking() {
     // Access string at .foo.bar.baz without null checking and without exception.
     assertThat(
             structuredConfigProps
-                .getStructured("foo", empty())
+                .get("foo") // short for getStructured("foo", empty())
                 .getStructured("bar", empty())
                 .getString("baz"))
         .isNull();