Interim CEO Starbucks Howard Schultz reveals he will raise salary employees starting in October 2022.
However, he warned that employees who join unions will lose the opportunity to earn higher salaries than regular employees.
“Today we are taking a further step to modernize our salary and benefits vision with an investment in wages. In September, we will be sharing additional initiatives with Starbucks partners (employees),” Schultz said in CNN Business, Wednesday (4/5).
The modern coffee retail outlet claims to allocate US$200 million for wages, including equipment and employee training.
Overall, he continued, the company plans to spend around $1 billion this year on employees and improving the customer experience in stores.
“Workers in company-operated stores will receive increased salaries and benefits. However, we don’t have the same freedom to make improvements to employee welfare in unionized locations,” said Schultz.
According to him, citing applicable federal law, companies are prohibited from promising new wages or benefits to stores or outlets that involve the formation of a union.
It is known that the first Starbucks outlets formed a union in December 2021. Since then, around 46 outlets have joined the union. So far, there have been 237 outlets that have submitted petitions to the National Labor Relations Board.
But actually, this number is a small part of the total 8,800 outlets owned by the company. Even so, companies want to stem the flow of unionized workers.
Schultz admits facing tremendous tension between management and employees, as the company’s business improves.
Sales at the company’s newly opened North American outlets saw a 12 percent jump in sales in just the three months ending April 3, 2022. Revenues also skyrocketed 17 percent in the region.
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