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Starbucks Gives Workers Raises, Stock Grants, Increased Benefits Due to GOP Tax Law

Starbucks coffee shop sign / Getty
January 24, 2018

The Seattle-based coffeehouse chain Starbucks said Wednesday that it will give its U.S. workers pay raises and stock grants this year, citing new tax cuts.

Starbucks announced that all of the company's U.S. employees will soon be able to earn paid sick time off, and parental leave benefits will now include all non-birth parents, affecting around 150,000 full-time, part-time, hourly, and salaried workers, the Associated Press reported.

The pay raises and expanded benefits will have a combined worth of more than $250 million, Reuters noted.

"Investing in our partners has long been our strategy, and due to the recent changes in U.S. tax law, we are able to accelerate some significant partner investments," Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a letter to employees.

The coffeehouse chain said its workers will get a pay increase in April, their second increase of the year, with additional benefits resulting from the new tax law.

Starbucks is the latest company to announce boosts in pay or benefits for workers due to the Republican tax reform plan, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month. More than 80 companies have said they will invest more in their workers—in the form of bonuses, higher wages, or other benefits—since the GOP tax overhaul became law.

Walmart, for example, raised its starting hourly salary from $9 to $11 earlier this month, and expanded parental leave benefits.

AT&T said that it will give $1,000 special bonuses to more than 200,000 employees and invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S.

Wells Fargo said that it will raise its minimum wage for American employees to $15 an hour, and increase its philanthropic giving by 40 percent in 2018 to $400 million.

The AP noted that larger employers are having trouble finding and keeping workers due to the historically low unemployment rates, which have allowed job seekers to be pickier about where they work.

Published under: Tax Reform , Taxes