But don’t get your hopes up just yet since as of now, it is in Starbucks’ dress code that employees can not have “bright or unnatural” colored hair.
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In addition, a recent wave of minimum wage increases across the country and the continued pressure of the Fight for $15 movement means companies will likely have to raise pay anyway. Starbucks also said it was tweaking its stock options program, doubling the award given to workers who stay with the company for two full years. Combined, the changes will bring the compensation increase to as much as 15 per cent.
Starting Monday July 18, the company is making changes to its health and benefits program to allow employees “to personalize their health coverage, select an insurance carrier, and choose a coverage level that fits their needs”.
Starbucks’ new fiscal year begins on Oct 1. With a raise on the horizon, it looks like the coffee company is hoping to at least address, even indirectly, the problems workers are dealing with in terms of their inability to pay bills on their reduced hours.
Starbucks will increase pay for all employees and store managers in the United States coffee shops, by 5 percent or more.
The raise applies to workers in Starbucks’ 7,600 company-operated stores, but not in the nearly 5,000 licensed locations operated by other companies. In an open letter posted on the company’s website, Schultz announced the specifics of the wage increase plan.
Employees also reportedly commented on the petition that the hour reductions made it hard for them to make ends meet, and impossible for them to afford Starbucks benefits, such as healthcare and college tuition reimbursement.
Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks, stated that the raise in salary is intended as an attempt to strike a delicate balance between social conscience and profit.
The cost of the raise were not divulged, but Starbucks has said previously that it would spend over $275 million in the year 2015 and 2016 on both digital and partner investments. Starbucks last changed its dress code in 2014, when it announced it would allow black jeans, untucked shirts and visible tattoos but not watches, bracelets or rings with stones.
The changes affect the 150,000 employees who work at Starbucks’ company-owned stores.
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“As a shift supervisor, I have maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the staff I need, and we’re all extremely overworked and overwhelmed”, wrote Makenna S., a petition signer.
