NEW YORK – Starbucks will pay over $35 million to over 15,000 New York City employees to settle claims that the company denied them stable schedules.
Starbucks settles NYC workers
What we know:
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders will join striking Starbucks workers at 3 p.m. today, Dec. 1.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) announced the settlement earlier today, Dec. 1.
Starbucks Workers United members and supporters picket outside a Starbucks store in New York, US, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. The union said baristas from 30 more stores planned to join the strike Thursday, bringing the total number of stores with stri
A multi-year investigation conducted by the DCWP found that Starbucks committed “more than half a million violations of the law since 2021” by illegally denying workers the right to stable schedules and “arbitrarily” cutting their hours.
About $35.5 million will be paid to the workers who were harmed by the “unlawful practices,” and $3.4 million will be paid in civil penalties and other costs.
The settlement in its entirety can be read below:
The backstory:
Over 50 Starbucks locations in New York City closed without warning in October of this year.
Included in those hundreds of stores are 54 Starbucks in New York City, according to the DCWP.
Not only were the coffee shops closed, but they were closed with little to no notice to landlords.
The company also failed to offer replacement jobs to city workers affected by the closures; the city’s Fair Workweek Law dictates that employees from closing stores must be offered a job at a location in the same borough.
Those employees are also entitled to first choice of any job openings in the vicinity of their original job.
A customer holds a drink inside a Starbucks coffee shop in New York, US, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. Starbucks Corp. is removing some less popular drinks from its US lineup, part of a broader plan to simplify the menu and serve customers faster. Photog
A letter was sent from the city to Starbucks regarding said labor laws. DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga wrote in the letter, “Starbucks appears poised to violate its legal obligations to employees in New York City locations.”
The DCWP also filed a lawsuit against Starbucks for “wrongfully terminating an employee” earlier this year.
According to the lawsuit, an investigation conducted by the department found that Starbucks illegally fired longtime barista Karmen Rich on December 27, 2023, without just cause.
Mobile order and Uber Eats and Doordash delivery pick up area at Starbucks coffee shop, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
That was the third wrongful termination lawsuit that the department has filed against Starbucks.
The Source: This article includes information from a lawsuit.