How Starbucks Completely Closed Its Gender and Race Pay Gap

Take notes, Congress.

Starbucks store
Getty

Image via Getty/Anton Novoderezhkin\TASS

Starbucks store

Apparently, Starbucks is out to do the work that Congress can’t. The coffee company announced on Wednesday that it had reached gender and race pay equity among its American staff. TBH, I kind of hate Starbucks and the dirt-water they call coffee, but this news more than makes up for it. Starbucks has been working with Billie Jean King's Leadership Initiative and other women’s organizations to bridge the gap. The company has also made a commitment to transparency by promising to tell any U.S. job applicants what the pay range is for any position.

“We've worked hard for a couple of years now to ensure we can get there,” said CEO Kevin Johnson to CNN. Starbucks Executive Vice President and Chief Partner, Lucy Helm, also said in statement, “This milestone is the result of years of work and commitment.” As Helm explained, this achievement has been about a decade in the making. What’s more, one-third of the company’s executive team is accounted for by women. Yes, queens.

So how did they do it? The company is very proactive about checking compensation gaps and implemented a calculator that determines starting pay based on experience. Further, if you apply for the job with the company, Starbucks won’t ask you about your salary history. So if you got shafted at your last gig, there’s no need to worry about how that might affect your financial future. As Sara Bowen, the leader of the Starbucks Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility team notes, “One of the most important things to get right is starting pay.”

Latest in Life