Starbucks to tie executive pay to diversity

Starbucks will tie executives’ compensation to the diversity of its workforce with officials announcing that by 2025 the goal is to have 30% of corporate employees and 40% of retail and manufacturing workers who identify as Black, indigenous or people of color.

The Seattle-based coffee giant’s announcement Wednesday to advance its culture of “inclusion, diversity and equity” comes as the Trump administration has essentially declared war on diversity training.

The Labor Department has launched investigations against Microsoft and Wells Fargo over diversity initiatives after an executive order from the Trump administration prohibiting government contractors from offering certain types of racial sensitivity and other diversity training.

Starbucks officials said that the commitments including a new mentorship program and anti-bias training were part of a long-term journey.

“We will hold ourselves accountable at the highest levels of the organization, connecting the building of inclusive and diverse teams to our executive compensation program, effective immediately,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson wrote in a letter to employees.

Starbucks also shared its diversity numbers Wednesday that show in the U.S. its workforce is 8% Black, 27% Hispanic, 6% Asian, 5% multiracial and 54% white. However, a look at the corporate demographics show 65% of workers were white, 19% Asian, 7% Hispanic and nearly 4% Black.

“We have already taken action on many of the recommendations that resulted from our Civil Rights Assessment but, while we have made progress in many areas, we know that there is still more work to be done,” Johnson said.

A recent USA TODAY investigation found that more than 55 years after the Civil Rights Act, less than 2% of the top executives at the nation’s largest companies are Black.

In 2018, Starbucks closed the doors of more than 8,000 company-owned stores and its corporate office for an afternoon for racial bias training following an incident at a Philadelphia Starbucks in which a manager called police on two Black men who were waiting for a friend in the store but hadn’t bought anything.

Staffers also denied letting one use a restroom. Police arrested the pair for trespassing, but they were later let go without charges and Starbucks and police apologized.

Johnson said the company partnered with Arizona State University in developing its “To Be Welcoming curriculum” and the company’s civil rights assessment led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

He said the company will grow “community partnerships for hiring, training and supervising outreach workers who will support our stores by engaging with individuals in crisis with the goal of reducing strain on law enforcement agencies.”

Other companies including Target and Microsoft have also launched initiatives to diversify their mostly white leadership ranks amid national protests after George Floyd, a Black man, died under the knee of a white policeman in Minneapolis.