Starbucks to offer workers abortion benefits

Starbucks said Monday it will pay the travel expenses for U.S. employees to access abortion and gender-confirmation procedures if those services aren’t available within 100 miles of a worker’s home.

The Seattle coffee giant said it will also make the travel benefit available to the dependents of employees who are enrolled in Starbucks’ health care plan.

Starbucks has 240,000 U.S. employees; it was not clear what percentage of them are enrolled in the company’s health care plan.

Starbucks is among the most high-profile companies to adopt a travel benefit in the wake of a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court which would abolish the nationwide right to abortion.

Amazon is also covering up to $4,000 in travel and lodging expenses for employees seeking non-life-threatening medical treatments, including abortions and gender-confirming procedures. According to messages sent to staff, the benefit has been in place since the beginning of this year and applies if the procedure is not available within 100 miles of an employee’s home.

Tesla also said earlier this month it would cover travel costs for employees seeking out-of-state abortions.

Some companies, including Levi Strauss & Co., Yelp and Citigroup, have pledged to pay travel costs for Texas employees who seek abortions, in response to a 2021 Texas law banning abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

Starbucks didn’t immediately say whether the travel benefit would be automatically extended to stores that have voted to unionize. At least 69 of the company’s U.S. stores have voted to unionize since the end of 2021.

Earlier this month, Starbucks angered labor organizers when it announced enhanced pay and benefits for workers at its non-union stores.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said at the time that the company isn’t legally allowed to offer benefits at union stores, since those stores must negotiate their own contracts.