Starbucks to pay $35M to NYC workers after city alleges years of abuses

By Arun Venugopal and Louis C. Hochman
Published Dec 1, 2025

Modified Dec 1, 2025

Starbucks will pay about $35 million to more than 15,000 workers in what officials are calling the largest worker protection settlement in New York City history — after the company allegedly denied thousands of workers stable schedules and cut their hours arbitrarily.

The agreement, announced Monday, could mean thousands of dollars for many Starbucks employees, with checks coming in the mail this winter. It calls for most hourly workers employed by the company in New York City from July 2021 through early July 2024 to get $50 for each week worked. An employee who worked for a year and a half during that period would get $3,900, according to a city announcement.

“These are individuals who are trying to have some regularity in their lives. They need to be treated with dignity,” city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Vilda Vera Mayuga told Gothamist.

The department began looking into dozens of complaints against Starbucks locations in 2022, eventually expanding its investigation to the hundreds of stores throughout the city. Mayuga said investigators documented more than half a million alleged violations of the city’s Fair Workweek Law, which requires retail and fast-food companies to give employees predictable schedules and advance notice of changes.

https://gothamist.com/news/starbucks-to-pay-35m-to-nyc-workers-after-city-alleges-years-of-abuses

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