Starbucks will provide a flat 2% pay bump to all salaried employees in North America this year as the coffee chain looks to minimize costs as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround efforts.
Under Niccol’s leadership, Starbucks has required some remote workers to relocate to its headquarters and tightened return-to-office policies for corporate employees. The flat 2% pay raise is a shift from the company’s previous compensation model that let managers weigh in on how much of a raise their salaried direct reports received.
The salary hike, first reported this week by Bloomberg and confirmed by Fortune, will apply to all salaried employees, including corporate employees, workers in manufacturing and distribution, and store managers. The uniform increase will not apply to baristas, who are hourly employees.
Starbucks is hoping to turn around its business with Niccol at the helm, who had previously helped improve financial results at Chipotle. The coffee chain has asked executives to limit costs to help pay for efforts to create better service, improve wait times, and make stores more inviting, according to Bloomberg.
“As we make these significant investments, we need to carefully manage all our other costs,” the company said in an internal email reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
