Starbucks has agreed to pay $38.9 million to settle allegations by New York City that the company violated local fair-scheduling laws more than 500,000 times over a three-year period, Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced on Monday. The settlement concludes a lengthy investigation and marks the largest worker-protection settlement in the city’s history. Officials say the coffee chain repeatedly failed to provide stable schedules, reduced workers’ hours without written consent, and assigned shifts to new hires before offering them to existing employees — all violations of a 2017 city law.
According to the terms of the settlement, Starbucks will pay $35.5 million to more than 15,000 employees and an additional $3.4 million in penalties and costs. Affected workers will receive checks this winter, with each earning $50 for every week worked in an hourly role between July 4, 2021, and July 7, 2024. New York City’s Fair Workweek Law, one of the first in the nation to restrict on-call scheduling, has since inspired similar regulations in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Oregon, and other jurisdictions.
Starbucks said in a statement that it supports the intent of the law but stressed that compliance can be challenging, especially when employees call out and adjustments must be made. The company noted that nearly any scheduling change — even shifting a start time by two hours — can be counted as a violation. Business groups have criticized such rules as overly burdensome, warning that rigid regulations could lead to job cuts, while city officials maintain that predictable scheduling is essential for worker stability and fair labor standards.
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