Commentary: Starbucks Bringing Back to the Office Is Another Corporate Double Standard

NEW YORK: This week, new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol sent employees a stern warning: Go back to the office three days a week or no risk.

I feel sorry for the intercom staff who had to convey this message with a straight face. The order comes just two months after the company hired Niccol on a contract that allows him to keep his primary residence in Newport Beach, California, rather than moving to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle.

Starbucks said Niccol will spend “the majority of his time” visiting stores or the company’s office in Seattle, even though he lives 1,600 kilometers away.

But while he can technically comply with the hybrid rules, a key detail remains unspoken: he will be able to do so with the help of the company’s private jet and a monstrous salary package that allows him to spend money on any other inconveniences that arise. . However, he won’t have to worry about his remote office in Newport Beach; Starbucks will pay for all of this, plus the cost of a personal assistant of his choice.

Meanwhile, Starbucks touts that it provides subsidized transportation, shuttle service to public transit, free electric vehicle charging and bike lockers to encourage average people to return to the office. Those are nice benefits, but they pale in comparison to Niccol’s company-funded corporate jet trips.

Starbucks’ board of directors agreed to Niccol’s terms as part of a larger deal designed to lure him away from Chipotle Mexican Grill and save the struggling coffee giant. If Niccol’s compensation package is paid in full, he will rank among the highest paid CEOs in America.

This will likely earn Starbucks the top spot on the list of companies with the highest CEO-to-employee pay ratios, a classic measure of inequality between CEOs and their employees. This figure has increased dramatically over the past 60 years.

The average CEO-to-worker pay ratio at the 350 largest public U.S. companies was about 344 to one in 2022, the latest year for which data is available, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In other words, it would take the average employee almost 350 years to reach the same level as their CEO in just one year’s earnings. In 1965 the ratio was 21 to one.