Starbucks is launching a Student Loan Management Benefit to help staff manage student loan repayments | Photo credit: Starbucks

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Starbucks will contribute to eligible employee’s savings accounts and help staff manage their higher education debt as part of two new benefit programmes.

The Seattle-based coffee company will work with financial services firm Fidelity Investments to introduce the My Starbucks Savings, effective from 19 September 2022.

My Starbucks Savings will allow eligible employees to contribute a portion of after-tax pay on a recurring basis directly from their paycheck to a personal savings account. To incentivise savings, Starbucks will contribute $25 and $50 credits at key saving milestones up to a total of $250 per employee.

The company is also launching a Student Loan Management Benefit to help eligible staff manage student loan repayments. The tool offers advice on repayment options and loan refinancing as well as options for financing future education plans.

“We’ve heard from our partners and know that pressures of inflation, in addition to debt and savings are weighing heavily on them. Providing industry-leading benefits for our partners is a cornerstone of who we are as a company. As we reinvent the future of Starbucks, together with our partners, we knew we had an opportunity to further support the financial well-being of our partners and their families,” said Ron Crawford, SVP Total Rewards, Starbucks.

The announcement follows Starbucks increasing minimum pay for all employees to $15/hour in August 2022, a move accompanied by a 7% wage increase for staff employed by the company for more than five years.

Starbucks named Laxman Narasimhan as its new CEO this month, with the former head of Reckitt Benckiser tasked with implementing the reinvention strategy spearheaded by interim CEO Howard Schultz across the chain's 35,000 global stores.

World Coffee Portal research has reported that Starbucks continues to wield influence over the US coffee shop market, opening 302 net new stores over the last 12 months to achieve a total market share of 41%. September's Project Café USA 2023 found that the company now operates 15,650 stores across the US.