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FIRST ON FOX– Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday he is suing Starbucks, alleging the company uses racial discrimination and illegal hiring quotas.
“I’m announcing that my office is suing Starbucks for using DEI policies that cross the line into illegal, race-based quotas,” Uthmeier said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2020, Starbucks said that its “diverse representation goals” were to “hire ‘people of color’ in 40% of retail and distribution center jobs and 30% of corporate jobs by 2025.”
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that he is suing Starbucks over alleged racial hiring quotas. (Getty Images )
It also alleges that Starbucks “pays employees of certain favored races higher wages than employees belonging to disfavored races who have the same experience and skill” and that before March 2024, the company “openly conditioned executive bonuses on an executive’s ability to meet specific diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.”
For example, for fiscal year 2024, an executive’s bonus pay was allegedly tied to executives mentoring BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) mentees, which included leading monthly group meetings with mentees and monthly meetings with individual mentees, as well as retaining BIPOC employees.
According to the lawsuit, BIPOC retention had to remain over 87% for an executive to make at least half of an offered bonus.
The complaint also claims that people who live in Florida who applied to work at Starbucks stores in the state or who already worked at them “contacted the Attorney General last year and reported that they felt or were excluded, and even suffered humiliation, because they are White.”
The lawsuit also says that Starbucks engages in “systemic discrimination” against “non-diverse” workers.
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The lawsuit also claims that people who live in Florida who applied to work at Starbucks stores in the state or who already worked in them “contacted the Attorney General last year and reported that they felt or were excluded, and even suffered humiliation, because they are White.” (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
“Starbucks made DEI more than a slogan,” Uthmeier said. “They turned it into a mandatory hiring and promotion system based on race. The coffee empire set numerical racial targets for their workforce — and they tied executive bonuses to hitting those targets. That is not diversity. That is discrimination, and in Florida, it is against the law.”
Efforts for the lawsuit began in 2024 under then-Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, now Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla.
“DEI can never be an excuse to violate someone’s civil rights,” Uthmeier said. “Every worker in our state deserves to be hired on merit, qualifications, and character — not skin color. Florida law protects that principle, and we will enforce it. If a corporation weaponizes DEI to impose illegal racial quotas, Florida will hold them accountable.”
Uthmeier is requesting damages of $10,000 “for each instance of racial discrimination that Starbucks is committing or has committed against a Florida resident,” which the Attorney General estimates could total “tens of millions of dollars, if not more.”
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Efforts for the lawsuit began in 2024 under former Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, now Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Starbucks has more than 900 stores across Florida, according to the lawsuit.
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A Starbucks spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “We disagree. We are deeply committed to creating opportunity for every single one of our partners (employees). Our programs and benefits are open to everyone and lawful. Our hiring practices are inclusive, fair and competitive, and designed to ensure the strongest candidate for every job, every time.”
