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Starbucks is cutting jobs at its Seattle headquarters as former CEO Howard Schultz blasts the city’s leadership, accusing its mayor of pushing “socialist rhetoric” that vilifies businesses.
“Seattle’s mayor, Katie Wilson, has chosen to cast business as a foil rather than a partner,” former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wrote in a Monday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. “Her socialist rhetoric vilifies employers, even while she continues to rely on them for revenue. She has encouraged residents who disagree with her policies to leave.”
On Monday, KOMO News reported that Starbucks is laying off 61 employees due to the reorganization of its technology department at its corporate headquarters.
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In a March post on LinkedIn, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that he and his wife moved to Florida for their “retirement phase,” leaving Washington State after almost half a century.
While his March post did not mention the recently passed millionaires tax, which will impose a 9.9% income tax on households earning more than $1 million each year, he did mention taxes in the Monday op-ed.
“In the state capital, the Legislature and governor have confronted difficult fiscal trade-offs by emphasizing taxation rather than reform or performance management,” Schultz wrote. “The theory appears to be that prosperity can be mandated through redistribution rather than generated through growth.”
He continued, “Washington has a broken tax system. The reliance on sales taxes—10.55% in Seattle—is deeply regressive. The state needs to rewrite its tax code across the board in a way that ensures people and businesses alike pay their share.”
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Starbucks appears to lessen its presence in Seattle, acknowledging in March it would be closing five additional stores in the city. This follows several closures in 2025, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill.
In his op-ed, Schultz said even major companies are hiring less due to a variety of factors.
“Microsoft and Amazon—once hiring engines—have slowed recruitment and reduced head counts as they race to build data-center capacity and compete globally. Starbucks recently announced it will shift hundreds of corporate roles to Tennessee,” he wrote.
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Schultz added, “These companies imported global talent at scale for decades, anchoring an interconnected system of suppliers and startups. As those businesses reduce their local role, Seattle has no clear answer to the question of what will provide the next set of jobs and revenue growth.”
The Center Square reported that a recent survey of the Association of Washington Business found that 44% of business leaders said they are considering moving their personal residence out of state, with businesses also saying they are now more than twice as likely to expand outside of Washington than inside it.
Schultz also appeared to lay some blame for the business exodus on the public safety crisis Seattle is grappling with.
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According to an FBI crime report for 2024, released in August, Seattle was ranked fourth worst out of the 30 largest American cities for total crime.
“Cities and states don’t decline overnight,” Schultz wrote. “They drift when public safety, fiscal stability and economic vitality deteriorate together. Downtown vacancies reduce foot traffic. Declining foot traffic weakens small businesses. Employment falls. Revenue shrinks. Services erode. Confidence—something that’s hard to build and easy to lose—begins to evaporate.”
The former Starbucks CEO said he wants the state’s leaders to change their approach, but said the current approach is only driving businesses and entrepreneurs away.
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“I hope Washington’s leaders will embrace these policies and forge a new compact—one grounded in job creation, sensible taxation and accountable public spending,” he wrote. “Washington once embodied the future of the U.S. economy, and it can again. But the current government needs to learn that future entrepreneurs won’t be attracted by ineffective public systems, especially when joined with policy and political rhetoric that demonize businesses.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson and Starbucks for comment.
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