• by Tanya Gazdik , February 19, 2025

Starbucks is under attack for its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, this time via a lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who alleges that since 2020, Starbuck’s workforce has become “more female and less white.”

The federal lawsuit accuses Starbucks of engaging in “systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination” through hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership.

“Such practices force Missouri consumers to ‘pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services,’ he argued, because making hiring decisions ‘on non-merit considerations will skew the hiring pool towards people who are less qualified to perform their work,’” according to The Washington Post. “He did not provide evidence for how costs would increase for consumers.”

As of August 2020, the company’s U.S. workforce was 69.2% female and 30.8% male, according to the company. It was 46.5% Black, Indigenous, people of color or unspecified, and 53.5% white. As of September 2024, the workforce was 70.9% women and 28.4% men, and 47.8% white.

The lawsuit opens up a new legal front in corporate America. 

“It aims to strike down the most common diversity, equity and inclusion programs that Starbucks and other businesses use to expand opportunities for minorities, women and historically underrepresented groups,” according to CNN Business. “The legal challenge to Starbucks is an early sign of aggressive litigation seeking to roll back DEI by emboldened GOP-led states, private employees and federal agencies under President Donald Trump, legal experts say.”

Meanwhile, a quarter of U.S. shoppers have dumped favorite stores over political stances, according to The Harris Poll. 

“Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration," according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian. “More Democrats (50%) indicated they were changing their spending habits compared with Republicans (41%) and independents (40%). Democrats were also more likely to say they have stopped shopping at companies that have opposing political views to their own – 45% of Democrats indicated so, compared with 34% of Republicans. It is a sign that consumers with liberal views are starting to use their wallets in response to politics in the private sector.”

Some companies -- Costco, Microsoft and Apple, for three -- have stood by their DEI policies, even when faced with pressure from conservative activists.

The NAACP posted a spending guide that details which companies have not pulled back from DEI efforts. 

“The NAACP says the spending guide it published Saturday is needed because DEI initiatives promote the social and economic advancement of Black Americans, who are projected to consume nearly $2 trillion in goods and services in nominal dollars by 2030, according to the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility,” per The Associated Press.