Starbucks is giving baristas a raise and increasing minimum wage to $12 in US stores in October

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• Starbucks is raising wages for baristas and increasing the minimum wage.
• Starbucks moved up the timeline for raises from January to October.
• Chipotle and McDonald's recently raised wages to attract workers in the labor shortage.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Starbucks will give hourly workers a raise this October, and raise the minimum wage to at least $12 in all stores.

Employees hired before July 2021 will receive a 5% raise, with tenured partners getting a 6% raise. Starbucks will also raise the minimum wage in all markets to at least $12, and up to or above $15 in some markets, a Starbucks spokesperson told Insider.

Starbucks previously gave US workers raises in December 2020, with an increase of at least 10% for all baristas, supervisors, and cafe attendants, Kate Taylor reported for Insider. The coffee chain also bumped starting wages by 5% and increased the amount that Starbucks pays over the local minimum wage in all markets. More than half of Starbucks workers already make $15 or more, Starbucks confirmed.

At the time, Rossann Williams, the president of Starbucks' company-owned US stores called the move "one of the most substantial investments in pay in our company's history."

Read more: Strikes, mass quitting, and rage: We talked to workers who were fed up with terrible conditions and are fighting back

The upcoming October raises are accelerated plans originally intended for January 2022. They're part of a plan to reach a minimum wage of $15 for all workers in the next two to three years, the spokesperson said.

Workers have left the retail industry this year to escape difficult customers and low pay. Dozens of customer-facing retail workers have told Insider about quitting their jobs over fatigue, harassment from customers, and fear of contracting COVID-19.

Difficulty staffing stores has led fast-food chains to raise wages for workers. In May, Chipotle announced it was increasing hourly wages, bringing the average pay up to about $15 an hour. That's $2 more an hour than the chain's current average of $13 an hour, Chipotle told Insider.

Increasing wages helped Chipotle deal with the labor shortage. The chain told Insider it received over 24,000 applications for 20,000 positions a week after it announced higher wages. McDonald's also raised wages by about 10% in company-owned stores, and the chain says it's nearly back to being fully staffed, Juliana Kaplan reported for Insider.

Other chains have held hiring events, added extra benefits, and given out bonuses for interviewing.

Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.

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