Starbucks has a new branding partner: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The Seattle-based caffeine vendor, which employs 150,000 full-time workers worldwide and many thousands more in part-time positions, announced that it would not try to shift full-time workers to part-time status in order to avoid paying healthcare costs as required by the PPACA.

The company issued a statement regarding the PPACA, entitled "Starbucks Position on National Health Care Reform." Primarily, Chairman Howard Schultz said the company would continue to provide coverage to spouses who were eligible for coverage through another employer. Additionally, he said the company would not follow the lead of companies that have indicated they will cut worker hours to get them below the 30-hour-a-week coverage threshold.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.