Ex-Starbucks CEO Schultz Criticizes Seattle Mayor's 'Socialist Rhetoric' as Company Cuts Jobs

Starbucks is cutting jobs at its Seattle headquarters as former CEO Howard Schultz criticizes the city's leadership for pushing socialist rhetoric that vilifies businesses.

"Seattle’s mayor, Katie Wilson, has chosen to cast business as a foil rather than a partner," 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."

KOMO News reported Monday that Starbucks is laying off 61 employees due to a reorganization of its technology department at the corporate headquarters.

In a March LinkedIn post, Schultz announced that he and his wife had moved to Florida for their retirement phase, leaving Washington State after almost half a century. His op-ed mentioned taxes but did not reference the recently passed millionaires tax, which imposes a 9.9 percent income tax on households earning more than $1 million a year.

"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 added, "Washington has a broken tax system. The reliance on sales taxes—10.55 percent 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."

Starbucks is reducing its presence in Seattle. The company acknowledged in March that it would close five additional stores in the city, following several closures in 2025, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill.

Schultz noted that major companies are hiring less. "Microsoft and Amazon—once hiring engines—have slowed recruitment and reduced head counts as they race to build data-center capacity and compete globally," he wrote. "Starbucks recently announced it will shift hundreds of corporate roles to Tennessee."

He continued, "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."

A recent survey of the Association of Washington Business, reported by The Center Square, found that 44 percent of business leaders are considering moving their personal residence out of state. Businesses said they are now more than twice as likely to expand outside Washington than inside it.

Schultz also blamed Seattle's public safety crisis for the business exodus. An FBI crime report for 2024, released in August, ranked Seattle fourth worst out of the 30 largest American cities for total crime.

"Cities and states don’t decline overnight," he 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."

Schultz called on state leaders to change course. "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."