Starbucks is ending COVID-19 sick pay for workers next month

Starbucks on Monday said it is ending COVID-19 sick pay for its workers beginning on October 2, describing the pandemic as shifting into "the endemic phase."

Workers at the company's almost 9,000 locations will no longer have benefits providing extra time off if they contract the illness. The COVID-19 program started in 2020, with the retailer telling employees that they could receive up to two weeks of "catastrophe" pay if they were diagnosed with the illness or were exposed to it and needed to self-isolate.