Starbucks never pledged to hire 10,000 Muslims
What was claimed
Starbucks is hiring 10,000 Muslims.
Our verdict
In 2017 then-CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, said that the company would hire 10,000 refugees, not Muslims specifically, globally over five years.
Social media posts claiming that Starbucks is hiring 10,000 Muslims are recirculating online.
As we’ve explained before, in 2017 Starbucks pledged to hire 10,000 refugees globally over five years, not specifically Muslims.
After Full Fact saw this claim being shared again hundreds of times on Facebook and Instagram in August 2026, we contacted Starbucks again. It reconfirmed the 10,000 pledge was to hire refugees.
In 2024 Starbucks said it had directly hired more than 5,500 refugees, including 1,500 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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We’ve previously checked false claims regarding Muslims, including that they are exempt from council tax if they claim their home is a place of worship and that Muslim majority countries don’t host refugees.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because Starbucks pledged to hire 10,000 refugees, not 10,000 Muslims.
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