Starbucks top brass to receive no raise next year

Starbucks signs are seen outside one of its stores in New York July 3, 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top executives at Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) including Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz will not be getting raises anytime soon, after the coffee chain's first-ever quarterly loss as a public company.

U.S. workers at the vice president level and higher will not receive salary increases for fiscal 2009, according to a memo posted on www.starbucksgossip.com and confirmed by a company spokeswoman on Wednesday.

Eligible U.S. assistant store managers, store managers, retail management trainees, district managers and most hourly roasting plant will receive a 3.5 percent salary raise, the memo said.

All other eligible employees below the vice presidential level will receive a 2 percent flat salary increase.

Additionally, the memo said that based on Starbucks's performance so far this year, the company is not on track to hit the financial targets that trigger its general management incentive plan payouts.

Last month, the Seattle-based company posted a third-quarter loss and said its U.S. coffee chain would shrink in the year ahead.

Starbucks had been an engine of steady expansion since it went public in 1992, but sales growth has been slowing in the United States for more than a year, and the problem worsened as the housing market slumped and gas prices rose.

The company has lowered 2008 and 2009 targets for opening international stores and has announced closing of 600 U.S. stores and 61 in Australia.

(Reporting by Ilaina Jonas; Editing by Gary Hill)