PayPal Holdings Inc. is scrapping plans to build an operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina, extending the fallout from legislation passed last month that bars transgender people from bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t match the gender on their birth certificates.
PayPal Chief Executive Officer Dan Schulman said the law undercuts the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The company is canceling plans to invest $3.6 million in the state and hire more than 400 people to work in a planned global operations center.
“The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture,” Schulman said in a statement.
PayPal’s reaction is the most concrete example of the financial consequences to North Carolina brought about by passage of the law. Last week, more than 80 CEOs and business leaders sent a letter to Governor Pat McCrory and the state’s general assembly urging them to repeal the law, saying it was bad for business. Schulman was among the CEOs who signed the letter. Other companies also have said they may cancel expansion plans in North Carolina as a result of the law.
McCrory, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
