A California judge has ordered Starbucks to pay its employees more than $100 million in tips and interest that was paid to shift supervisors, says the Associated Press.
It’s against California law for supervisors to share employee tips.
Starbucks spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said the company planned an immediate appeal of the ruling, calling it “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason.”
The lawsuit was filed in October 2004 by Jou Chou, a former Starbucks barista in La Jolla, who complained shift supervisors were sharing in employee tips.
The lawsuit gained ground in 2006 when it was granted class-action status, allowing the suit to go forward for as many as 100,000 former and current baristas in the coffee chain’s California stores.
Starbucks Ordered to Pay Back Tips [Yahoo!] (Thanks, Bladefist!)
(Photo:Travelin’ Librarian)
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I worked for Stabucks for 3 years. I remember we all (everyone) would split the tips. How do I get in on this? Do we have to file some papers or will they dig up all the Starbuck’s employees and pay our dues?
OK, former Shift Supervisor here. Almost 2 years with the Bux.
1) At most stores, SS are just a step up from regular Baristas. They still do all the same work. Make coffee, cleanup messes, deal with customers, open/close stores. Depending on the shift they may have other responsibilities relating to cash management and “partner management.”
2) Depending on the size of their store, they may take on additional semi-manager roles like ordering product and helping with scheduling. This happens when the store is not profitable enough for a dedicated assistant manager.
3) In my region, all SS shared tips with Baristas as we were all hourly employees. Asst managers were hourly too, but it’s widely known that they really get the shit end of the stick. AFAIK there was never a problem with tip sharing – everyone did virtually the same work. Although SS have a nominal responsibility to make their shifts run smoothly and check tills at the end of the night, it’s a bit of a stretch to call them management.
Unless things in La Jolla run very differently, this sounds like a group of people making trouble. All Sbux employees make way over the prevailing minimum wage, not including benefits. Not to sound like a corporate apologist, but it’s actually a pretty cool company to work for.
Shift supervisors at Starbucks are not part of management. They make drinks, they greet customers, and they wipe tables. In short, on top of supervising the shift they do the same work as the baristas and are essential for creating that “Starbucks experience”. Since they help create the reason that customers tip (great service) they should get part of the tips.
@lemur: Actually since 49 of the 50 states do NOT follow this “Californian” way of thinking, its the Californian governments job to shut the hell up and understand it cant make “governmentally approved terms” for positions.
Odds are a appeal is going to overturn this once it gets to federal level.
Wife has worked as a barista for about 2 years and says that at her store the shift supervisors perform all the normal barista duties plus the other duties mentioned with regard to cash control and opening and closing stores. We have a sister-in-law who is an assistant manager at another store and she says that the shift supervisors make about a dollar more per hour than the baristas. They put up with the extra duties because most want to move up the ladder and are willing to accept the additional responsibilities for what is basically a lousy pay differential. Starbucks does not pay much over minimum wage but the benefits are almost as good as a government job. To obtain these benefits all one has to do is work 240 hours during a quarter or an average of 20 hours per week. Try to find an entry level job with those kinds of perks. My wife and I are both over 55 and we both love what Starbucks Corporation provides for her today and for our future. When we received the notice of this lawsuit, I asked her and she indicated that she felt that the ship supervisors are entitled to tips.
As far as customers tipping, she worked at one of the starbucks in a target store and they were prohibited from accepting tips(they were target employees)and some customers were offended when told that they couldn’t accept tips. Tiping is a personal choice and is appreciated but not expected.
As a current Starbucks barista in one of the highest grossing stores in Philadelphia, I must say that the former in barista is a little punk who probably didn’t even deserve some of the tips that he had received in his lifetime. Shift supervisors work just as hard as the baristas, if not harder. Raising a supervisors gross pay so that they won’t need tips will significantly increase the adjusted hourly rate of baristas to the point where some baristas will make just as much, if not more, than shift supervisors. How would that be fair? It wouldn’t. Also, no one is required to tip. The only reason why I would think tipsharing unfair would be because of the fact that shift supervisors work a bulk of the hours in the store so they do earn the majority of the tips… but they’re working for every penny. There are only a few baristas that work anywhere near as many hours as a shift supervisor does.