Starbucks Refuses To Pay Baristas Court-Ordered Tips

Why don't the baristas simply put the tips in their pockets insted of jars, and at the end of the day they can report whatever they feel like. Then when the first one gets fired for "stealing" their own tip money, they've got another class action with more teeth. Motto: Forgiveness is easier than permission.

Of course refused to obey the law. They are following the example of their "hero" GW Bush who thinks laws only apply to the "little people". I have long ago stopped buying the overpriced coffee at starbucks (McDonalds coffee is great if you are on the road). Otherwise I make my own and save a bundle. I would recommend this to all people who go to starbucks.

I hired a kid about 2 years ago. He put $5.15 as his hourly wage at Starbucks. And it appears they were skimming his tips...What a wonderful place to work indeed!

Starbucks should put TWO tip jars on the counter: One for the Baristas and one for their shareholders. That should clear up any confusion as to who the customers are tipping!

What is the difference between McDonald's and Starbucks, except the price,(and McDonald's has better coffee) I don't tip at McD's, or Starbucks. When did we start tipping at fast food resturants? This explosion of tip jars in businesses that traditionally do not expect tipping is a brazen attempt to huslte money from customers that are already paying an astonishing price for a 20 cent cup of coffee.

I worked as a waitress through college, and made $2.25 an hour, plus tips. we paid bushelp, & bartenders a percentage of our tips each night.

I think customers should boycott all tip jars! tip the person who has waited on you instead.

For almost two decades Starbucks has been a model for business, putting quality and personnel first. Almost unheard of in retail food sales, they offer health benefits, a 401k, paid vacation and stock options not to just their full time employees (that would be impressive enough) but also to part time personnel. In 1993, they were also one of the first to offer benefits to same-sex couples as well as traditional couples. If only all companies could be such "corporate bast@rds".

I will ever put a tip in anything less than the hand of the person who deserves it

Okay. Then I refuse to pay my taxes. I refuse to obey the law.
I REFUSE to drink that crap you call coffee.

This is the sign of the times, people.
We have mega-corporations who decide that they are above the law.
HEY, STARBUCKS, NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People , we must rally against big corporations like Starbucks when they blatantly mistreat their workers, or refuse to follow a decision made by the courts.
This is serious.
This mega- money maker took tips from the people who gave the services and spread them among their shift supervisors as if they were bonuses.
How wrong is that??????????

How wrong is it that every time I reach a corner in NYC I must be assualted by a Starbucks. Most of the time they have three stores on the intersections. It is disgusting.
So is their coffee.
It used to be quality coffee but they must have succumbed to the mighty dwindling dollar and settled for the far less superior beans.

It is time people. This is a caffeine revolt.

Hear me almighty Starbucks. I refuse to sip your tainted brew until you have righted your wrong.
Give the baristas what is rightfully theirs. Also give your shift supervisors the bonuses they deserve from your profits.
My lips will not blend with a Starbucks Java blend until you do!

If they aren't supervisors, working in a supervisory capacity, then don't call them that. Sounds like it was a lawsuit just waiting to happen.

Maybe this is just another example of the previously noted Starbucks obfuscation of simple English.

Barista, I wanna buy everybody in the house a venti, grande, whatever.

The ruling was ridiculous to begin with. If the shift supervisors were taking a share of the tips, your beef is with the shift supervisors, not the head office, which received nothing from them (and that's ignoring the question of whether shift supervisors have a right to the tips or not). Of course it's a lot easier to go after the big head office than it is to go after thousands of individual shift supervisors who were the ones who actually benefited from the tips.

Not to mention, that the only real beneficiary of this ruling is the lawyers of the class action suit who will be probably be getting TENS OF MILLIONS, whereas the people it's supposedly supposed to help - the baristas - will be getting a few bucks here and there. This whole thing is a joke.

Starbucks never had a chance to make penny from me - never liked their coffee, never liked their attitude.

That's why I don't drink Starbucks, nor do I shop at Walmart.

If I disobeyed a court order I'd be slapped with a hefty fine or put in jail. Corporations can just snub their nose at the judicial system because really in their minds it doesn't pertain to them. The sad part is that it doesn't. They can get away with murder or whatever they want. Of course, the Bourbons thought this also before 1789, but then this isn't France; this is America. land of the I-don't-give-flips!

next time hand the tip directly to the Barista

A coffee at Starbucks is a contribution to warmongering Zionism.

Written by Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks
Tuesday, 11 July 2006
Dear Starbucks Customer,
First and foremost I want to thank you for making Starbucks the $6.4 billion global company it is today, with more than 90,000 employees, 9,700 stores, and 33 million weekly customers. Every latte and macchiato you drink at Starbucks is a contribution to the close alliance between the United States and Israel, in fact it is - as I was assured when being honored with the " Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award" - key to Israel's long-term PR success. Your daily chocolate chips frappucino helps paying for student projects in North America and Israel, presenting them with the badly needed Israeli perspective of the Intifada.

It's important to be informed before one criticizes something he or she doesn't fully understand.

Some facts:

Shift supervisors have just as much contact with the public as baristas.
They are NOT paid salary, but hourly and not much more than baristas.
Their duties include counting tills, opening and closing stores, things they do not make regular baristas do.
They sweep, make drinks, work the registers, and even clean the toilets- just like baristas.

To claim that tips have been taken away from the baristas is preposterous! It was more likely greed. So please dont be misled by the biased media looking to turn people against one another. The word shift supervisor means directly what it implies, one who supervises the shift. They are NOT managers or assistant managers and thus rely on those tips just like the baristas do for everyday life.

On another note, if you took away tips from shift supervisors, the baristas (who have less training), would make much more than them.

ALSO overall customer satisfaction would decrease sharply. This is because employees who receive tips are generally nicer and more understanding to customers.

The baristas are not victims here. Compared to other jobs they make a killing: great insurance and benefits. Employee satisfaction was NUMBER 7 on on Fortunes "Top 100 companies to work for". Do not fix what is not... DEFINITELY not.... broken.

Starbucks is not "refusing to pay...court ordered tips". This head line indicates that corporations think they do not have to abide by the Rule of Law. A typical Republican type hope. Starbucks has the right to delay until all appeals are exhausted. The 100 million will not stand still during the appeal(s) interest will accrue . If the appeal(s) fail Starbucks will be required to pay the 100 million plus interest. If Starbucks refuses to pay after all appeals then watch the firm be attached, liquidated to meet Court fiscal found obligations and maybe the CEO sent to jail.
One of the last lines in this alleged flaming outrageous headline tells the real story . This should have been the headline not some allegation that Starbucks was defying a court order--"but Starbucks said it would not comply with the order while it appeals the court decision". Starbucks does not have to "comply" if its appeals have not been exhausted. It would like executing someone to "comply" with a death sentence then when an appeal reversed the death sentence digging up the corpse and saying duh "sorry". What dumb headline.

**Part 2**

Only Managers complete managerial duties. (ie: hire, fire, schedules, ect...) Anyone in the store can order supplies (from baristas all the way to manager)... Managers do not get tips.

Shift supervisors are not salaried. they are hourly. Also, depending on time with the company and how reviews went, a barista can totally make more money in an hourly wage than a supervisor. When a barista says they want to step up to supervisor, they work hard for it and they get a raise...but they still perform the same duties anyone working the floor does. Supervisors are baristas who usually want to work towards internal promotion. Thats why they take the roll.

if a shift supervisor or barista has to complete work that requires them to "sit back and take it easy", they clock in as 'non-coverage'. that takes them out of tips, because they are considered not to be contributing to work on the floor that brings in tips.

This could be the beginning of something big- like the return of the Union in America. If we have all been reduced to service jobs (which so many of us have) we NEED the Union more than ever.

Let them outsource the instore sales help if they can.

Managers AND SUPERVISORS, regardless of whether supervisors perform managerial duties. If supervisors are not paid more than non-supervisory baristas, then you have a point. Perhaps in more prosperous times, Starbucks would have complied with the ruling, but $4 cups of foo-foo coffee are an extravagance these days and Starbucks is probably feeling it big time. The overriding concern of most CEO's are shareholders and their precious profits. Workers - they come and go. I grind my premium Arabica beans fresh. I get a house brand Arabica whole bean for $4 for 12 ounces. I'm going to start buying unroasted beans and roasting them just prior to grinding and brewing because, I have read, beans begin to lose their aroma and flavor after they are roasted and sit around.

Is this thread open for comments? Hello moderators ? I've tried to post this 3 times. Am I being discriminated against? I've posted here for over 2 years, but I can go somewhere else!


If you title them as supervisors, pay them as supervisors, out of the corporate till.

Not out of the other employees pockets.



This is just another example of corporations trying to get something for nothing.

Someone to take the responsibility, without having to compensate them accordingly.

Based on the price of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, I have to believe that the corporation can afford to increase the pay of shift leaders to reflect their increased responsbilities If there are problems balancing the payroll without ripping off the lowest paid workers, I suggest that the corporate heads take a cut to shift some of their earnings to the shift supervisors rather than asking those who make the least to be responsible for supplementing the pay of their supervisors by forcing them to share their tips.

They sell big bags of Starbucks beans @ Costco. There is no big long line in my kitchen and I get free re-fills. If the shift supervisors take orders and make coffee, they should get tips. Start calling them "lead baristas'. Or pay them a salary commensurate to one they would make with tips and keep them management.

Just another reason why I always make my own coffee.

Figure it out: even if you buy quality whole bean coffee for $20.00 a pound, you can make roughly 50 cups of strong Joe from that. Now Starbucks charges around $2.00 for a cup.

Starbucks must not cheat its employees but respect the rule of law and the decision of the court.
Ralph Nader warned about contract law abuse and the need for citizens to stand up with each other and to protect for the collective rights of workers from corporate abuse and injustice. Here's the video clip:
http://consumerist.com/373394/interview-ralph-nader-says-were-living-under-corporate-fascism

If CEO Howard Shultz retains the right to cheat his baristas, he then creates a moral hazard for ALL workers. If he can successfully defy the courts ruling and prevail as a discretionary wage garnisher, other businesses will follow the precedent and "adjust" workers earnings according to their own private internal meter of justice and wisdom. Contract law will go out the window.
Workers will be freely cheated out of their wages and have no effective recourse through a court ruling if we do not speak up on this incident.
Those of us who enjoy Starbucks or respect the rights of workers should send a quick note to Starbucks so that the baristas are reimbursed for their work. Here's the address:
http://www.starbucks.com/customer/contact.asp