New York State Baristas Suing Starbucks Over Tips

In what will be the largest class action suit ever brought by New York restaurant employees, employees are suing Starbucks for violating a state law that prohibits management from receiving part of workers’ tips.

At Starbucks, shift supervisors share the pooled tips with baristas, prompting a suit from former Forest Hills barista Jeana Barenboim, on behalf of at least 2,000 Starbucks baristas in NY who are owed at least $5 million. The lawsuit comes on the heels of last month’s California ruling, where a state judge found Starbucks liable for $105 million, finding Starbucks illegally enabled shift supervisors to take a share of the tips. Starbucks is appealing that decision and calls the NY suit a “copycat.”

The company maintains shift supervisors are not managers (though they’re in charge when managers are away and can evaluate baristas in performance reviews ) because they often do the same work as baristas. And the pay isn’t much better: A Union Square barista tells the Times she earns $10.03/hour after three years on the job, while a shift supervisor makes $10.25, also after three years.

But Barenboim’s lawyer says that’s no reason for them to dip into baristas’ tips: "It's been argued that the shift supervisors do not make a lot of money and that somehow it's justifiable that they should share in the tips. That's just beyond ridiculous and, in fact, it's incriminating towards Starbucks. It puts the brunt of paying these people on the baristas."

It’s uncertain how the badly the lawsuits will damage CEO Howard Schultz's attempts to correct his company's recent missteps, but a Starbucks Gossip commenter sees one obvious unintended consequence on the horizon: “Get ready to say goodbye to tips altogether.”

Photo: dedunk52.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on April 4, 2008 11:39 AM

Comments [rss]

Jen S

#34 -- I've made less than that per hour and per year and survived. I'm sure you can find lots of other people who have (and are) and get by fine.

BMMDan

edEx - ha ha...decent living?

you can't be serious? how can anyone making between 10 - 20k/year ($10/hr, 20 - 29 hrs/week) be making a decent living? true the health insurance is a huge plus, but the employee makes contributions to that, its not completely covered by Starbucks. I think the most valuable part of the compensation is the employee stockshare...

JRod5417

First off, I'm not a big fan of Starbucks. However, when someone orders a venti decaf skim mocha chai latte with whipped cream and sprinkles, I think the person making the drink deserves a tip. If you make the drink wrong and get yelled at by some snotty overcaffeinated customer, as is bound to happen when making multiple fancy drinks during the day, you definitely deserve a tip.

ed_Extinct

starbucks coffee just sucks anyway... i brew my own or go to independently owned shops.

ed_Extinct

i would understand if they were making below minimum wage, plus tips like waiters and bartenders, but that is not the case. they make a decent living without tips and get health insurance.

i never tip at starbucks... NEVER!

BMMDan

i think the argument should be whether a shift supervisor is considered management or not. they do have extra responsibilities, but they do not have firing/hiring authorities. they aren't salaried like management. therefore I feel they should be included in the tip sharing.

as far as whether employees at starbucks should get tipped? if you don't feel like they should, then don't. some people enjoy the experience of starbucks and spend HOURS of their days in a store. I worked in a sbux for 3 years, would see the same people almost every day that I worked there. and although it's frowned upon by mgmt, you can earn a buyback. i know i gave my fair share.

cucarachita

The baristas shouldn't have to depend on tips either! I never tip them -- it's not like they're waiters or even like they're café style bartenders.

They should be paid better and take the onus off guilty-feeling customers to provide a decent living to baristas.

Starbucks needs to pay all its employees better if they're getting so much from tips. Take away the tip cup, and pay up, Starbucks. You're a franchise, not a mom and pop business.

Politburo

I guess I've never really thought about it.. I suppose I just follow social convention, but it does depend on the scenario. If I'm at a show, I'm much less likely to tip than if I'm going somewhere to drink.

eyekantspel

These suits only benefit plaintiffs lawyers. They can settle and get hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees, and each class member will get $20. The Company will get socked for the bill, plus the costs their own counsel, and it will go full cycle, have to be covered by higher prices or cost cutting measures at the workplace level.

JP Lynch

So why do you tip a bartender if he/she is just doing something minimal like opening a bottle?

It's definitely a little of both but in my experience, the service that bartenders provide is much greater than that of an over-priced coffee bar employee.

Politburo

I never said I don't tip. I do just fine at my favorite bar, thanks.

I'm just trying to understand the motivations of tipping behavior. Is it for service, or to make up for shitty labor laws, or both?

msk

Along the lines of buybacks, I was thinking the other day that Starbucks should have an incentive program -- every tenth coffee free or something. I guess they don't need it, though. Ah well. I think tipping at Starbucks is silly, too.

Jen S

Based on the price of the products, I'd like to assume the baristas make enough to survive.

Snoopy

^ Because they are giving you extra whipped cream?

Spirit of 76

I suppose if I had the small "tips" covered up with stars in the photo, I'd sue, too.

Hey, girls, I ordered venti, not short!

rarelement

I want to tip the girls in the photo. And by tip, I mean just the tip.

Gregoire

I don't tip the cashier at Target. I don't tip my bank teller. Why would I tip the barista at Starbucks?

JP Lynch

Politburo: You must be real popular at your favorite bar.

Politburo

I know the bartenders don't make a wage, but that's kind of irrelevant to the argument that JP Lynch made. If little to no effort means someone doesn't deserve a tip, then it means someone doesn't deserve a tip.

While I understand the realities, I don't think customers should feel obliged to tip because of arcane minimum wage laws.

JP Lynch

What are we gonna argue just to argue?!?! C'mon; tipping at Starbucks and a bar are TOTALLY different. When tipping at a bar you are also setting yourself up for a possible buyback. You will most definitely get better conversation while sitting at a bar than at the counter of a Starbucks. Also, as mentioned earlier, most bartenders are payed lower due to the point that tips are an expected part of their income.

robingee

That's a creepy frigging picture.

matty

Those bartenders don't make a wage.

Snoopy

Good point Jack. Why do bartenders get tips? For the most part all they are doing is the same as the Baristas are doing except with alcoholic beverages, forgetting the buy backs of course.

Politburo

"No one working in the service industry in the capacity that Starbucks workers do deserve tips. All they do is make coffee and coffee-drinks and hand them over. No milk. No sugar. How is that service deserving of a tip?!?!"

All some bartenders do is open a bottle or pull a tap. Do you make the same argument there?

JacqueMehoff

I remember when I temped as a coat checker,

I made sure to bring my own tip jar.

Bartenders during the intermission on Broadway gets nice tips, too.

JP Lynch

No one working in the service industry in the capacity that Starbucks workers do deserve tips. All they do is make coffee and coffee-drinks and hand them over. No milk. No sugar. How is that service deserving of a tip?!?!

HelenGrace

To be clear, those "coffee-drinks" primarily consist of milk and sugar or sugary-syrups. And if you ask a barista to add milk and sugar to a plain coffee, they probably would, but why would you want them to? It's provided so that you can fix your coffee however *you* like it.

People who tip often do so because they see their baristas every day. Typically the baristas become familiar faces, and generally they try to remember as many regular drinks as they can so that the customers don't even have to bother ordering, their drink is already being made.

Those who tip feel it legitimate because of that extra level of service... Now, if you don't feel like tipping, then don't. No one said you had to.

And no one said you had to walk into Starbucks and purchase an "Overpriced" coffee to begin with. If you don't like the company, don't go there. Makes sense, right?

People who tend to only buy a bottled beer at a bar, or a plain coffee at Starbucks are going to assume that Bar tenders or Baristas don't do much, but think of the number of recipies they have to memorize.

Nick S

why is anybody tipping somebody that makes 10 dollars an hour?? tips for waiters and bartenders are because they make well under minimum wage.

Politburo

If customers want to tip, they should be free to do so. Just because you didn't get tips at Wendy's doesn't mean that others should be penalized (full disclosure: used to work at a Dunkin Donuts, and got tips.. probably averaged out to $1/hr, and supervisors received tips).

"The only difference is a couple of extra responsibilities, a better title, and a few cents more an hour. Why shouldn't they share tips?"

I agree, but the law is the law.

JMH

Put a shirt on.

paul

"Starbucks Gossip commenter sees one obvious unintended consequence on the horizon: 'Get ready to say goodbye to tips altogether."

Stupid assumption.

matty

You give an inch and they take a mile. I agree, Starbucks is one of the better comapnies to work for for starving MA in Lit grads in NYC. I hope they're all fired Ronny Reagan style.

longacre

what do the people at Central Perk make?

They must pull in at least $100K judging by their apartments and clothes.

Seriously, the Cali. suit was bull and so is this. From my understanding the shift supervisors perform many of the same tasks as the baristas, waiting on customers and making coffee and whatnot. The only difference is a couple of extra responsibilities, a better title, and a few cents more an hour. Why shouldn't they share tips?

dimshine

what do the people at Central Perk make?

chuzzlewit

if you read it replacing "tips" with "tits", it's an interesting item.

zodak

they aren't waiters. they get minimum wage. they even get health insurance. they shouldn't be getting tips. when i worked at wendy's & arby's i never got tips.