March 26, 2008
Chestnut Hill Starbucks Employee Sues; Fred the Baker Smiles
In the ongoing game we imagine going on between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, Dunkin' Donuts just scored a point. At least their local employees aren't suing them.
A Starbucks employee in Chestnut Hill is suing because he feels the company didn't give him his due from the tip jar.
Specifically, the employee claims that the managers, who were already getting paid more, were getting a cut from the tips: "In a class-action suit filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court, Hernan Matamoros says Starbucks routinely violated Massachusetts law by requiring baristas to share money left in tip jars with shift supervisors, who perform similar duties but typically earn more and have managerial responsibilities."
Matamoros, who is only 18 (such a tender age for a lawsuit!), might have something to complain about. Massachusetts law says that managers aren't supposed to get a cut from the tips. A similar suit in California resulted in $100 million in back tips going back to baristas. SFist writes, "Starbucks illegally took money from the baristas to pay the shift supervisors in lieu of paying them themselves. The coffee house chain, known for its over-roasted taste, 'made more than $672 million on revenue of $9.4 billion during its 2007 fiscal year.'" Seattlest, which knows its Starbucks, agrees: "so, pay up Coffee Giant."
Now, Starbucks employees have to put up with indecisive people all day, and they have to explain their grande-venti-whatever to people who come in, too. If people are willing to leave big tips on top of their overpriced coffee, then the money should go to the employees, no?
Image of a guy looking for Starbucks money from sandcastlematt from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.
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I was a shift supervisor at a Starbucks 10 years ago. Supervisors spend 95% of their time on the floor; the managers (who don't share in tips) did all of the ordering, scheduling, hiring, merchandising, and attending a lot of rah-rah corporate meetings. The other 5% of the supervisors' time is doing that stuff on the manager's day off. It wasn't like we were sitting in the back room, drinking cognac and playing canasta while the rush hour rush was going on.
Yet, I hope this kid (who worked there "briefly") gets the $3.35 he got cheated out of.
oh man I know that guy in the picture. I worked in Harvard Square for about a year and my office was on Church Street.. He was out there day in and day out with the same sign.. And wouls always say "Hey, at least I'm not lying to you". That guy rules.
Gotta' say... stupid. Sure, nobody likes Starbucks. They've raised the bar and the price for espresso drinks and given people who want to be snobby something else to be snobby about, but...
...shift supervisors are like head waiters at a restaurant, not like managers. I'm not a judge, but to me the suit's got no merit.