Who the heck’s running your local Starbucks?
There’s been a battle over tips at Starbucks locations, and it’s exposed an odd phenomenon. There are no real supervisors at the high-priced latte chain.
A class-action suit was brought on behalf of thousands of Starbucks baristas in 2004, and the issue was that shift supervisors were taking a portion of the baristas tips and they didn’t deserve it. A court in San Diego found in favor of the baristas last year, but yesterday an appeals court overturned the ruling.
This from the Los Angeles Times:
An appeals court reversed the ruling Tuesday, saying that the original decision was improperly based and that supervisors at the nation’s largest coffeehouse chain “essentially perform the same job as baristas.”
First off, if they’re doing the same job as the baristas why aren’t the baristas paid as much as the so-called supervisors. Secondly, supervisors at Starbucks stores make about $3 more an hour than the baristas and they’re eligible for overtime. Doesn’t sound like a supervisor to me.
The supervisors do, however, have some more responsibility at the shops, making sure things run smoothly and directing the baristas. But, they can’t discipline or fire workers so seriously folks, how much power to make things run smoothly do they really have?
Hence my decision to call them fake supervisors.
In most cases, employers create fake supervisor positions so they don’t have to pay overtime. That’s not the case with Starbucks, but one could argue that they’re not paying their fake supervisors quite enough to make up for the extra work they do. Clearly they need money if they’re skimming the tips from lower wage workers.
Why not just pay everyone the extra $3 an hour, divvy up all the tips and call it a day?
Wake up and smell the coffee people!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 am
In my lexicon, supervisors and managers are two different things. Managers discipline and make hiring, policy and strategy decisions. Supervisors are like foremen, they do the same basic work as the people they supervise, but with a little added responsibility, as you say. Does Starbucks have managers?
I say, if supervisors have more responsibility, give them more pay. If they provide service to customers, let them share the tips customers leave for that service.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:35 am
Seems to me Starbucks is in some sort of managerial abyss when it comes to who does what at its stores. They seem to be supplementing their supervisors’ pay with barista tips.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
In my experience from working there, I thought I had a manager. I’m trying to remember now what his title was. It’s been several years now. I do know that they didn’t provide customer service unless there was a major issue that needed higher up authority to make the customer happy. Usually when people put tips in the tip jar at my register they would say “this is for you” which wasn’t true since they are divided up and it was in response to service I gave them.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:21 am
If they are “supervisors” (”team leads” would, perhaps, be a better term), they shouldn’t be eligible to receive a portion of the tips. That would be akin to saying a shift manager at a restaurant should get a percentage of tips of his servers.
My wife worked as a server for years. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we ask about tips. If tips are shared, we will tip as expected during that visit, but will likely not return. If tips are kept by the individual servers, we make it clear that we always reward excellent service. If we get exceptional service (as a family with small children, that includes servers who attempt to interact with the kids and anticipate our needs {like extra napkins or crayon packs}, in addition to regular visits to check in with us) are usually rewarded with tips well above 20%. Since my wife waited tables, she knows how much work it can be (especially to clean up under the table around the youngest kids), so we want to make it worth their while when they provide excellent service. The way we see it, tips are to reward excellent service (and that, by the way, has nothing to do with the quality of the food), and we don’t want to contribute to tip-sharing environments where the worst servers get the same share as the best (who likely generated the most tips).
If we see a tip jar at a counter, we are less likely to drop in anything significant for the same reason. If we get excellent service from someone, we will give it directly to them. We’re in a small town, so our grocer provides baggers and will even help load the groceries into our vehicle. Very few others must give gratuities these days, because the looks on some of the baggers’ faces when we tipped them told the story. If you provide good service, you deserve a tip (even in Minnesota, where tipped employees get the same minimum wage as everyone else).
June 4th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I really like your term, “fake supervisors.” They seem to have the title and some organizing work, but no accountability or sanctions they can deliver. This is seriously stupid.