Starbucks is known for treating its employees well and for offering good benefits. For workers in the restaurant industry, tips are a welcome source of supplementary income, rewarding them for all their hard work.
Whether you’re a customer or a would-be employee, you may wonder if Starbucks baristas also make tips besides regular wages. We did some research, and here’s what we found about the Starbucks tips policy.
Do Starbucks Baristas Make Tips?
Starbucks baristas do make tips, but these go into a common tip jar and are shared by all the baristas and shift supervisors every week. The tips are shared out based on the number of hours each person has worked during the week. Starbucks also offers good wages for an entry-level job and an excellent benefits package.
If you have questions about tipping Starbucks baristas when you pay in the mobile app, how much baristas earn in a year, and more, you’ll find the answers below.
Can Starbucks Employees Accept Tips?
Whether you’re a Starbucks customer looking to thank the barista for the inspired Frappuccino they whipped up for you or a job seeker wondering if Starbucks is an excellent workplace, this question will be on your mind.
Starbucks’ tips policy does allow baristas and shift supervisors to accept tips. However, all tips go into a common jar and are shared out each week among all employees who worked during the week.
Baristas and shift supervisors get their share of the tips based on the number of hours they worked that week. Tips are shared among hourly workers, but salaried workers like managers don’t receive tips.
Do Starbucks Baristas Make Good Tips?
The number of tips earned by a barista in a week depends on the number of customers visiting that location.
For instance, a Starbucks store in Los Angeles will get more customers than a store in Phoenix, Arizona.
A Reddit discussion on the number of tips earned by Starbucks baristas discovered that while the average weekly tip amount in Phoenix was around 23 dollars, in Los Angeles, it was closer to 80 dollars.
Do Starbucks Baristas Get Mobile Tips?
Since Starbucks encourages customers to use their mobile app for ordering, you may wonder if Starbucks baristas get mobile tips.
The good news is that Starbucks has made it possible for customers in the US and Canada to add a tip for the barista to their payment at the online checkout.
So, no matter what payment method customers use, they can add a tip for the barista to express their appreciation.
How Much Do Starbucks Baristas Make?
While tips are like an extra or bonus payment, the basic hourly pay and benefits represent the stable salary a Starbucks barista can expect to earn regularly.
In this respect, we found that Starbucks does try to live up to its reputation as a good employer.
About one-third of all Starbucks employees were paid a minimum of $15/ hour, which is well above the federal and most state minimum wages.
In a letter to US Congress leaders, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson committed to increasing all Starbucks employees’ minimum wage to $15/ hour within two to three years.
When we do the math, we find that a barista making $15/ hour and working a 40-hour week would earn $600 per week and $2400 monthly.
That works out to $28,800 per year for an entry-level job as a barista, in addition to good benefits like health care, college tuition, and paid sick leave.
However, not all baristas earn $15/ hour, and annual salaries vary by state. A slightly lower wage of $13/ hour would work out to a yearly start of $27,030.
Do Starbucks Baristas Get Free Drinks?
Besides a good salary with benefits, Starbucks baristas also enjoy some of the perks of working for the world’s most popular coffee chain store.
Starbucks baristas can take home a free one-pound bag of coffee or tea every week. They also get a 30% discount on store purchases of food, drinks, and merchandise.
To learn more about Starbucks, you can also read our posts on why Starbucks’ coffee tastes burnt, where Starbucks gets its coffee beans, if Starbucks cups are recyclable, and some interesting statistics on the tipping industry.
