...off the floor- putting an order away in the back, cleaning the lobby or bathrooms, taking out trash. There's no way to determine who earned the tip at any given time. I think Starbucks should pay their Shifts alot more than the $1.50 above Baristas to make it worth the added responsibility.

Robin, California, USA

Unless shift supervisors are actively contributing to the tip pool (i.e. making the coffee drinks for which baristas are tipped) they should not recieve a cut. The company should provide an adequate hourly wage (or salary) for its managerial staff that reflects their responsibilities.

Pooling tips between baristas and managers is a way for the corporate office to save money. It shouldn't be tolerated.

Sara, Providence, Rhode Island

I drop a buck in the tip jar from time to time; more for exceptionally good service, or a large party with a complex order. But not every time, and I keep in mind the meaning of "TIPS" - To Ensure Proper Service. It's a perc - not an entitlement. It is also well to keep in mind that a lot of us standing in line at Starbucks don't qualify as Mr/Ms. Moneybags, in any sense. I don't limit myself to a Venti brewed coffee every visit because I like it better than a Venti Latte with Vanilla syrup; I do it because there's a big difference between $2.01 and $4-something. It's also kind of silly to leave the price of the drink as the tip; restaurant waitpeople should be so luck as to get 100+% markup in tips.

The bottom line, here, is that it is not the responsibility of the American public to augment the rock bottom wages of service sector employees, but rather the responsibility of the service sector to pay some of the hardest working people in the world a wage on par with their effort.

Dean, Bellingham, WA

This is horrible, seeing low-paid workers fighting each other for the public's charity. Aren't we supposed to have living wages these days? Why on earth do workers have to rely on tips?

katarina, Bilbao, Spain

One of the reasons so many baristas stay wtih Starbucks is because anyone working more than 20 hours a week receives benefits (medical). This is rare for hourly paid workers and brings tremendous peace of mind. Living in California requires most young and/or single people to have at least one two jobs just to be able make ends meet. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages share this experience in a society that does not provide socialized medicine.

sarah, san diego, California, USA

Tipping wait staff in a restaurant makes sense. Tipping a person for making you a cup of coffee - especially when they already receive more than the minimum wage - makes no sense. Only a fool would do it and only the greedy and self-entitled would ask for it.

ken, blandford,

If the U S is so good why on earth don't you pay your worker's a living wage. Tips are a left over from the last century.

Ken Abbott, Slough, U K

You get paid to do a job, if you don't like it, QUIT!

Topher, London, UK

let the customers decide with two tip jars one marked "coffee maker only" the other marked "all staff".

As every employee within the store from janitor to supervisor should be fairly rewarded for their effort whether its for cleaning the toilet or making sure overall service, cleanliness etc is up to scratch then i would imagine that the "all staff" jar would collect a bigger pot.

d,, London, UK

Gee- i thought the very reason that they put all the fancy machines and carried out the process right there in front of you was so that you would watch them make the drinks !! And any time a person with an attitude like the quoted person is making something that I am going to put in my mouth you had better believe I am going to watch them make it. And i certainly have asked at times if my drink was ready- but only when I could get the employee to take the time away from his personal conversation with his fellow employee about what he was doing that night . And as to having to mop the floor- welcome to the real world my friend !!

ian tindale, surrey, british columbia

I am a former Starbucks Shift supervisor and eventhough I don't work for the company anymore, the ruling of the California judge offends me.

We (the shift supervisors) earned tips just as much as the baristas did. We had to share hours with the baristas, share work on the floor, clean washrooms, put up with customers (even more than the baristas had to).

Supervisors are not salaried at Starbucks, so when there is no business their hours get cut - same as for the baristas. The $1.50 more that shift supervisors get is for a lot of other "management" work and honestly, I am not sure anymore if it was worth it. This $1.50 more doesn't inspire - the tips, as little as they were, gave us the feeling it is worth the effort - we make someone happy, people appreciate us. Don't take the tips away from the supervisors!

Polixenia, Toronto, Canada, Ontario

As a tipped employee and my government telling me that I make more than I do and penalizing me for not claiming what I did not make because the govt thinks I am lying...I agree with not tipping out in Starbucks or any restaurant for that matter. If the restaurants want to pay us less than minimum wage and want us to smile and bring their customers back, then let the customer show his appreciation of us by letting us keep all the money they leave for us. Most customers do not even realize that we have to give back about 15% to the company for them to distribute as they see fit. The restaurants need to pay the others a living wage and let us keep living on our tips without having to work 2 or 3 jobs. I have not received a check in over 10 years and not even a vacation check even tho I am eligible for 3 weeks a year. It is eaten up by the government. It would be nice to see a check, not a check stub. It would also be nice to be able to keep all the money I work so hard for.

Brenda, Forest City, North Carolina

The Baristas should be award money bonuses for appreciation every 30-90 days that can come from the revenues generated from that location, 10% is a good place to start. split among the 3-4 employees working there and this should be equally distributed and the manager should not even think about taking a larger percentage for themselves, it needs to be equitable and enforced.

Marcus Ridner, Farmers Branch, USA