Reply #26: I worked for Starbucks for 3 years [View All]

[tammywammy]

I started at $7.25/hr (I think) and when I left 3 years later I was being paid $9.43/hr. This is excluding tips which were split evenly per hour worked (They were totalled up at the end of the week, and divided by number of total hours worked.) I got on average $2/hr of tips.

You can get health insurance if you work 20 hrs a week. I never had it, because I was covered under my parents (I was a college student). I had a co-worker that was still there a year or so after I left, that was married and pregnant. She said the health insurance was great.

I also got free stock options when I was there. I could have invested in the 401K, but really when I was 19-21 it was the last thing on my mind.

I never felt that the managers understaffed on purpose. A handful of times, in the 3 years, we would be understaffed, but mostly it happened when someone called in sick or quit unexpectedly. I worked in two of the busiest stores in the DFW area and during the morning rush we had 5 or 6 employees working at a time.

I also never saw anyone with repetitive motion injuries.

Overall, I had a good experience working for Starbucks. I worked at 3 different stores and had a few different managers, some I liked and some I didn't like so much. And I tend to think my experience is very similar to others, at least in the DFW area.

BTW I worked there from Oct. 99 to Oct 02.

edited to add tip info.