Starbucks is pitching a new $1,200 bonus to its workers — but many of the coffee chain’s baristas claim the reward is out of reach.
Starbucks recently debuted its Back to Starbucks Partner Reward program, headlined by a new $300 quarterly bonus (adding up to $1,200 a year) that employees can earn if their store “meets and exceeds certain sales, operational and customer-service metrics.”
Starbucks has not publicly detailed the performance metrics yet, only saying they relate to “sales, operational and customer-service metrics.” But a growing chorus of employees are already criticizing the new program, both on social media and in conversations with MarketWatch. Their main concern is how attainable the bonus actually is.
“The metrics are near impossible to hit,” one Starbucks barista, who requested anonymity to protect their job, told MarketWatch. “Starbucks has a tendency to gloat about its benefits and how it’s better to work there than other restaurants and fast-food places, but it’s not until you work there that you see all the secret caveats and loopholes they exploit.”
Another Starbucks worker, who also requested anonymity to protect their position, told MarketWatch that the goals are “way above” normal figures, and that their store faces some serious roadblocks to achieve them.
‘It’s almost impossible to meet every goal they want.’ — Starbucks employee
“With staff shortages, increased wait times due to more customizable drinks and an extensive menu, it’s almost impossible to meet every goal they want,” they said. “Moral of the story: Everything sounds great on paper, but it’s almost impossible for any of us to feel real improvements.”
The new rewards program — part of the company’s broader turnaround plan under Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol — has three main parts. Besides the potential bonus for U.S. employees, it also expands digital tipping options (which the company claims could potentially raise baristas’ tips by approximately 5% to 8% on average), and shifts workers to weekly pay versus getting paychecks every other week.
These changes are part of Niccol’s turnaround strategy at Starbucks, which aims to address slow service and overly busy coffeehouses. Tying rewards to performance metrics through the new bonus program could reinforce that goal. But company’s employees themselves are not so sure how achievable this is.
Workers said these hard-to-reach goals have not been formalized to them in writing yet, but some metrics have been verbally communicated with some store managers and then subsequently to employees, according to people familiar with the matter. Those goals mainly deal with a store’s performance, including sales and customer satisfaction, and other key performance indicators.
And several Starbucks workers pointed out that there are significant roadblocks that stand in the way of reaching some of the purported goals — including understaffing, which can lead to longer wait times for drinks and drive down customer satisfaction. They also say that drink orders have gotten so customizable that it leads to longer service times despite the baristas’ best efforts to work fast. So any future metrics that have to do with the speed of service is in direct contrast with staffing and how highly customizable Starbucks’s drinks have become.
‘We set the standard so it’s achievable, but yes, obviously you have to deliver.’ — Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol
During Starbucks’s quarterly earnings in April, Niccol addressed concerns about the bonuses being out of reach — telling Yahoo Finance’s “Opening Bid” that “we set the standard so it’s achievable, but yes, obviously you have to deliver and hit the standard.” He added that “it’s an incentive — it’s a reward for achieving great performance.”
Several other Starbucks store employees who spoke with MarketWatch also stated that the new program misses the mark. Many were not happy about the bonus program, especially the implication that it comes in lieu of giving raises to workers. Starbucks’s workers union has criticized the program too.
“This announcement is clearly a reaction to our organizing and demands for higher take-home pay for baristas,” Starbucks Workers United said in a statement to MarketWatch. “It’s notable that these bonuses and tips will be largely out of baristas’ control, relying on customer tipping and store performance metrics as determined by Starbucks management.”
A Starbucks spokesperson declined to comment further, pointing instead to the company’s initial announcement about the program. A company spokesperson also refuted that reward benchmarks had been shared with employees ahead of the program’s July launch.
Still, some workers were more positive about the new program. Another Starbucks employee, who requested anonymity to protect their job, admitted they preferred the new bonus program over their store’s current merit-based incentive, which includes occasional $50 gift certificates or store managers personally splurging on pizza after a busy week.
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Baristas and shift supervisors at all U.S. Starbucks stores are eligible for the new program. And in the approximately 5% of U.S. stores that are unionized, the program is subject to collective bargaining, or negotiation with the union.
The company’s public statement on the rollout points to its focus on a “commitment to shared success,” an idea that Niccol has been pushing since taking over as CEO in 2024.
Since Niccol’s appointment, Starbucks’s recent initiatives have included a $500 million investment in revamping its coffeehouses, something the company said is already paying off. COO Mike Grams wrote in a blog post last week that the company’s strong earnings reflected its commitment to getting drinks to customers in four minutes or less, as well as store-manager stability, among other factors.
“That performance is creating more room for growth and opportunity,” Grams wrote.
Starbucks’s recent investments have coincided with a rebound in its stock price. The coffee chain reported that global same-store sales rose 6.2% and U.S. same-store sales were up 7.1% last quarter.
