Starbucks Employees Petition Company To Stop Slashing Hours After Raising Wages

originally posted by: Tardacus
a reply to: Krakatoa
except that no sane person has ever "invested" in a business that wasn`t already profitable. How do businesses become profitable? through the labor of the employees and reinvesting profits into the business only then does the business issue public stocks for the parasite investors to come in and suck some of the profits from the business at the expense of the employees.

You are soooooooooooo wrong here. Ever hear of Venture Capitalists? I am guessing NOT. They invest in many new and unproven businesses (a shotgun approach), some succeed, some fail. It is a numbers game where if you can invest in more that succeed than fail, you make money.

What is crazy is thinking that a company should simply give all it's profit to employees and say "screw you investors, we got your seed money, piss off now".

a reply to: seasonal

Then a company will fail, and people will lose their jobs. Pick which is better...less pay or no pay.

Pretty simple math if you ask me.

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

Then change it.

Learn a high-demand trade. Go back to school. Change careers.

As long as you work in a capacity that can be filled by almost anyone, you will remain at the bottom of the financial ladder. Climbing that ladder will change your position. Complaining about your position won't.

As for retaliation, this looks to me like it's wider than a single shop, and the time cuts came from levels above local management. I doubt the managers at that level even know who any of the line employees are. It would be ridiculous to expect them to know 10,000 people by name! If it were one restaurant/cafe/coffee shop/whatever, then maybe retaliation makes sense, but from upper management? Nah. They are successful in large part because they're focused on their job instead of on petty grudges. Only the unsuccessful spend time on those.

TheRedneck

Poor Starbucks, their CEO only makes about $9,637 per hour. How can he possibly live off of that?!

These greedy employees really need to get off their high horse, their CEO won't be able to afford that extra Lamborghini or vacation home if their wages go up!

The nerve of some people!

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Yet, people flock to their establishment to purchase (IMO overly priced and burnt) coffee and pastries.

Damned those customers! If it were not for them paying those high prices, those workers would have a living wage.

a reply to: RomeByFire

Of course they are still making a profit. When the profit stops, the store closes.

That's when there's a real drop in hours... to zero.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

I know, those darned investors. Actually expecting to earn a profit for the money they provided to create and support a profitable business. Curses!!!

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Have you ever been a CEO?

I ran a corporation back in the 90s. My corporation. That was one of the hardest jobs I have ever done.

If the CEO isn't doing his/her job, the business fails, closes, and the hours are cut again... to zero.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Krakatoa

What are you talking about? Shouldn't those higher prices actually make it easier for Starbucks to pay their employees more?

Here's an idea, cut the CEO's pay in half, I'm sure he'd be more than able to live off of that $4,800 per hour, don't you think?

The issue shouldn't be with employees asking for better pay, it should be with the companies' sheer greed in the matter. Record profit yet they can't afford to increase pay? Bull#.

And some people complain about poverty and food stamps. This is why those things exist.

originally posted by: onequestion
These millennials think they deserve to get paid for working at Starbucks?


Ahhhh ahaha

They should all become electricians if they want good wages

That's hilarious given this thread that YOU authored less than three months ago, deriding those who don't believe paying the cashier at McDonald's an increased wage is merited.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So do you just hate coffee or something? It's okay, nay not just okay but DESERVED dammit, to pay the guy microwaving your burger $15 an hour, but not the guy making your latte?

What an interesting concept of economics you have.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Ever create and run a business yourself? If not, then how can you complain about how much someone that does earns? Truth is, you cannot. Sorry. Don;t like it, then don't patronize that business. That is your power. Anything else is simply complaining IMO.

a reply to: TheRedneck

So a CEO does about 1000 times the work of an average Starbucks employee? Every hour? I seriously doubt that.

a reply to: seasonal
exactly, and that`s why a "service" economy is doomed to fail. unlike a manufacturing economy where they actually produce a tangible product, a service economy produces nothing that people can`t produce for themselves. when times get tough how many people will be able to produce their own automobile, or T.V.? pretty much nobody but how many people will be able to make their own coffee or cook their own hamburger? just about everyone.
The united states conversion to a service economy from a manufacturing economy is doomed to fail. i`m old and lazy but i still cook my own hamburgers and make my own coffee so i`m pretty sure that everybody will be able to do the same when times get tough.so what happens to a service economy when times get tough and people start doing all these service type things for themselves again? The economy crashes, that`s what`s going to happen and who`s going to be buying all these manufactured products? not the people in the worlds number 1 consumer economy which happens to be a service economy that has crashed.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

How linear you are in your thinking. That is a false equivalency to be honest, the work of each is different.

Try again.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: TheRedneck

So a CEO does about 1000 times the work of an average Starbucks employee? Every hour? I seriously doubt that.

Does a barista make 100 decisions a day that directly and indirectly effect a global brand?

50?

10?

1?

No. Short of choosing to not spit in every drink they make in a shift, a barista does not make decisions that effect the entire brand day in and day out, at all hours of the day, seven days a week, on their vacation, or on Christmas afternoon. A barista has their job, which is to make coffee and tea based drinks. The CEO has their job. Which is to run a global brand and make money while doing so. The two don't compare.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Here's an idea, cut the CEO's pay in half, I'm sure he'd be more than able to live off of that $4,800 per hour, don't you think?

Sure, let's think through that idea.

You approach the CEO and tell him you're cutting his pay in half. He has a dozen offers wanting to hire him at the same rate he's making now. Does he a) say, "OK, that's fine; I don't need all that money," or b) quit and start work Monday morning at another company making his full wage.

I think he'd probably choose b. I know I would.

Now you have to hire a new CEO. But you're only paying half of what everyone else is, so the only guy you can get is the one who got fired for bankrupting his last company. Three months later, he bankrupt YOU! Surprise!

Your business closes and your employees get all their hours cut... to zero.

Nah, I think he should keep his salary.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Krakatoa

right!!, so you know that investors aren`t just taking their share of profits from a successful business to compensate them for their risk of investing in a successful business they are sucking off additional profits to compensate them for their failed investments in other businesses that weren`t profitable and that failed.They are receiving more profits from the successful business than the risk they took by investing in the successful business.

look at it this way if they were duck hunting using the shotgun approach and shot at 10 ducks but only killed 4 ducks would they receive the same the same amount of meat from the 4 ducks that they killed as they would have from the 10 ducks that they shot at? no they wouldn`t,so, who`s "giving" them the meat from the other 6 ducks that they missed? the employees of the 4 businesses that are successful.so, you see the investors aren`t really risking anything,they always get everything that they paid plus more by doing nothing.

a reply to: TheRedneck

You state that as if it's the only possible option. A CEO doesn't do 1000x more work per hour than an employee.

You know what that scenario reminds me of? Slave labor. The slaves get a place to lie their heads at night and daily meals while the master gets the lions share of the profit and lives in luxury. Except today, employees aren't even afforded enough to have a home or put food on their table.

I think I'd rather be a slave, at least that way I'd know if have somewhere to stay and food to eat.

a reply to: Tardacus

May I ask you if you know what a "cash cow" and "lost leader" are? If not, then you don't even understand the basics of real business.

a reply to: TheRedneck

The employees can say anything they want, the company didn't say it was due to wage increases they said it was because of cooling growth.

Nothing is wrong with making a profit, but I think the distribution is going to become a larger problem. If this great experiment that we call the USA is to continue, we can't have the division of wealth that we are experiencing. Google wealth distribution 2014 and then historical wealth distribution. If we don't correct it with laws, other ways will be used, and historically they are unpleasant.