How Much Do Starbucks Baristas Earn? What About Costa and KFC?

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Today, I'm just a messenger from the message board... Today's topic:

Why do Starbucks, Costa, KFC, and McDonald's have such high barista turnover rates?

Low wages are a common problem in the industry. After all, we need to live, support our families, and make ends meet - barely able to support ourselves. From the depths of their souls, baristas:

From Starbucks @我是猪pèi***

As a former partner, I'm truly relieved! Although I only worked there for a year, I experienced things that felt like many years. From starting at the first Starbucks in XX ancient capital, to the store closing for renovation, to nearly the entire store's partners leaving after one person's departure, it seems everyone saw many things clearly. As some people say, joining Starbucks is like being reborn - perhaps we were reborn into the wrong family... We worry like drug dealers while earning cabbage money... From doing QA until 11 PM without pay, to selling cups, mooncakes, zongzi, and chasing data (all that food upt nonsense can go to hell) - do they really understand the partners' hard work? Today's Starbucks just blindly chases data, looks at performance, and forces partners to sell cards and pastries. Pour-over, temperature, ice cream - the partners' efforts are completely disproportionate to their income. As far as I know, almost every Starbucks store in the western region is hiring. Why is the turnover rate so high? Doesn't Starbucks have a clue?! Plus, without meeting a good store manager, encountering certain shift managers made going to work a complete nightmare. What reason was there to stay there? What disgusted us most was learning that at the store manager meeting, our store manager said the mass departure of store partners was a disaster and blamed it on certain people. Don't you understand the reasons yourself? As a 10-year store manager, you can't see your own faults, and all mistakes are the partners' fault. No wonder you've only been a store manager for 10 years when others become store managers in 2-3 years. Truly, there's no harm without comparison... The more I say, the more tears flow.

From KFC @潇*: I'm wondering why no one is complaining about KFC. The wages are lower than Starbucks, there are more promotional products, new items every month, daily tracking of thousands of visits, sales volume, and if revenue targets aren't met, bonuses are directly reduced, 13th-month salary becomes quarterly bonuses, only a few hundred per quarter. If you accidentally fail an audit, you lose hundreds more.

From Costa @ Edison**

Starbucks has low wages, but does Costa have lower wages?

From Starbucks @墨先*

Working at Starbucks for two years, looking back, I completely don't know how I got through it. Working 6 consecutive days, resting one day, then working another 6 consecutive days. Many might look down on this saying many jobs are like this, but please think about it: when you're at work, you have to transform into a "cleaning lady," "front desk salesperson," "dishwasher," "mover," "beverage maker," and sometimes even be the customer's "babysitter." Excluding meal breaks, you're standing, walking, and running for 8 consecutive hours. If this is what being a barista means, I really have nothing to say. I happened to experience the db(dp?)3.0 transformation, had to attend late-night meetings and then immediately work the morning shift, going home to shower and rushing back to work. I experienced a store that changed 3 store managers in 2 years, each with different styles, every time starting from scratch. One store manager told me, "Don't work hard silently at home, you need to obviously let others know you're working hard." So the beautifully said "weekends off" were actually doing various unpaid overtime at the store. Complaining about wages becomes pale. Working for two years, when I was about to leave, my salary was just a tiny bit. Wanting to buy anything slightly better meant eating instant noodles for a month. In the end, I ruined my health (developed herniated disc). The last store manager gave me all sorts of difficulties. To put it nicely, they were giving me opportunities; to put it bluntly, they wanted to drive me away. When my back hurt terribly and I wanted to take sick leave, I couldn't. Thinking about not making things difficult for the store and store manager, I pushed through. Then they scheduled me for four consecutive night shifts. I was truly desperate to the point of death. When I couldn't take it anymore and submitted my resignation, the store manager didn't try to keep me at all. As soon as I said I wanted to resign, the store manager immediately turned around and asked me, "So when do you want to leave?" My heart turned completely cold.

From Starbucks @偏执狂×M**

Entering Starbucks for nearly four years, the last two years were just endured. Every day I relied on reminiscing about the past with old partners and using bathroom breaks to smoke a cigarette to numb myself. After being promoted to assistant store manager, I was even more anxious every day - worried about customer complaints, worried about QA, worried about training, worried about various audits. Most afraid of the boss checking surveillance footage. The 360-degree no-blind-spot bar counter surveillance wasn't to protect partners, but to monitor their every move. Everything was constrained by various rules and regulations. Before, chatting with customers was genuine communication; later it became a formality because the drink-making process requires you to interact with customers. Smiling became a fixed expression because I was afraid that when complaints arose and surveillance was checked, the boss would find me with a stern face. It's ridiculous when you think about it. Every day you had to write these kinds of reports. Going to work was just to "sell" - sell promotional drinks, sell cups, sell mooncakes, sell zongzi. Let me ask, which partner's Moments isn't doing Starbucks micro-business? A monthly salary of over 3,000 really can't do anything. Perhaps the only good thing is that medical expenses can be reimbursed when you're sick. Speaking of getting sick, I entered Starbucks as a healthy young man, but when I left, my cervical spine had severely lost its natural curvature. The doctor holding my report said this was clearly the cervical spine of someone in their forties or fifties. Every morning when I woke up, my arms were numb. Stomach problems, back pain, neck pain, endocrine disorders, irregular periods - these are all problems that Starbucks partners often talk about. The annual bonus everyone looks forward to each year makes people want to cry. The vast majority of Starbucks partners I know would say when leaving: "This company is too heart-chilling." Perhaps not talking about wages, but any other reason would make partners leave. In the leaders' eyes, there's only performance. All the corporate culture contained in this goddess logo is very hypocritical in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai Starbucks region. When I left, my store manager cut my employee card for me. My heart felt completely relieved. Four years of youth...

From Costa @ 闻小猫

Costa employees strongly agree! After working for 5 and a half years, management staff only get over 3,000. Hope wages increase soon, can barely hang on!

From McDonald's @Cookie

I just want to ask why there are no complaints about McDonald's? Store management positions only get 3,000 after insurance deductions! Much less than Starbucks! There are more floor staff than in coffee shops, customers are more mixed, and there are more things to handle. People from various industries get poached and leave immediately.

From McDonald's @拾贰酱

At McDonald's, you have to clean the grease separator, which basically means you have to clean...

From a soon-to-leave Starbucks partner @大大

Outsiders might find this boring, but reality is reality. Some say put yourself in others' shoes, but you're always speaking for others. Do you really consider what's in the employees' hearts? Employees love coffee, but don't they need to live? Other companies have sales targets, but they have commissions. Every four hours, there's a ten-minute paid break, but we have to stand for four hours, ten-minute paid break🙂 ten minutes🙂 when busy, there's no break at all.🙂 3,000 a month, minus rent, minus utilities, minus food, negative income. Life itself is a problem, what else are you talking about??? Aren't employees human? Chinese labor costs are cheap, companies control work hours, to put it bluntly, they're forcing full-timers out to hire part-timers.🙃 -- from a partner about to leave.

Being a barista is a profession with a low barrier to entry and even lower industry wages. Yet outsiders flock to this profession. Baristas seem to work in elegant environments, sheltered from wind and sun, with relaxed work, feeling like they just chat with customers and make coffee, but of course, it's more than that. In reality, every barista needs to juggle multiple roles. Many well-known chain coffee shops pay unimaginably low wages. What about Luckin Coffee, which is rumored to pay high wages?

From Luckin Coffee barista @ M

It's all hype. In the Beijing region recruitment information, it says comprehensive salary 8000+, but in reality, even store managers only get 4500.

From Luckin Coffee barista @肚*

I'm an employee at Luckin, won't disclose which store,毕竟是为它打工, but since I'm speaking out, I'm not afraid. Lies need more lies to deal with, too tiring. Not mentioning other things, setting aside the taste issue, I think Luckin's coffee is good coffee. Good coffee beans, good roasting, very fresh coffee beans, baristas need pre-job training before going to stores - these four points completely satisfy Mr. Taguchi's definition of good coffee in "The Coffee Equation." Remember, good coffee, not delicious coffee. But what's frustrating is when city manager-level leaders come to inspect stores, they don't ask about store performance, don't ask about employee work situations, don't ask about operational difficulties, they only ask about how to do cleaning, haha, I can only laugh loudly. The vision of city manager-level leaders is truly high, 100% admiration. Even higher-level leaders require women to wear hair flowers, hair decorations like in hot pot restaurants, haha, this is a coffee shop, my friend, I'm impressed again. Maybe the taste of 40-something men is too unique. I'm not surprised by such things; the leaders' focus isn't on coffee. I've been at Luckin for almost half a year, there are plenty of videos on how to do cleaning in Luckin University, but not a single one on professional coffee knowledge. To be honest, although I'm your employee, sometimes when my partners and I break order records, I get very excited, but sometimes I'm truly saddened by those condescending leaders. I love coffee, coffee has expanded my network, coffee has enriched my lifestyle, I hope Luckin's leaders focus more on coffee. Even in C-level stores, you can give customers a great coffee experience. After all, our partners aren't cleaning uncles and aunties. Only when the team is strong can the company be strong. We all have a coffee dream, please respect it, thank you. I hope one day, leaders will share their coffee experiences with us, their understanding of coffee, and I hope to share a single-origin bean with them.

Once you enter coffee, it's like a deep sea,从此存款是过客.

Without this feeling for coffee, baristas really can't persist...

@ CzAR·南

Elegant movements, decent appearance, atmosphere-controlling conversations make a good barista so dashing. Even for 3,000 yuan, it can make the thick-faced makeup-wearing women at the counter exclaim and marvel, intoxicated to life and death... -- this is a pleasure and numbness that money can't bring.

@Dynames

I'm 24, it took me about 10 years to find the profession I really want to do, even if this profession is miserable, I have to keep doing it.

@萧忆

I entered this industry at nineteen, three years ago, from coffee apprentice to today's barista, from Wuhan to Shanghai, from love to roses... chasing my dream all the way.

@大叔的奶茶铺

Opened a coffee shop, originally wanted to be a boss but ended up as a waiter.

@JoseLus

Coffee is poisonous, once you're addicted, you can't quit. Don't say 3,000, I was happy playing with 1,800.

@wayne=玮

Every day is very hard and tiring, but the more tired I am, the more I feel that I really like coffee, otherwise I would have quit early!

Thank you all for your messages. If you also want to be a barista, you shouldn't consider how much money the coffee industry can earn, but rather how much you're willing to spend on coffee to achieve your dream: opening a coffee shop.

It can be said that because of loving coffee, I joined this industry. As for the barista profession in China, it can be simply summarized:

Glamorous on the surface, miserable inside.

Please raise your hand if you agree.

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Fan Comments:

@喵了个咪噢

The first one about Starbucks, I completely agree. Blindly pursuing data, not meeting good ICs and SMs, life was worse than death, everyone understands. Miss the early days of joining, miss the former partners.

@So what

Where do these leaving baristas get recruited? Coffee shop preparing to open...

@林某某🍤

If you like coffee, why go to Starbucks? Frankly, except for management worth learning, Starbucks is useless in terms of skills.

@Simon

Speaking from over six years of experience, I grew up at McDonald's and then changed jobs. But I never think McDonald's, or what you call Starbucks, Costa have any big problems. Is your ideal job just chatting with customers a bit every day, then sitting on the sofa sunbathing when there's nothing to do? If these companies are so terrible, why are they still Fortune 500! Read less negative content, have more positive emotions, life is for yourself.

@ k

As a former Starbucks partner, personally I feel what you mentioned above isn't really hard. I left Starbucks many years ago, grateful for the humility, patience, endurance, and respect I learned at Starbucks. After leaving Starbucks, I use Starbucks' spirit to persist in other industries. Of course, I transformed from an industry practitioner to a company owner. Most of the feedback comments are from people under 30. At thirty, you're not qualified to complain. Chengdu TKL Starbucks former team member, Asian record holder. Treat coffee as a lifestyle and attitude. If you say it's bitter, it means you haven't endured enough bitterness. It has nothing to do with peer culture, it's related to the level you stand at.

@詹米丸Zzt

To the Luckin person, hygiene issues are actually very important.

@林良羡

Started at the counter in '19, initially worked at a bakery's beverage station! Three years of contribution passed, followed the boss, did sales, training, counter design, machine installation, menu design, 20 months, illusion shattered,回头 home couldn't find a 3,000 salary job, couldn't survive, contributed over 5 years!!! By the way, let me share a cold joke I saw today: people say you can't tell fortunes, the more you tell, the thinner your fate becomes, but you have to believe it. Before, a fortune teller said I would wear a yellow robe after 30, accompanied by delicacies every day, with transportation available when going out. Now I'm delivering food for Meituan, my god, the prediction was too accurate.

@Cody

Why doesn't anyone mention Pacific Coffee?

@陈考拉

Reading the comments, one sentence stands out: high aims but low ability, very well said. First, looking at a bunch of comments, you can tell these people aren't ordinary full-time or part-time workers, they're management. Then your work system isn't calculated by hourly wage. Also, is it wrong for companies to pursue data? Don't companies need to develop? Complaining when standards aren't met? Want full bonuses when standards aren't met? Used to getting something for nothing? As management, if you don't have staff to do cleaning, naturally you do it. This is the service industry. Don't think about being some barista. Even if you're so noble, if you open your own shop, don't you still have to clean? Try having a storefront full of trash, even if your coffee is good, probably no one will come. You go in to learn management, then those who want to stay naturally survive the fittest. If you think you're at a disadvantage and won't do it, others do it and get promoted, don't complain why others were promoted and not you. Society is cruel.

@Nero

So realistic problems are still on the table. Most of the comments are from partners earning 3,000 complaining, but what about the store manager level? Many times, it's not because of hardship or fatigue that people give up, but because when effort and reward are disproportionate, even the greatest passion will be extinguished. I saw one comment that said: he's full of love for coffee, full of love for this company's sentiment, even for 3,000, or even only 1,800, he's willing to keep doing it. Then I want to add a prerequisite: if he has no savings, his family conditions aren't that good and can't provide support, and besides this 3,000 salary, he has no other income, how long can this passion be supported by this 3,000? Unfortunately, I'm just such a full-time partner. So I completely understand the thoughts of those leaving partners. I'm not saying this to encourage partners to leave, but when facing life and dreams, someone will always make a choice. I entered Starbucks because of my yearning and passion for coffee, passed the black apron exam, became a regional coffee master, participated in competitions, won first place in Zhejiang - these are all efforts I made for my dream. But because of life and reality, I broke up with my girlfriend of almost six years a few days ago. I can only choose to leave. I don't know how much longer my coffee dream can persist, I only know I need to live, I need to eat.

@Nick Ning

Recruiting baristas 6000+ hahaha Can I advertise? I'm really short of staff

@Friday Cafe

Even if you quit, it's not like the company will go bankrupt, right? Because the company's core backbone is still there. In the same company, why can others become core talent, while you become the complaint bucket? Why don't others feel the wages and benefits are poor? Hahaha~ So, I can only say that what scenery you see depends on your position.

@Mr、峻

I don't want to hear nonsense like "ability should be proportional to salary" because people who say this definitely haven't worked at chain coffee shops like Starbucks. If you try working there, you'll understand how foolish what you're saying is. Clearly a skilled job that you've described as a technical job (don't argue, Starbucks' pursuit of consistent taste really doesn't count as a technical job). What we want is effort proportional to reward. To put it mildly, old employees can do supervisors' work but still get employees' pay. In other words, supervisors' wages aren't much higher than employees' by a few hundred. What does ability have to do with salary? I just want to say one thing: no one is a philanthropist, no one can live on sentiment for a lifetime. I only know that the first thing I need to be clear about when I go to work is that I'm here to earn money. The profit of a cup of coffee is six times the cost of ingredients, while our salary is only three percent of the revenue we create through our efforts. If this happened to you, I don't think you'd say such noble words.

@Daphne

I think everyone is misled by the "teacher" character in "barista." In China and abroad, baristas are just waiters. Many people talk about low wages, having to do cleaning, etc. This industry has a low barrier to entry, skills are easily replicated, and the profession itself isn't highly valuable. Doing cleaning, serving customers - these should be done. Just like great chefs have to work their way up to have apprentices help with cleanup. I think everyone should wake up. If you want better treatment, first ask yourself if you have the ability.

@W!NG

McDonald's, tried working 12-13 hours a day, five consecutive days, when short-staffed, worked 13 days straight without breaks including night to morning shifts. After being promoted to manager, had to be on call anytime. Salary just over 3,000. Goodbye.

@JACK

Ridiculously, Starbucks also has regulations prohibiting partners from discussing salaries. As a university part-time partner, I immediately knew this would forever be my part-time job.

@转眼。

Actually every barista needs to juggle multiple roles

When I read this sentence, I almost cried.

Besides my main job, I have two part-time jobs.

@无名小辈

What barista? Our Jiangsu RDO Zhuang only comes to stores to clean toilets, requires partners to stick their hands in the toilet bowl and scrub...

For their own political achievements, weekend food buy one get one free, buy two get one free, as long as you can sell it, anything goes.

COSTA's wages are higher than Starbucks. Another point, COSTA also gives raises!!!

@LT

I like Starbucks but the wages aren't proportional to the effort, so I chose to leave.

@Connieちゃん

Because of coffee... 1900 salary~ I endured it for five years~...

Dreams are distant~ put down the milk pitcher...

Became a front desk clerk~ salary 4500

@安安

As a part-time partner, I still have to defend Starbucks~ My store manager, supervisor, and partners are all angels~ Never force scheduling, very understanding~ My mentor is a super exquisite boy~ Everyone teaches you step by step, partners are so tolerant you can't imagine~ Selling cards and pastries, everyone understands each other, please don't be too jealous (couldn't help but laugh out loud~)

@灯灯

I want to know if these companies' coffee making has technical content? All day complaining that companies don't have coffee training, have you studied privately? All day complaining about low wages, have you seen how much value you've created?... The heartfelt words of a diligent barista.

@Arno tsuji

Although I left Starbucks, during my tenure, fortunately, those who trained me were all experts, with strict management store managers, supervisors who strictly controlled coffee quality, and partners full of coffee skills. Now we're all scattered, I really miss the busyness and daily routine of that time, at least it was once perfect.

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