Reply #55: benefits are offered to all employees

[northzax]

well, anyone who works more than 20 hours a week, that is, and since except in extreme circumstances, employees have to work 20 hours a week minimum, that covers it. (full disclosure, I work for Starbucks)

benefits are as follows, for all employees, from cafe assistants up to the Director level:

health insurance starts at $20/pay period. mine is $33.
all employees get equivalent stock options (last year it equaled 16% of total pay, vested over five years.)
all employees get matching 401K contributions, these were cut a bit during the crash (as people may recall, the company went from having a stock in the 40s to in the $8 range in a year) but there was still an end of year match of a few percent. As of January 1, this will be reinstated to a straight 4% match, concurrent with contributions with no vesting time)
all hourly employees are eligible for tips.
all employees have equivalent vacation grants, including hourly partners, this is not dependent on how many hours you work, but on the length of service.

now some things that can be better:
the bonus structure should include all partners in a store, not just the salaried ones.
the stock purchase plan should be raised from the current 5% discount to the 10% it was before the crash.
vacation time should accrue the first year of employment, not starting the second, even if you are unable to take it for a waiting period.

is it perfect? of course not. is it better than anyone else in the equivalent industry? pretty much. is it better than the local coffee shops everyone loves to talk about as so authentic? yup. don't recall ever getting health insurance even offered to me there. so sure, come organize, if you'd like. there are many professions in which it makes a lot of sense. I'd be hard pressed to think how my life at work would be anything more than marginally different, however.