- Starbucks is expanding its new credit card tipping system across the US.
- Some workers say they're making hundreds of extra dollars per paycheck.
Starbucks now allows customers to tip by credit card in many stores, and workers are split on if it's a good thing or not.
When customers pay with a credit card, the machine now asks them if they would like to add a tip before they pay. Previously, Starbucks customers could tip in the app for mobile orders, or with cash at checkout. Now every customer is asked to select a tip amount if they check out with a credit card.
"Starbucks customers have multiple options for showing their appreciation for our store partners," the coffee chain told Insider in a statement. Starbucks told Insider the rollout started in September and will continue through the end of 2022.
Insider spoke to seven Starbucks employees on the new tipping scheme, all of which asked to remain unnamed due to not being authorized to talk to the press, but their employment was confirmed by Insider. While some employees said they were happy to have the extra tips show up in their paychecks, others told Insider the extra hassle wasn't worth the meager returns or the possibility of a customer reacting poorly.
Workers that spoke to Insider said they averaged an extra $1 to $2 per hour in credit card tips.
Weekly tips have "at least doubled," Olivia, a barista trainer in upstate New York told Insider. A worker in Texas told Insider that the system isn't perfect but is "functional" and her tips exploded to nearly $225 the week of Thanksgiving when she previously averaged around $10 while working 40 hours a week. Another New York barista agreed that her tips had gone "way up."
In Ohio, another worker told Insider that they have customers telling them they are "excited" to be able to tip baristas when they don't carry cash.
"I like the new tipping system because I've had a lot of customers ask to be able to tip on their credit card and were disappointed when I told them it wasn't available," another East Coast worker said.
For workers who aren't sold on the new system, the problem is more about the customers rather than the tipping itself.
"It isn't worth it for me to get yelled at by customers," a Midwest barista told Insider, saying his store's tips are only up by about $.50 per hour. Like other workers Insider spoke to, the barista said the problem is specifically pronounced in the drive-thru, where workers hand the reader out the window to the customer.
"We cannot hand the reader out if it's raining or snowing, and if it's sunny, there's a huge glare that makes it impossible to see the screen," the New York barista said. It's frustrating "how rude some people can be about not being able to see," the tipping options on the card reader, a Kentucky worker told Insider.
Some customers get angry that they need to touch the card reader, but workers say they're not allowed to make a tip selection even if a customer tells them verbally.
"They're offended we even ask," the Kentucky barista said, telling Insider that they had been "screamed at" by customers.
Starbucks isn't an outlier in asking customers to tip digitally as more businesses add the option in what Vox dubbed "tipflation." A Starbucks spokesperson told Insider that the update was suggested by workers in discussion sessions with employees on pain points and ways to improve the experience.
Some studies have found that customers tip more when suggested tip amounts are larger, but there isn't enough data to say whether credit card tips at the point of service increase overall tips, Cornell marketing professor Michael Lynn told Vox.
Do you have a story to share about a retail or restaurant chain? Email this reporter at mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com.