As seen in a highly viewed TikTok video, Starbucks recently—and quietly— changed their payroll policy for locations in the following states: California, Massachussets, Maine and Minnesota. One employee of the coffee chain (TikTok creator @kinghennn) posted a video on November 8th in which he is seen reacting with wide eyes and surprised facial expressions to a document taped to (presumably) the break room wall of his workplace. The page—adorned with the Starbucks logo— is titled, “Weekly Payroll Frequency Change” and revealed that the company plans to switch from a biweekly paying schedule to a weekly one.
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@kinghennn I don’t know how I feel about this just yet #fyp #starbucks #weeklypay #starbies #tobeapartner #baristaproblems #baristalife ♬ Vine Boom – Modernmadeit
What Does The Starbucks Payroll Change Entail?
The letter to employees read, in part, “Many partners have shared that moving to a weekly pay cycle can help you better plan and support your financial needs.” It also noted that for Starbucks “partners” in California, this will take effect on December 5th, and for those in Massachussetts, Maine, and Minnesota, their first weekly check will arrive during the week of December 12th.
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@kinghennn Replying to @breanaclark89 ♬ original sound – Hen
Starbucks Employee Reactions
As seen in the TikTok creator’s comment section (302 comments and counting), many fellow employees and social media users were divided as to their thoughts on whether the payroll change was positive or negative. “Weekly paycheck are literally why my husband and I are in debt, it’s not as fun as it sounds,” one user warned under the video (which currently has 332K views and 24.4K likes) as another chimed in, “I like being ‘broke’ and waiting for one big check every 2 weeks now imma get small checks every week…. Dangerous.”
Someone else added, "Getting paid weekly is the best… but they take more money from ur taxes" and another commenter replied, "This is actually great for those who know how to manage their spendings, for others get ready to be short on rent." One other user wrote, "all fun n games til your manager starts cutting down your hours and now you're eating noodles every day to pay rent." Others expressed that they were simply "surprised" that their Starbucks managers didn't tell them about the policy change, with one commenting, "I love that I found out about this through tiktok because my SM didn’t tell any of us."
