Wage Law

Starbucks is not planning to pay its California baristas back for tips they shared with shift supervisors, nor to obey a San Diego Superior Court order to stop the practice. In a voicemail message to employees last week, Chief Executive Howard Schultz said the ruling "would take away the right of shift supervisors to receive the tips they earn for providing superior customer service" and the company executives "strongly believe that this ruling is extremely unfair and beyond reason."

We already discussed our take on the ruling last month. For the perspective of an employer-side blog, check out Entertaining Employment Law.

Meanwhile, some workers and lawyers in Massachusetts heard about the lawsuit, presumably, and decided to pursue similar claims there:

A former Boston-area Starbucks worker claims he was shortchanged by the coffee company's tips policy and he is now taking the coffee giant to court, claiming his managers swiped his tips. The lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court comes days after the Seattle-based coffee company was ordered to pay millions in a similar case.

There will probably be more still.