Starbucks to Pay Store Staff Weekly as Part of Growth Plan

Beginning in August, Starbucks has announced that it will be paying its hourly, US-based employees – which it calls its ‘partners’ – on a weekly basis. 

The move comes as Starbucks looks to improve its employee experience as part of its wider ‘Back to Starbucks’ initiative, under CEO Brian Niccol. 

Sara Kelly, Chief Partner Officer of Starbucks and Mike Grams, Chief Operating Officer, said in a joint statement that the decision was made to “help hourly partners have more ways to share in the success of Back to Starbucks”. 

“Every day, you bring the Starbucks experience to life in our coffeehouses, from the way you welcome customers to how you support one another on shift,” Sara and Mike continued. “Those small 'I’ve got you' moments are the heart of our coffeehouses. Your hard work is paying off. We are gaining momentum, and the shine is back on the Starbucks brand.”

A ‘strong’ benefits and compensation offering

Research from Indeed Flex finds that a third of UK workers would prefer to be paid weekly, with 44% of people reporting they run out of money by the 21st of the month, and 21% saying they run out of money by the 14th. 

Starbucks’ weekly pay comes as part of what it describes as “one of the strongest total compensation and benefits packages in retail,” with the company receiving more than one million applications for barista roles in the US each year. 

The company has also announced further incentives, such as a Back to Starbucks Partner Reward, which allows baristas and shift supervisors to earn an additional US$1,200 per year when their stores meet specific metrics, and the introduction of new ways for customers to tip. 

These incentives have the potential to increase what partners receive by around 5% to 8% on average, says Starbucks. 

Back to Starbucks

These improvements to the employee experience come as part of the company’s ‘Back to Starbucks’ initiative, which is designed to target common customer complaints and improve profitability. 

This has included refurbishment efforts to enhance the in-store experience and encourage customers to stay, increased in-store technology usage and reduced the menu. These changes, Brian says, have also helped improve and simplify the employee experience. 

On the CEO Signal Podcast, he shared: “The feedback I heard was, we’ve made the job more complicated than necessary. 

“It was one of those things where it’s like, we got to get back to focusing on decisions that actually show up in the store, and then you got to understand how those decisions actually are executed in the store.”

This simplification has helped improve the brand’s standing – in October, it recorded its first quarterly sales increase in almost two years, and continued to show stronger sales in Q1 2026, with global comparable store sales increasing by 4%.

Discussing these results in an earnings call, Brian said: “Our Q1 results demonstrate our ‘Back to Starbucks’ strategy is working and we believe we’re ahead of schedule. It’s great to see the sales momentum driven by more customers choosing Starbucks more often, and this is just the beginning.”