To: Starbucks
$15 by 2021, 17$ by 2023 for Starbucks Partners in Orange County, California
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Call for Starbucks to set their base pay in Orange County California, i.e. for a newly hired barista, at $15 by January 1st 2021, and to $17 by January 1st of 2023. This will ensure that by the year of 2023 at base pay, a partner will make enough income to at least exceed official state definitions of poverty. This request aligns with the program of gradual minimum wage increases implemented across the state, modified for the cost of living in Orange County. It is our hope that Starbucks can lead Orange County in setting fair wages for our community.
If Starbucks wants to be the center of our neighborhoods, they need to pay us enough to live in them.
Why is this important?
California is steadily raising the minimum, with it set to reach $15 an hour by January 1st of 2022 (at least for large corporations, like Starbucks). Los Angeles County is raising their minimum even faster, with it set to reach $15 by July 1st of this year. It’s expensive to live in Los Angeles County - and they need the wage increase fast. However, it’s even more expensive to live in Orange County and we aren’t due to see $15 until the rest of the state gets it in 2023. The trouble is that even if at a wage of $15 right now, many of us would still be below state definitions of poverty for our county. We need the raise to $15 by 2021, and we need the $17 an hour that will finally put us out of poverty by at least 2023.
At $15 an hour and 30 hours a week, an Orange County Starbucks partner that is single earner would currently still be $1,500 dollars below the Extreme Low Income line as defined by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, a line that the agency considers equal to poverty (the majority of successful applications for section 8 housing in California come from people making less than this limit). In 2023, only accounting for inflation, this difference will be even more significant. In 2023 a Orange County Starbucks partner will need to make at least $17 an hour to be just outside the Extreme Low Income limit.
Why are we using a single household earner at thirty hours for our numbers? Because this represents the 'worst off' possible newly hired partner. This is a partner trying to support just themselves, and trying to get as many hours as they can in a new store. This is a partner trying to get through college while working. This is a single parent trying their best to pay the bills and take care of their child. It is this petition's stance that Starbucks should guarantee that even our 'worst off' partners are paid enough to be above the state’s official definitions of poverty.
In Orange County, we don't have the minimum wage we need, or the path to one. We ask that Starbucks lead the way.
