Re: what is the ideal barista wage and benefits and what can the public/employers expect with that?

What’s current with minimum wage? As of July 24, 2009, the federal minimum wage increased to $7.25 per hour and I’m sure that’s what the starting pay is for a barista in most places where that is the minimum.  In California, it is $8.00 per hour.  In San Francisco, it is currently $9.79.

I have only ever worked in California, and my work in coffee has been limited to the Bay Area, so it’s unfair for me to speculate what’s going on in other parts of the country (maybe Seth Lester could weigh in).  But I think it’s fairly accurate to say that in the Bay Area, the starting hourly wage for a barista ranges from the minimum up to about $12-$13 (maybe add a couple bucks for a ridiculous amount of experience? Maybe not?).  That’s about $3 higher than the minimum wage in San Francisco.

As for benefits, the best I have received included full medical and dental, and something pretty good for vision.  Pre-tax commuter benefits were available.  Sick time was just discontinued at the time (I was working in Berkeley), but in San Francisco, the law is that businesses must provide one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked (before all the wording gets kinda shady).  Anyhow, I was provided something like 96 hours of vacation time that was accrued incrementally based on hours worked.  There might have been some other benefits too that I wasn’t aware of, like 401K.  I thought those benefits were pretty sick (pun?).

Realistically, though, I think those are the best benefits available to a barista, but unfortunately they came from a corporation.  Smaller specialty roasters usually offer a similar competitive plan, but maybe lacking in vacation or a certain percentage of medical coverage.  But that’s all cool, because they’re usually working to improve things.

Working for a corporation versus a specialty roaster or smaller cafe carry different sets of expectations for a barista.  So, assessing the correlation between pay/benefits and public/employer expectations has to be broken down that way.  We’ll forget about the large corporation and small cafe, and focus on the independent specialty roaster.

A barista needs to be highly skilled as a coffee professional as well as a hospitality professional.

• As a coffee professional, the barista should have extensive knowledge of all the beans, including (but not limited to) families/coops, farm, farming and processing methods, harvest dates, and varietals.  They should also be able to discuss the flavors, aromas, body, etc., of all the coffees.
• The barista should be experienced with all methods of manual brewing, as well as able to describe the differences between each method with respect to the brew.
• The barista should be able operate and maintain espresso machines and grinders (jeez, do I really need to go into detail on this one?).  The barista must also be able to quickly dial in coffee on various espresso machines and grinders.

And then there’s a bunch of other coffee stuff that I’ll leave for someone less lazy than myself to bullet-point.

As far as a hospitality professional goes, I don’t even know if I know the meaning of that.  I am far from one.  I wish I were more of one, and am constantly learning, but someone else would be better to go over this side of being a barista (thinking about it now, maybe it’s about time a pick up a new book).  But just for kicks and the sake of it:

• A barista needs to be able to identify the needs of the customer, and serve those needs to the best of their ability with authenticity.
• A barista should be good natured towards others and self motivated.

That’s all that I can put into words, unfortunately, on that subject (until I find a good book to read about it!).

As far as benefits for these services go, I think that the full benefits package that I stated earlier, including sick time, vacation time, and full medical is completely appropriate (this is, by the way, ignoring its feasibility).  Usually, these benefits kick in after a 90 day period, which I think is also appropriate.

This is all assuming a training program is in place to build the skills of the barista to where they need to be.  The training program should be designed so that it extends over the course of 6 months to a year.  The first 3 months should be spent largely on hospitality and the bean.  After that point, the barista should be competent enough to work with customers.

Barista reviews should be provided on a quarterly basis, assessing their performance and direction.  Raises should be granted biannually, if reviews go well.  If the review does not go well, that barista should be awarded a raise at the next quarter if the next review is better.  After the first year, a plan should be worked out so that the barista can work towards a goal, probably some sort of position involving increased responsibility, whether it’s training, production, wholesale, or what have you.  If a new position is achieved, a raise should be granted.

I think bonuses are a good idea too.  Once a year, or when a new position is achieved would be timely.

Starting pay for a barista should be $13 in the Bay Area for this type of company with this type of program (you can factor that down regionally based on cost of living).  Pay increases through the first year should $1 each, totaling $15 after one year of work.  From there on, raises should be based on a fraction of their wage.

That’s all I’ve got for now.  And I ain’t complainin’.