Whose money is it anyway?

California courts have ruled against Starbuck's policy forcing sharing of barista tips with supervisors. They have been ordered to repay $86 million in back tips plus interest.

I worked as a waitress while in college and never did I want or have to split my tips with others, including busboys, hostesses, other waitresses or management. I worked my tail off giving my customers great service and my generous tip income proved that people appreciated my good service. Why should I be forced to share the results of my labor with others?

When a company forces low-paying "servers" to split their tips with others who may not be providing similar good service, the company is acting just like Big Brother government, taking from those who work hard and perform well and giving to those who just want more income. In all fairness, in this case, it appears that Starbucks didn't want to pay management higher salaries so they just forced lower paying employees to share their tips to subsidize the managers.

Excellent job performance should yield greater income. If managers are good at motivating their employees to perform, then they should be rewarded with bonuses. If servers are good at providing customer service and generating large tip income because of it, they should be able to keep it all to themselves. Those who don't perform should get the boot, not a cut.