Several workers say they’re opting to go without health coverage due to premium costs soaring this year
Starbucks workers say their health insurance premiums have soared this year, in some cases more than doubling, according to a recent survey conducted by Starbucks Workers United.
The survey of more than 130 Starbucks workers in both unionized and non-unionized stores, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found baristas are experiencing hikes in costs for their health insurance coverage starting 1 October.
Some workers reported their premium costs per paycheck nearly doubling, even as they struggle to afford other basic necessities andare scheduled to work enough hours to be eligible for the benefits.
The changes come as Starbucks Workers United launched a boycott last month against the company demanding a union contract, what would be the first since stores started to unionize in December 2021. Since then, more than 700 Starbucks stores have won union elections, with the union representing over 12,000 workers at the company.
Several workers said they are opting to go without health insurance coverage due to the costs and the price hikes are forcing them to worry about whether they need to find an additional job.
Kaye-Lani Story, who has been a barista in Edina, Minnesota, for nine years, said she took herself and her son to the doctor this month as their health insurance is set to lapse on 1 October. Her health insurance premiums were set to go from $130 a week to $170 a week, a 30% increase.
“That is another $40 each week that I am not going to have in my income, if I choose to go with it, and that’s just not something that financially I can afford,” she said. “I have to drop my insurance because the company will not cover those costs when it’s clear that they’re definitely making enough.”
In the past, Kaye-Lani was qualified to receive Minnesota’s state health insurance, but switched to the company’s health insurance plan when she made too much income to qualify.
“I make too much to qualify for coverage through the state. I don’t make enough to keep my medical coverage through work, and so at this point, I just have to drop it completely,” she added. “During the winter, the heating bill goes up. During the summer, the electric bill goes up from the AC. There are just all these wavering things throughout the year that I have to pull from to be able to apply to expenses just to be able to keep a roof over my head and food on the table and whatnot, and then this happens, and it’s too much.”
Cory Wagner has relied on Starbucks’s health insurance for five of the seven years he’s worked as a barista at Starbucks in Woods Cross, Utah, outside Salt Lake City.
“This is the first year that [premiums] nearly doubled,” Wagner said. “My insurance rates are going up to a point where I am now having to consider getting a second job, potentially leaving the company.”
Wagner relies on a heart medication to be able to work and noted the health insurance premium cost increases have made the out of pocket cost of his medication unaffordable. His health insurance premium cost went from $70 per biweekly paycheck to $122 per paycheck this year.
“Now I’m kind of left at a point where I am choosing between paying for this medication and paying for my utility bills, paying for my groceries, paying for the gas that I need to get to work,” he said. “The company has the money to keep our insurance premiums the same. They have the money to help the partners that are actively making them money.”
Starbucks Workers United has filed an unfair labor practice charge after the company did not respond to a request for information on health insurance coverage changes regarding what prompted the fee hikes and how Starbucks’s contribution to the healthcare costs were affected.
A Starbucks spokesperson did not comment on the unfair labor practice charge but said in an email “like employers across the country, we continue to face rising healthcare costs while remaining committed to providing quality, affordable healthcare coverage for full and part-time partners at Starbucks, beginning at just 20 hours per week.”