A national collective action has been filed in Florida against Starbucks Coffee Company. The action is brought on behalf of all current and former Starbucks managers, who since June 2001, were not paid proper statutory overtime for all hours worked beyond 40 per week. The action is brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and seeks statutory and liquidated damages as well as declaratory and injunctive relief. As a collective action, all potential claimants are required to "opt-in" to the action in order to be considered part of the class. The employees have requested that the court issue notice to all potential class members.

According to the managers, Starbucks has engaged in a willful and intentional course of action to defraud them of proper overtime compensation. The managers claim that Starbucks frequently requires them to work well in excess of 40 hours per week. However, according to the managers, the company has no provisions in place to properly compensate them with overtime for these hours. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, all "non-exempt" employees are entitled to a minimum of time and a half for all hours worked in excess of 40 per week. "Non-exempt" employees are generally those that work on an hourly basis and do not have managerial or executive responsibility. While the employees bringing this action have been classified as "exempt" managers by Starbucks, they claim that they are in reality "non-exempt" and therefore entitled to receive overtime compensation for all hours worked beyond 40 per week. The managers claim that they perform limited managerial functions, exercise very little authority and essentially perform the same duties as hourly employees. According to the mangers, only 10% of their time on the job is spent performing "managerial" tasks, with the remainder being spent servicing customers. For this reason, the managers claim that they are entitled to overtime compensation. The managers also claim that because Starbuck's refusal to pay overtime was willful and intentional, they are entitled to an equal amount of liquidated damages.