Starbucks has been ordered to $87m (£43.50m) in back tips plus interest of $19m to staff in California.
Up to 100,000 former and current employees brought the class action lawsuit after the company allowed shift managers and supervisors to take part of the tips meant for baristas.
Starbucks said to would continue to share pooled tips between baristas and staff supervisors. The company plans to appeal, calling the ruling "fundamentally unfair and beyond all reason”.
Howard Schultz, the group’s chairman, president and chief executive, said: “It is upsetting to us – and to me personally – when we hear suggestions that our tip policy is unfair because it allows both shift supervisors and baristas to share in the gratitude of our customers. Nothing can be further from the truth.
“We believe our shift supervisors, who work side-by-wide with the baristas, providing the same levels of exemplary customer service, should share in the tips.”
