Abby Connolly
Recently, a young TikTok user went viral for shedding some light on the harsh reality of working as a barista these days, and he’s not alone.
August (@augustoffline) is a 21-year-old barista who took to TikTok to talk about his job and why his pay is not even close to being a livable wage.
“As a barista, someone can come up and order two drinks, and that costs more than what I make an hour,” says August in his video.
August explains that two drinks from his coffee shop that he can make in approximately two minutes still cost more than his hourly wage. It’s pretty crazy to think about.
Although August doesn’t disclose which coffee shop he works for, he mentions in the comments that it is not Starbucks.
“This issue is bigger than Starbucks,” he writes.
The video received over 294,000 likes and thousands of comments from other TikTok users. Many of them are also baristas and servers who share the same struggle.
“Two custom drinks can cost $20, and that’s more than my weekly tips,” commented one user.
“The way I’ve literally never thought about it that way, and I’ve been a barista for 5 years,” commented another user.
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