Wonderful incentive. 
 

It's a nice thing to do. However, I'd settle for them to just be paid a little better in the first place. Then the employees can decide how to best use the money they earned, whether that be for college or other important things.

Let me clarify why my opinion is what it is. I have a family member that works at Starbucks. She already has a college degree, but is working there until she lands a job in her field of study. She is a good example of how just raising the pay would benefit Starbucks workers who would not benefit from the college tuition reimbursment, along with others who may not want to go to college or would choose a different college or trade school.
The more people are paid, the less benefits are needed. I'm not at all suggesting that Starbucks workers make $30 an hour, I'm just suggesting that if Starbucks can afford to pay $15,000 for a specific college for most of their workers, they should just pay them the $15,000. Starbucks is not a bad company to work for according to my family member, so I'm not bashing them, just suggesting how they could be making a bigger difference with the same amount of money.

 

Goose wrote:

No plan is perfect, nor does it benefit evrybody the same.
Perhaps Starbucks had a discussion about salaries vs this plan, I don't know.

As far as the $15,000 goes, both Starbucks and the employee would have to pay payroll taxes on it, and the employee would pay income tax on it.
Perhaps they felt that the tuition reimbursement route got them more bang for the buck. Perhaps they felt that their wages are already competitive and have a real focus on helping with education.

I don't know why they did it this way. Maybe it's better PR.
But any way you look at it, it's a good thing.
I understand it's not perfect, but so few things are.

Agreed.
It is a good thing. And they appear to be a decent company.
I guess it's a personality flaw of mine (my words, not anybody else's) that I'm always searching for improvement, even when things start to improve. Maybe I can chalk it up to impatience that it takes so long for improvements, who knows.

Goose wrote:

A few things about the program.
Only 2,000 of the estimated 140,000 eligible Starbucks employees is enrolled in the university at present.. So, even anticipating a big expansion of the program, it is safe to assume that far from every employee will take advantage of this.
Starbucks has a pot of money set aside for this. If it were just divided up amongst every employee it would be waaay less that $15,000  that the tuition plan is.

Also note, Starbucks isn't paying $15K.
They have used their size and influence to win the students a 42% scholarship from the University. Starbucks is only putting up 58%. They have found a way to nearly double the cash they are putting up.
Or, put another way, if it were just a salary increase, 42% of the money disappears right at the outset.

I see your logic.