Quick Take
Santa Cruz-based Verve Coffee Roasters will pay nearly $200,000 to current and former employees at its San Francisco café after a city investigation found the company failed to follow a local health care law for three years. The settlement comes as Verve faces growing labor scrutiny, including recent union votes and controversy over a now-removed service fee tied to employee benefits.
Verve Coffee Roasters has agreed to pay nearly $200,000 to current and past workers at a San Francisco café after failing to follow a city law requiring large employers to pay for employee health benefits.
The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement investigated the Santa Cruz-based craft coffee company after employees at its 2101 Market St. location reported Verve for violating the city’s Health Care Security Ordinance. The law requires that employers with more than 20 employees pay for health care benefits for certain workers. The office determined that Verve was out of compliance for three years between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2025.
On Sept. 24, as part of a settlement agreement, Verve agreed to pay 33 current and past employees a total of $184,408, plus a $7,929 penalty to the city. The amount each employee will receive varies depending on how many total hours they worked at the café, with individual payments ranging from $393 to $20,677.
Verve is required to pay current employees by Oct. 31, and past employees who were affected by Dec. 31. Verve did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Market Street location is one of three Verve coffee houses that voted to unionize last month, along with the Fair Avenue and Pacific Avenue cafés in Santa Cruz, seeking higher wages, more bargaining power and benefits.
In August, Verve drew attention for another health care-related controversy in Santa Cruz, this time for a 5% service fee added to each guest’s check. A sign near the register stated that the charge would help provide health benefits to full-time employees. However, coffeehouse workers told Lookout that nearly all of them are part-time workers, and therefore did not receive health benefits even though they bore the brunt of customers’ ire over the automatic charge.
Verve disputed the claim and told Lookout that the fee supported “expanding paid time off and paid holidays, as well as health insurance for full-time workers.” The company later removed the service fee, and told staff in a private memo that it “caused too much confusion.”
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