Originally published October 16, 2014 at 2:04 PM | Page modified October 17, 2014 at 6:49 PM 
 
 Chief operating officer Troy Alstead said the company will increase starting-pay rates in all U.S. markets beginning in January and allow visible tattoos. Starbucks is also creating a contest that offers winners “Starbucks for Life.” 
 
 Starbucks kicked off its holiday season with gifts for its employees and new strategies to draw in customers, including the promise, for a lucky few, of free java for life. 
 
 The Seattle coffee giant announced Thursday it will pay its U.S. employees more and relax its dress code to allow tattoos and other forms of self-expression to show. 
 
 Starbucks also will start letting customers in Portland order using their mobile phones before the end of the year, a service that will spread to the rest of the U.S. through 2015. 
 
 It also unveiled a most unusual promotion, designed to enroll customers in its loyalty programs: the chance for a few shoppers paying with a Starbucks Card or a mobile device to win “Starbucks for Life.” Ten winners in the U.S. will receive one free item — from drinks to salads to pastries, but with some restrictions — every day for 30 years. 
 
 The moves come as Starbucks seeks to navigate two important challenges: consumers’ migration from malls to online shopping, and growing concern about the quality of retail jobs, especially as these, once considered temporary, are filling the gap left by manufacturing in the American economy. 
 
 Starbucks has long offered benefits unusual in the retail sector, such as health insurance, even for part-timers, and stock. Recently it launched a program to subsidize online college education at Arizona State University for its baristas; the first 1,000 or so began classes Oct. 15. 
 
 But the company has been criticized over relatively low pay and over inconsistent and hectic work schedules. 
 
 Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead said Thursday in an email to staffers the company will increase starting-pay rates in the U.S. in January. That month all baristas and shift supervisors will also receive a raise, and experienced partners will be eligible for a “lump sum increase” to reward tenure. Pay will be reassessed annually. 
 
 The company didn’t disclose pay rates, which vary according to market; a Starbucks employee recently told The Seattle Times he started at $9.50 an hour. Job-reviews website Glassdoor indicates the average barista wage is $9.32 an hour. 
 
 These improvements follow moves by the company to allow customers paying with mobile phones to tip baristas using the Starbucks smartphone app. 
 
 Retailers have long lagged behind manufacturers in pay because of their slim profits. But Starbucks, which has been growing like gangbusters in recent years, has plenty of money: It made $512 million in the quarter that ended June 29, on $4.1 billion in revenue. 
 
 As of the end of its fiscal year, September 2013, the company employed nearly 182,000 people around the world, including 137,000 in the U.S. 
 
 CEO Howard Schultz, a longtime proponent of providing good benefits to employees, says investments in staff help everybody: the staffers, the company’s bottom line as it improves retention of better employees, and a society afflicted with a growing pay gap. 
 
 “You can’t look at anything today as a zero-sum game,” he said in a recent interview. 
 
 Starbucks also loosened its strict sartorial policy to allow baristas more flair. They can show tattoos, except for those on the face and throat; the change addresses a popular complaint by baristas, who complained that having to wear long sleeves to cover tattoos was uncomfortable and outdated. 
 
 Barista Kristie Williams started a Coworker.org petition last August to change the tattoo policy. It collected more than 25,000 signatures. “I am jumping up and down and am so excited that we can now be more comfortable at work,” Williams wrote in a statement. 
 
 Baristas can also sport colored ties and neck scarves, as well as black denim. Shirts can be worn untucked if the shirt is no longer than the back pockets and “your midsection doesn’t show.” Multiple piercings — formerly a no-no — are now allowed, as long as it’s no more than two earrings per ear and a small nose stud. 
 
 The ban on “unnatural (hair) colors” — such as purple, green or pink — continues, however. 
 
 “We want to build a company where self-expression, empowerment and inclusion are nurtured,” Alstead said. 
 
 Starbucks will also offer employees more time with managers to talk about their personal goals and the work environment. In addition, the company will offer bonuses to 28,000 outstanding employees each quarter, while eliminating performance-review forms and ratings for baristas and shift supervisors. 
 
 Store employees will also get one free food item per shift. 
 
 The initiatives announced Thursday “will ensure we are paying a competitive wage that better positions us to attract and keep the best partners,” Alstead wrote in his email to staffers. 
 
 Ángel González: 206-464-2250 or agonzalez@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @gonzalezseattle 
 
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 Starbucks is overhauling its employee manual. 
 
 The changes include pay raises and an updated dress code for its U.S. employees. 
 
 The dress code, especially the coffee chain's ban on visible tattoos, had rankled baristas who wanted to show ink. 
 
 The news follows a summer that's seen worker grievances directed at Starbucks (SBUX) over the tattoo policy and scheduling. 
 
 Related: Starbucks workers get clearer shift scheduling after outcry 
 
 Starting in the January, Starbucks will give a pay increase to all baristas and shift managers. It did not specify the amount of the increase. The company also expanded its annual review and merit raise program to workers who had hit the top of their pay ranges. 
 
 Starbucks will also allow workers one free pastry or other pre-made food item per shift. 
 
 Related: Starbucks to pay for 1,000 workers to go to college 
 
 Starting Oct. 20, the dress code, previously one of the more conservative ones in the coffee industry, will now permit untucked shirts, nose studs, shorts, skirts, black jeans, tan khakis and colorful scarves and ties. 
 
 Before the announcement, baristas had to keep their black-and-white uniforms tucked in and cover up any tattoos. 
 
 At the same time, the company dialed back some dress code freedoms. Baristas and supervisors will no longer be allowed to wear watches, bracelets or rings with stones (such as wedding rings). 
 
 While many workers praised the eased restrictions around clothes and body art, a vocal contingent decried the new watch and ring restrictions on a company-run Facebook (FB, Tech30) page for employees. 

 Starbucks Corp. Chief Executive Howard Schultz is trying to reverse the “seismic shift” he noticed last year when Americans in large numbers turned to online ordering for holiday gifts, leaving brick-and-mortar retailers suffering. 
 
 After the winter holidays last year, Starbucks reported lower-than-expected same-store sales growth, citing a drop in traffic at malls and shopping centers, which resulted in fewer trips to its cafes. Traditional retailers saw only about half the holiday traffic in 2013 as they did three years...
– Starbucks is aiming to boost business over the holidays by offering chances to win "free Starbucks for life"—although life is defined as 30 years. In the December promotion, 10 people who use Starbucks cards or mobile apps at the chain's stores will win a free coffee or food item—although probably not a $47.30 "Quadriginoctuple Frap"—every day for the next 30 years. "Every time you buy or gift a Starbucks card, embedded in it is an opportunity for 10 people in North America to win Starbucks for life," CEO Howard Schultz tells the Wall Street Journal. He says he came up with the idea after being "asked for many years by other CEOs and celebrities" whether it was possible to give someone the gift of Starbucks for life. Starbucks has also got some treats for its workers: Baristas and supervisors are getting an undisclosed pay raise, as well as one free food item per shift, reports the Seattle Times. The company has also loosened its dress code, dropping its ban on visible tattoos, as long as they're not on the face or throat, and allowing things like nose studs, shorts, colorful ties, and untucked shirts, CNN reports. But under what Starbucks says are "food safety rules," watches and bracelets are now banned, as well as rings with stones, including wedding rings.