New Onboarding Rules

In the past, worker-owners have earned different amounts of equity for their work.

For instance, early worker-owners earned $7.25/hour for their sweat equity toward their ownership share. More recent worker-owners earned $15/hour for their equity. A select few worker-owners have earned $50-65/hour for some needed specialized work, like graphic design, web design and strategic planning.

While that has been helpful for the development of the cooperative, worker-owners that are stuck earning much less equity for their work feel like this is unfair. In fact, these worker-owners are experiencing unequal treatment.

We have also found out that some eligible members are, in fact, not a good fit for the business.

Solution: Member-Owners that have not earned their ownership share must all earn the same amount of sweat equity for their work. As an example, every temporary member-owner will earn $15/hour for their sweat equity contributions towards their ownership share.

Solution: Those working with the cooperative will first be hired as independent contractors or employees for one year. After that first year, they will be eligible to be voted in as member-owners to engage in the process of becoming a permanent manager-owner.