What Does "Living Wage" Mean To You?
What Does "Living Wage" Mean To You? A Short Poll
We (the Barista Guild Leadership Council) have chosen “Livelihood in Coffee,” with an emphasis on a living wage, as one of the themes since June 2020 for our initiatives.
For the sake of this on-going conversation, we’re defining a living wage as:
“The remuneration received for a standard workweek by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the workers and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events.” (globallivingwage.org)
We want to make the idea and the reality of a living wage a norm for baristas. So we created a survey that we hope will give us a view of the current landscape baristas face.
We plan to use this glimpse of the various definitions of a living wage to plan discussions and educational resources for the coming year.
We believe a living wage is an essential stepping stone for the barista role to be a sustainable part of the industry and continuing to make both coffee quality and the industry better and better.
We believe that by opening up a discussion of living wage we can support baristas in advocating for themselves with employers, navigating career changes and professional development, and hopefully reveal ways that living wage benefits not just baristas but also cafe owners, customers, and others in the coffee supply chain.
Resources: