Green Mt. Coffee wages perking up
Livable wage initiative for workers' part of company's 'social responsibility'
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By Bruce Edwards Staff Writer - Published: October 2, 2005
A central Vermont company has decided to take social responsibility to the next level and pay all its workers a livable wage.
Beginning last week, the starting wage for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters full-time employees is $10.75 an hour.
Vermont's minimum wage of $7 an hour is due to increase to $7.25 on Jan. 1.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters hired an independent consultant to determine what the company's livable wage rate should be, said Kathy Brooks, the company's vice president of human resources.
A livable wage is defined as the wage an individual requires to meet basic needs without government assistance.
Brooks said factors that went into the company's calculation for a livable wage included expenses such as insurance, groceries, rent, utilities and savings. Also factored in was the company's extensive benefit plan.
She said bumping up the starting pay covers about 14 percent of the company's 625 full-time employees who weren't earning a livable wage. She said most of the affected workers, about 100 in total, were hired this year.
Brooks said adopting a livable wage is in keeping with the company's socially responsible business philosophy. That way of doing business includes a commitment to Fair Trade coffee — paying coffee farmers in places like Indonesia a premium for their crop.
"We felt very strongly that if we were going to walk the talk and our company is really supportive of Fair Trade and the whole world, we feel like a lot of it begins at home," Brooks said.
The Waterbury company is also giving raises to full-time employees earning below $11.50 per hour.
"To bring just one group up would cause a wage compression, so we adjusted people right up through that level to make sure they were recognized for their position in the organization," Brooks said.
She said the higher wages are being paid for from internal savings and would not result in higher prices for its coffee at the retail level.
"We reallocated the funds because we think it's an important thing for the company," she said.
According to the Peace and Justice Center's Vermont Livable Wage Campaign the following represents an average livable wage in the state: single person, $12.37 an hour or $25,715 a year; single parent with one child, $18.39 an hour or $38,243 a year; single parent with two children, $20.53 an hour or $42,695 a year; two adults, both working, without children, $10.25 an hour each or $42,625 a year total; two parents with two children and one working parent, $21.79 an hour or $45,706 a year; two parents, with two children, both employed, $14.52 an hour each or $60,387 a year total.
The Burlington-based Peace and Justice Center found that based on Vermont Department of Employment and Training figures, 45 percent of the jobs in Vermont have a median wage that pays less than $11.58 an hour, the livable wage for a single person in 2003.
The Center's updated Vermont Job Gap Study concluded that one out of four full-time workers earned less than a livable wage for a single person in 2003. In addition, the study found that 29 percent of single people, 72 percent of single parents with one child, 82 percent of single parents with two children, 55 percent of families of four with one wage earner and 35 percent of families of four with two wage earners do not make a livable wage in Vermont.
The report went further saying that the situation is worse for women and for people of color with 35 percent of women compared to 19 percent of men who did not earn a livable wage. For people of color, 36 percent of people of color compared to 24 percent of whites did not earn a livable wage for a single person.
Adopting a livable wage is the latest example of GMCR's commitment to social responsibility, said Michael Dupee, the company's vice president for corporate social responsibility.
Other examples, Dupee said, includes the purchase of Fair Trade-certified coffee beans. In the last fiscal year that ended last month, he said 22 percent of the coffee purchased from farmers was Fair Trade coffee.
"When you buy Fair Trade-certified coffee you do pay a minimum price, but you also know how much of that price actually reaches the farmers and you know you're doing business with a democratically run cooperative," he said.
"It provides a more sustainable business model for coffee farmers so we have a substantial investment in that portion of our business and in growing it and in trying to educate the general public about Fair Trade certification as well."
Dupee said GMCR also earmarks 5 percent of its pretax profits to environmental projects in coffee growing communities as well as at home, which last fiscal year totaled $800,000.
The company has long recognized civil unions, providing insurance benefits for domestic partners. Other benefits include an on-site yoga and meditation room and reimbursement for half the cost of a gym or ski pass up to $400 a year.
Contact Bruce Edwards at bruce.edwards@rutlandherald.com.