Community Questions: Staffing (Patreon)

If you're already on our regular mailing list, you already got this, but I wanted to share it here as well. 

If it weren't for our Patreon members, we literally could do none of this so you should know how your contributions become staff pay. Our commitment to keep the doors open as a community space is only possible because of your commitment to us. 

Hi everyone -

In light of the current transitions at Wicked Grounds, some folks may have questions about our compensation and benefits at the Grounds, and I'm here to help!

Here is the best transparency I can offer around our policies:

Employee Benefits

• All staff start at no less than the San Francisco Minimum Wage + $0.50. At present, that works out to a starting wage of $17.50/hour. On July 1st, that will increase to a base wage of $18.57/hour.
• We always look for opportunities to advance based on responsibilities or merit increases.
• Our pay scale is relatively flat. Our highest paid employees currently receive no more than 40% above base. (For comparison, Ben & Jerry's -- sometimes held up as a model of a flat scale -- has a general top rate of 300% of base.) As noted below, I'm personally at the bottom of the scale.
• All staff are eligible to sign up for our 401k plan through Guideline. In addition to employee contributions, Wicked Grounds matches 100% of employee contributions up to the first 3% of pay, then 50% of employee contributions on the next 2% of pay.
• All staff receive 20% off any purchases at Wicked Grounds. (This is an identical discount to the one I receive myself when buying from the Grounds.)
• All staff can attend an unlimited number of free classes Wicked Grounds offers in person or online.
• All staff have unlimited free access to use the Annex for personal projects on a space available and first-requested first-served basis.
• We occasionally are able to offer additional community benefits -- for example, the gentleman behind Dirty Talk Game Show offers our staff free tickets. If you love our staff and want to give them cool community recognition, please talk to us!
• Beginning May 1, all staff will receive a 5% commission on all retail items sold during their shift. (This benefit already applies to off-site sales at our event booths, and is intended to help replace the role that tips currently play.)

While there is always room for improvement, the goal is to treat our staff fairly and recognize their work.

Instructor Benefits

• All paid instructors receive 50% of gross ticketing for all paid tickets to their classes, as independent contractors.
• Instructors additionally receive $7.50 per ticket for each scholarship ticket we award to honor our NOTAFLOF policy for classes. Those tickets are covered by our scholarship fund.
• Instructors may at their own discretion provide additional discount tickets to their friends or community, of course.
• We do occasionally have instructors who donate their time and decline payment, in order to benefit the Grounds. We appreciate that when it happens, and it does help -- but that is never expected, and is increasingly rare. We want our instructors to benefit from their efforts!

I want to recognize here that during our reopening last year, I got very, very behind on instructor payments for some instructors. Our goal is to pay out for classes within two to four weeks of a class when payments settle to our account, and I got up to months behind for some people while we were in rent negotiations to keep the space last year. I was able to take out a loan in order to get those payments caught up, and we've done our best to stay on track since.

The Elephant in the Room

• On paper, my salary is $520/week. When the Grounds is solvent, I try to take this. Most months I don't. (I have been able to include myself in three of eight payrolls this year.)
• When I am able, I accept small repayments on my extensive personal loans to the business, which is most of how I live day to day and pay for my rent and cat kibble. (Those who know me personally probably know I live frugally.)
• My employee discount on anything I purchase from the Grounds is identical to that of our staff: 20% on books and gear, 100% on classes.
• If we are able to get the Grounds back to solvency, I'd love to start getting paid for my own classes at the instructor rate. At this time, I teach 6-8 classes and workshops each month for the Grounds, and I donate 100% of that salary into the business.
• At this time, I also donate 100% of my private consulting fees back into the business. I'd love to get to a point at which I could take a 50% payout for this time, but we're not there yet.

Again, is there room for improvement? Almost certainly.

One of my goals with moving away from to-order food and drink is to move toward solvency, which will in turn allow me to provide more sustainable benefits to our staff. A focus on retail, classes, workshops & rentals will allow us to remain solvent, and allow us the ability to continue to invest in the business, including our staff.

Our change to retail & events will also allow us to expand our hours, giving staff more stability in their schedules, something we all want.

Removing food & drink (except bottled beverages) is an absolutely critical first step toward providing the working environment that everyone is asking for, and I appreciate the community's support as we make that change.

If you have questions, I'm absolutely open to them. I may or may not be able to answer everything publicly, but you have my email!

Mir
Owner, Wicked Grounds
Mir@WickedGrounds.com