The recent COVID pandemic has brought to surface the precarious nature of our economic future. As I write this, relief from state and federal government have run out but contrary to what was expected, people aren't lining up to get jobs they lost or left during COVID. Instead, small businesses are struggling to fill vacancies and many are closing their doors.

State economic developers are blaming net migration as the reason for labor shortage - more people moving out of state than those coming in to Alaska. Small business owners facing employee shortage are saying that potential employees are asking for living wages and benefits that their businesses cannot afford.

We think everyone has the right to pursue prosperity- this means earning a living wage, living debt-free, owning a home, and having access to affordable health care. How do we reconcile these two seemingly irreconcilable needs: affordable labor for businesses and living wages for employees? If no new solutions are put forth the problems of unemployment, mental health, physical and social wellbeing of our families and neighbors will deepen further.

In the case of small individually owned businesses, the solution lies in spreading the risks, responsibilities, and rewards of the single owner to many. This is possible when the investors are the individual entrepreneur, the local community (individuals and philanthropic organizations), and the future employees. This is a key feature of worker owned cooperatives. 

In a worker cooperative the capital providers are primarily the worker owners. The local communities, philanthropic and anchor institutions who have a stake in the prosperity and wellbeing of the people provide the initial seed capital to start the cooperative businesses. Hired workers are trained on the job to both operate and manage the business and to become owners over time. Initial community and philanthropic investors stay or exit after a time, providing a pathway for workers to build equity ownership in the business. In a worker cooperative employees share ownership as well as its responsibilities, risks, and rewards. With equitable distribution of profits and fair wages, worker cooperatives make it possible for workers to earn living wages and to accumulate generational wealth while providing returns to the local communities who invest in them.

Some worker owned cooperative examples include Mondragon Corporation (Spain), Evergreen Cooperative (USA), Cafe L'Artere (Canada), and Equal Exchange (USA).

MyceliaAk (www.myceliaak.com) is a local project to help communities create worker owned enterprises. Please contact us through the home page if you want to learn more about worker cooperatives and the work we do.