around wages, with our attention being called repeatedly to the tragedies going on around the world. This week, as we continue to process anger and grief around the United States gun problem, which is inextricably linked with White supremacy, the issue of wages remains in our thoughts because it lies at the heart of so much inequity: wages are a human problem, their failure to rise a question of humanity and who gets to define the value of an hour of human labor. 

Sometimes it seems that even the idea of such a definition is preposterous - much like a painting or a song or an unforgettable meal made by someone you love, an hour of human labor is impossible to define by a dollar amount. And the thing is, we don't have to place a cap on that value - it is exponential, and can include all kinds of things in addition to US currency. But as long as wages remain a tool of White supremacy to uphold embedded racist systems, we must define a minimum wage, and we must define it in a way that recognizes the human in those who work for and with us. 

As we were recently reminded by scholar-activist, public speaker, and cultural consultant Yaba Blay (by way of her wonderful interview with Brené Brown), when we define something or someone, we must look at who is doing the defining, and why. In our case, that has meant looking at who we are: GFJ, two White women from diverse backgrounds, our entwined personal and professional missions, how we see ourselves and what we want to be. And it has meant looking at why we care about engaging on the topic of wages, what we stand to gain or lose from shifting our definition of a good food job to one that is paid minimum wage or better, and why it matters to us and to others. 

In both cases, we have stepped way out of our comfort zones and taken tangible risks with our business (by way of posting fewer jobs, i.e. all the unpaid or low-paid ones that we have turned down) and our goals (which have always included supporting small farms, many of which are disproportionately affected by our wage policy due to the existing culture of compensating farm workers through room and board, stipend-based pay, and fresh food).

We have also stepped into our power to influence a cultural shift...gained community members and job posts as a result of that...and strengthened our definition of what a good food job is by clarifying it further than ever before.  

What remains? Well, plenty of questions, to start with. Such as, how can our evolving definition of a good food job continue to dismantle White supremacy through cultural change? As many restrictions as we have placed on jobs that we post (such as stipend-based payment, which can leave worker rights unaccounted for, and 'tipped minimum wage', which is highly vulnerable to racism and sexism) these changes have opened up daily conversations with employers, something that we see as beneficial and a net gain.

But one of the unresolved conversations that we continue to circle around is how to support small farms who are struggling to pay even themselves a decent wage? We remain caught in the balance of how much needs to change in the food industry before things will be truly equitable. 

And instead of finding 'the answer' to that multi-layered, monumental problem, we have instead found ourselves more centered on what small part we can play in relation to who and why GFJ is. What we did not predict about this process is how it has shown us what it truly means to have an intersectional approach to our work. Just as some feminist movements left Black women out of the equation by failing to recognize them as human and therefore women, we cannot define a good food job as one that supports sustainability, food culture, and social justice unless it does all of those things.

That's why we're implementing a further push to raise the minimum wage for a Good Food Job to $15 / hour, regardless of what happens in the halls of government. We are making the change incrementally, with plenty of advance warning: as of June 1, 2021, we will post only jobs that pay $10 / hour or more. Six months later, as of January 1, 2022, we will only post jobs that pay $15 / hour or more.

We understand this shift will be inconvenient and uncomfortable - for employers and for us. We'll take it one step at a time, together.

Thank you for reading and learning with us. If you missed Michael Brown's guest post last week on the importance of a saving wage, you can revisit that and all our recent newsletters on the topic right here. The work of many people has informed our thoughts on the topic of wages, but two in particular have been go-to resources: on the issue of wages in agriculture, please subscribe to Chris Newman's Patreon and / or support his work on Sylvanaqua Farms through Venmo; on the issue of wages in hospitality and the service industry, please subscribe to Ashtin Berry's Patreon or support her work via Venmo.

Next week, you'll hear from another beautiful voice in our series of upcoming guest posts inspired by the #sharethemicnow movement. 
 
Yours in food, justice, and food justice,

Tay + Dor
 

photo by Alexa Romano for GFJ Stories