Last Year We Pledged To Help Workers Earn a Living Wage, Here’s What Happened.

Last year, Wonolo made a bold bet: We said we wanted every worker accepting jobs on our platform to have the opportunity to earn at least the local Living Wage . And we asked like-minded businesses to join us by committing to posting jobs that offered rates at or above the local Living Wage.?

The initial idea behind the pledge came from our firmly held belief that one’s earnings should be enough to live on. Surely this year has already shown us just how important this issue is for hourly workers. Inflation is on the rise , housing costs continue to increase and millions of workers are being left behind .?

Now, as we enter year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to provide an update on Wonolo’s Living Wage Pledge and where we go from here. Since making the pledge last year, we saw a 500% increase in businesses posting jobs that offered pay at or above the local living wage. In fact, we ended the year with businesses posting over 1 million jobs on Wonolo that offered at least the local living wage. Overall, 82% of all jobs businesses posted on the platform in 2021 offered pay at or above the local living wage and 100% of jobs posted on Wonolo offered pay above the local minimum wage.?

My team and I are incredibly proud of this accomplishment, but our work is not done. Costs are rising, and MIT recently updated their Living Wage data . The latest information tells us our work has just begun - just as we reach one milestone, a new set of data will inform us of what workers need to obtain livable earnings in the current environment. So at Wonolo we will continue to use this data to help educate business leaders on the need for a Living Wage and continue to pledge to help workers get access to livable earnings.?

To further underscore just how important it is for business leaders to commit to paying a living wage, consider the sentiment and current situation for millions of workers. For example, we recently surveyed 3,000 workers on our platform and discovered the following :?

• 79% of respondents said they are not earning enough.
• 72% of respondents said they are looking for supplemental income.
• 50% of the survey’s respondents said they are currently struggling to make ends meet.
• Nearly half of the respondents also said they are in a worse financial position now than during the same time last year.

Stop for a moment and really consider just how many workers may have found themselves worse off financially than they were a year ago. For so many, every extra dollar matters in order to make ends meet.?

I urge you to consider joining us by taking the Living Wage Pledge: www.wonolo.com/livingwagepledge