Ross Video now has a $20 Minimum Wage

*This article was originally posted August 2020.

Ross Video now has a $20 minimum wage.

This will have a positive impact on about 100 families that are part of Team Ross. For some of them, a huge impact.

Why did we do this?

1. Covid-19 has highlighted how our “essential” workers on the front line are also our lowest paid.

2. Where we live, $18 is the living wage. Basically, it’s the poverty line for someone supporting a family of four. Minimum wage in Ottawa is $14. People in my company should be better off than that.

3. Our lowest paying jobs are also our entry level jobs. Why not attract the best early?

4. The impact of this was only 0.3% of our overall payroll. Tiny.

5. Low wage earners spend a higher percentage of their income in their local communities (out of necessity) than high wage earners which is good for rebooting the economy.

6. The cost of direct labor is a surprisingly small portion of the cost of high tech manufactured goods. Components, machines, overhead, sales, marketing, R&D, etc are much more significant.

7. We spend disproportionally too much time thinking about how to reward the highest paid people in our companies.

8. Profits won’t be impacted, just growth rates, if anything. (Extra explanation below on this).

9. It feels good to do this, if you can.

Here’s the release:

https://www.rossvideo.com/ross-video-increases-companys-minimum-wage-to-ca20-per-hour/