Cafe, Inspiring People

Family-Owned Cafe Launches New “Dying Wage” Project

A paycheck shows 584 dollars and 36 cents.

A small, family-owned Erie cafe is changing how people think about compensation in the coffee industry. In what they’re calling the Dying Wage Project, they have made a public pledge to pay each of their nine employees as little as is legally allowed, even knowing that over time, this will erode their mental and physical health, leave them no safety net in the event of emergencies, and, essentially, slowly kill them.