COMP NEWS – Food Lifeline, one of the largest food bank providers in Washington, has increased its minimum wage to $25 an hour in a bid to retain its staff members.

Near the end of 2021, without a press announcement or much fuss, Food Lifeline quietly raised its minimum wage to $25 an hour.

The decision by one of the largest food bank providers in the state gave a substantial raise to more than 40% of its estimated 95-member staff and increased minimum salaries to $52,000 a year. It’s part of a larger initiative to improve equity standards across the organization.

The decision to increase the organization’s pay scale came from a living wage study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The living wage in King County for a family of four with both adults working comes to $24.39 an hour, according to a living wage calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That’s the figure that Food Lifeline decided to base their minimum wage on, and they also chose that to build in more room to grow compensation in other areas, including retirement and dependent coverage.

Many organizations in the greater Seattle area are still combatting high turnover nearly two years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the existing labor quota.

Food Lifeline — which supplies food to around 350 food banks, shelters and meal programs — declined to allow The Seattle Times to speak with employees impacted by the decision, so it’s hard to know how this move has steered the conversation within the organization. But outside of the nonprofit, it adds to a discussion happening across the region’s homeless and social services sector as many organizations are experiencing workforce burnout, high turnover and trouble filling open positions two years into the pandemic.    

To read more about Food Lifeline’s minimum wage increase, click here.

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