Spotlights
Spotlight: Equal Exchange
A worker-owned fair trade company in Massachusetts that has been run as a cooperative since 1986. How it hires and what it is like to work there.
Equal Exchange is a fair trade food company based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It imports and sells coffee, chocolate, tea and other products sourced from small farmer cooperatives, and it has been organized as a worker cooperative since it was founded in 1986.
The basics
- Founded: 1986
- Headquarters: West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
- Ownership: worker cooperative
- Size: roughly 130 employees, most of them worker-owners
- Known for: fair trade coffee and chocolate, and for being one of the largest worker co-ops in the country
How the ownership works
New employees go through a trial period, usually about a year, and then can apply to become worker-owners. Owners buy in with a one-time share purchase, get one vote each on major decisions and elect the board. Profits are shared among the worker-owners at the end of the year.
Pay is set on a limited ratio, so the highest-paid person cannot earn more than a fixed multiple of the lowest-paid. That is common at worker co-ops and unusual almost everywhere else.
Why it is on the platform
It is one of the clearest examples of a worker cooperative that operates at real scale, with a warehouse, a roastery and a national sales operation. If you want to understand what a co-op job actually looks like day to day, this is a good reference point.
Worth knowing before you apply
Roles span production, warehouse, sales, customer service and marketing. Because ownership comes with a vote, the hiring process pays attention to whether you want to participate in running the company, not only whether you can do the job.