So you don’t get a post from me in a long long time. Then the first one I put up is to avoid doing something else! Sorry all. I think there are a lot of parts of my job I’m not doing very well right now. I don’t know if the fact that I’m putting everything I have into this softens those failures or makes them sting more. Maybe I’ll write more on that later. But for now I’m just avoiding some work. You know that feeling?

So that’s my computer, perched just below the “You are the lab: If we pay more, will you pay more?” sticker in the window. I’m plugging away on a spreadsheet analyzing sales and transactions over recent months, and projecting future impact of price increases and pay increases. And it’s not this work that I’m avoiding. I really like numbers. I’m one of those folks that feels comfort and refuge in the world of equations and calculations.

I’m avoiding the decisions that I’m going to have to make as soon as I finish that analysis. Because we’re at step 2 in our long-term effort to drive our wages to a whole new level. For those not following this I announced this move back in October at an all company meeting, then after some internal discussion opened the conversation up to everybody with some blog posts: How much should employees earn 1 and part 2, Pay and prices.

The idea is that I think low wages are bad for us all. They create instability and are not consistent with sustainable food. So we’re engaging all stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) in tough conversations about pay. I want to pay a lot more. Like $20/ hour. The only way we’re going to get there is by increasing prices.

So that’s the scary part. The last thing I want to do is make Clover less attractive for anybody. We want everybody to eat at Clover! So increasing prices is not much fun. But I’m convinced it’s the right thing to do.

OK, back to that analysis. New prices coming soon. I’ll post details on changes (and pay increases) as soon as I get this work done…