News

WAGES is currently seeking three summer interns to support WAGES mission of creating healthy, dignified jobs for low-income women. See our employment page for a full description.

Reporting to the Director of Development and Evaluation, the VISTA Evaluation Associate will join a team working to advance WAGES’ evaluation and impact assessment efforts in 2012-2013, furthering our mission of increasing the number of living-wage jobs and opportunities for low-income women to acquire and build assets. This is a 1-year AmeriCorps VISTA service position.

For more information please visit our job posting on our Employment Opportunities page.

WAGES' alternative model of job creation and economic empowerment via worker-owned co-ops is discussed in a recent article - "An Economy Turned Upside Down" - on Shareable.net. Author Mira Luna explores myriad grassroots alternatives to re-building communities and paths to economic freedom for the working class.

Representatives from Natural Home Cleaning Professionals, a WAGES affiliate, will be joining a variety of other members from surrounding Bay Area worker cooperatives this Thursday at a free, informational co-op event being held in Richmond and sponsored by Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives (NOBAWC). Join us in learning more about job creation and cooperative development ! More information can be found here.  

Thanks to the ethics and environmentalism blog, Fashion With a Heart, for a mention about Seventh Generation's collaboration and unique partnership with WAGES to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) and further develop economic opportunities for low-income women. Read more about how WAGES and SVG are teaming up in creative ways to transform business and corporate consciousness.

Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi Strauss Foundation have together supported the pioneering work of WAGES, and recently produced a new short film on how WAGES transforms women's lives through economic empowerment. Currently, the WAGES film is being featured on the Shape What's to Come website, an online community where women can share their interests and passions, regardless of age or location. WAGES is truly honored to help spread ideas around the globe and help Shape What's to Come! 

WAGES is proud to have been included as one of the 23 successful partnerships featured in a new research report released by LBG Associates. The report demystifies the process for building a successful, high-impact corporate-nonprofit strategic partnership, and the case studies reveal more than a dozen best practices for nonprofits and companies alike. The Executive Summary of the report is available for free here.

Spanish-language KDTV, Univision 14 News, featured WAGES and two of its co-ops -- Natural Home Cleaning and Home Green Home -- in a two-part story that explored the model of worker-owner, green cleaning cooperatives and the way WAGES' programs have improved the economic security for the women involved, their families, and their communities.

 WAGES' Executive Director, Hilary Abell, joined fellow nonprofit advocate Cynthia Chavez, Executive Director of LeaderSpring, for a sit down conversation with Comcast's Newsmakers, a monthly newscast that features community, nonprofit, and educational leaders. As an alumni of LeaderSpring's Fellowship program for executives of community-based organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hilary talked about her experience with the program and the impact of the training on her ability to support WAGES' growth in the coming years.

 Nearly 200 WAGES supporters joined WAGES' co-op members, board, and staff for a remarkable celebration on October 27, 2010, honoring 15 years of success in creating healthy, dignified jobs for low-income women. Check out pictures of the evening's events here.

WAGES is featured in an SF Public Press article citing the worker-owned co-op movement as a source of employment for low-wage workers during a time of economic despair.

Executive Director Hilary joins National Worker-Owned Cooperative Conference keynote speaker Jim Hightower and members of other bay-area co-ops on KALW’s Your Call program on the topic of how worker-owned cooperatives are making a difference. Listen to the radio show online or via podcast at the Your Call blog.

WAGES is a beneficiary of the newly-launched Remit4Change project, which provides a fair-priced alternative transaction service for immigrants send to their home communities and leverages a portion of the service’s earnings to invest in select poverty-fighting organizations.

WAGES is featured in a Huffington Post article on the value of housework in family stability and the national economy.

Sheila Hollender of Seventh Generation blogs about her visit with WAGES and the co-ops.

triplepundit.com blogger Amie Vaccaro says, "I’m intrigued by WAGES because it is one of very few models I’ve encountered that truly meets the people-planet-profit trifecta of a triple bottom line," calling us a "small but mighty" non-profit incubator of green businesses.

An article entitled "Worker Owned Cooperatives" provides some history to the cooperative movement. Michelle Matos, WAGES' cooperative development trainer is featured. Click here to read more.

A New York Times business section article entitled, "Green Offshoots", features WAGES' model of small green business development. Click to read more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/business/smallbusiness/29sbiz.html?_r=1&ref=business

We celebrated its official launch in the summer of 2009. By combining forces, the member cooperatives and WAGES bring new tools to the fight against recession and poverty; the strength of unity, mutual support, and economies of scale. Check back soon for pictures of our launch celebration.

The cooperative takes the comprehensive view of green jobs: Workers receive training in money management (after all, they're part owners) and in cleaning techniques that minimize strain on the body—which, if you've read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, you know is a serious issue among Mini Maid-type companies. Home Green Home also takes pride in seeing how workers educate other members of their communities on how to get things clean without chemical cleaners.

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?blogid=49&entry_id=41683

The worker/owners of Home Green Home have completed intensive training, not just about the health benefits of green cleaning and the best techniques, but also about the intricacies of running a business. They’ve completed workshops in finances and customer satisfaction. The superior training is provided by WAGES, whose mission is to build worker-owned green businesses that create healthy, dignified jobs for low-income women.

Read More: http://www.momgogreen.com/2009/02/home-green-home.html

WAGES and the coops they have incubated over the last 14 years have helped raise dozens and dozens of women and their families from poverty. It is an incredibly powerful story, one that involves not simply offering a handout, but instead extending a hand up. The coop members earn a sustainable living while enjoying benefits like healthcare and paid vacations, benefits that are virtually non-existent in their industry. They are trained in the skills necessary to run and own their own businesses, skills that motivate and empower.

Read More: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/blog/wages-housecleaning-cooperat...

Green building practices are changing the way that we design and construct our buildings. But have we forgotten about how we maintain and clean our homes and offices? Implementing an ongoing maintenance program using environmentally responsible cleaning products is an important element to any sustainability strategy. One non-profit business incubator is merging green cleaning practices and social equity by starting cooperatives that improve the lives of low-income workers in Northern California and provide for a truly clean indoor environment.

Read More: http://usgbcncc1.nonprofitsoapbox.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=...

WAGES’s success has had a noticeable impact on the housecleaning industry. The group continues to help organize other housecleaning cooperatives in the Bay Area and has helped others form green cooperatives, such as Eco-Bay Landscaping in Oakland, California.Organizations like WAGES and cooperatives like NHC show us that we can have good jobs that are also healthy jobs. Another world is possible, and these women are working toward it.

Read More: http://bcaction.org/index.php?page=newsletter-101c

Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, Calif., was formed more than 10 years ago to help empower low-income women, both economically and socially, through cooperative business ownership. WAGES serves the greater San Francisco Bay area and specializes in housecleaning co-ops. Because the majority of housecleaners in California are Hispanic, WAGES focuses on helping Hispanic women. With WAGES' support, Latina women are moving out of poverty and into entrepreneurship.

Read More: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KFU/is_2_74/ai_n19022190/

WAGES is on the cutting edge of "greening" the residential cleaning industry. WAGES calculates that the three coops will prevent the release of 4,000 pounds of hazardous materials to the environment in 2005. They are transforming the working lives of their housecleaners who are, in turn, changing their private lives. Claudia, a founding member of Eco-Friendly Cleaning in Oakland, formerly used toxic cleaning chemicals such as bleach all day long. "I would leave work with headaches, allergies, and feeling really tired. I felt really bad all around. Now I don't use chemicals and I'm really happy with my work. I even use natural products at home."

Read More: http://www.babwnews.com/article.php?id=498&action=&PHPSESSID=42a8f40b9b0...

But with the help of an Oakland-based organization called Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), Naranjo became one of the founders of a South Bay housecleaning cooperative called Eco-Care. WAGES helps low-income women form worker-owned cleaning cooperatives by providing training, technical assistance and three years of management services until the cooperatives can become self-sustaining businesses.

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2005/08/17/gree.DTL&...