"A rising tide lifts all boats."
- Henry B. F. McFarland

Prestige. Honor. Dignity.

The employer-employee relationship should not be looked at simply in economic terms. It is a significant human relationship of mutual dependency that has great impact on the people involved. A person’s job, like a person’s business, are highly valued possessions that pervasively affect the lives of the employees and their families. With stakeholders everywhere, the relationship is laden with moral responsibilities. Though the pressures of self-interest are very powerful and compelling, both workers and bosses should guide their choices by basic ethical principles including honest, candor, respect and caring.

The Ethical Employer Certification is a gift to humanity...  its a way for us all to come together and build working relationships that honor our better angels, and our shared humanity.  It provides the vision for a more just, burdent, and fair society, and a path to make that vision a reality.

This prestigious seal is reserved for companies that are committed to a fair, reasonable, and equitable work environments and employment practices.  The purpose is to increase awareness of employment conditions surrounding how consumers acquire their products and services, and honor companies that prioritize the health, and safety of their employees over profits.

Yes.. It's a real Certification.. and Yes.. It's FREE, and always will be!  All that is required is a commitment to excellence!

An Ethical Employer is:

A Certified Ethical Employer is an employer who, of their own choice, holds themselves to, and is committed to an EXTREMELY high bar regarding their hiring and employment practices.

Summary

What Ethical Employment practices look like in every situation is not for any one person or orginzation to decide, but basically here is how we define it here. Any person who works full-time(32 hours a week), should be able to have a roof, of their own, over their head, and food to put on the table for themselves. According to global financial experts, people should limit their housing expenses(rent/mortgage), to not exceed 25% of their monthly income. This is our starting place for the Ethical Employer Certification.

Living Wages

We start with a fundamental belief: anyone working full-time (32 hours a week) deserves a roof over their head and food on the table. Our living wage is calculated to ensure that housing expenses do not exceed 25% of a full-time employee's monthly income. For example, if the average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in your city is $950, our minimum hourly wage for entry-level positions is set at $26.00. Apprenticeship positions, combining pay and educational value, also meet this living wage standard. 

Healthy Work Life Balance

Full-time employment is defined as 32 hours per week, ensuring our employees have time for personal well-being and family. Benefits include at least one week of paid vacation annually, three days of personal leave, and maternity leave, supporting a healthy balance between work and personal life. 

Honorable Benefits

Our commitment extends to comprehensive benefits, including full retirement plans with a minimum 3% match, health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurances for full-time employees who have been with us for at least 90 days. 

Profit Sharing

We believe in equitable profit distribution. We ensure that our executives' earnings do not exceed 60% more than the average employee's income, split between a 30% cap on both salary and compensation for actual work. This policy promotes fairness and solidarity within our team. 

Ethical Employment Supply Network

Tackling income inequality goes beyond our internal practices. We commit to preferentially partnering with suppliers who also meet Ethical Employer Certification standards. This policy aims to influence the broader market, encouraging other businesses to uphold these ethical standards, thereby fostering a more equitable economic environment. 

Subcontractor Ethics

Our use of subcontractors is judicious and principled. We engage subcontractors who share our commitment to ethical employment, ensuring that our values extend throughout our supply chain. 

Together, Towards a More Equitable World

The Ethical Employer Certification isn't just a badge; it's a promise to our employees, customers, and community. It's our way of contributing to a more just, fair, and equitable society. Join us in this commitment, and together, we can reshape the landscape of employment for the better.

Benefits of being an Ethical Employer:

Being an Ethical Employer leads to increased worker morale, worker health, and improved quality of service. It also lowers turnover rates, saving money for employers. Economic research shows that higher wages aid in job creation and helps small business.  Companies who carry the prestigious seal as an Ethical Employer are viewed as more trustworthy, honest, and honorable, demonstrating higher value, and able to reasonably demand higher fees for their services.  Studies have shown that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for similar services if they have confidence that labor that went into the products or services are sourced in an ethical manner.  Consumers who equate with equitable treatment, and living wages with higher levels of trust, value, and confidence in businesses, and thus garner higher marketplace value for the same services.  Carrying the Ethical Employer Seal not only makes you look like a better company in the eyes of consumers, it MAKES you a better company.  It shows that you are committed to doing the right thing, even if it's difficult.

Only do Business With a Certified Ethical Employer!

Directory

Terms for Service:

The Ethical Employer Certification is provided by www.EthicalEmployerCertification.com , and all certifications are issued for free, issued by the employer to themselves upon completion of the pledge application contained on this website.  The general public hold these employers accountable to the terms of this certification in the court of public opinion.  Any employer who commits to the values as described herein have the permission to use the seal contained herein, and/or any graphics on this website on any digital, or printed materials, for promotional purposes, or otherwise.  Employers found to violate the terms of service for use of this brand, and certification may be subject to the loss of their certification indefinitely, which includes the formal and immediate ir-revocation of any permissions of use of the seal, and/or any other graphics provided by www.EthicalEmployerCertification.com, and removal from any directories on this website. 

Donations:

We're fighting together for a living wage.  But it takes work.  We would like to grow this cause substantially, and invest more time and resources into the website, marketing, and outreach.. but that takes time and money.  If you want to help grow this movement, but don't have time to volunteer, donate some cash for the cause! Donations go to EGB Services LLC., and are NOT tax deductible!   ALSO. Donations are NOT guaranteed to go directly to this project specifically.  This project is the brain child of its developer, and as such funds may be used directly, or indirectly to achieve its over all goals.

Please keep in mind that all the time that is spent on managing this project is on a volunteer basis, but still takes time and energy to do... time and energy that must be taken from something else that could be profitable...  so you're donations go to help aide this process and make the project make 'cents'.. For; If it don't make dollars, it don't make cents.

Q&A: Are you suggesting that everyone should make the same amount of money?

There is no such thing as an employee.  We are all colleagues in this shared experience we call society.  While some definitely, whether through burden of responsabilities, personal investment through time, energy, and resouces, defintely deserve more portions of profits for their added weight of responsability and personal sacrifices, that does not mean that others, suddenly don't matter as part of the entire equation.  It may be true that a doctor is, and should be entitled to a great share of profits, that doesn't mean that the janitor should not deserve at least a home to live in, and food to put on the table... and even at that, the income disparity should not be great that it pushes the janitor into a different class of citizen by their nature of their job roll. 

Q&A: I don't like something here.

cool.. just let us know, I'm sure we can work it out.  Nothing on this site should be considered as rules.. rather guidelines.  The point is everyone deserves an ethical income for work provided.

Q&A: How can I help?

This site and project is a grass-roots project run by a very few number of people(currently 1), who are just trying to make a difference.  If you would like to get involved and help, there are several ways to do it:
1. If you are an employer, accept the Ethical Employer Pledge, and get your business added to our database(currently this database requires a lot of manual work to update, so it can be a little slow.  I'd like to build out this site so its more automated, but this takes time and money that I don't really have.  I'm currently homeless and working out of a van.. so please be patient with the progress.  If any ethical employers want to hire me, please let me know. lol) 
2. Spread the Word: Challenge any employers, or companies that you do business with, or are considering doing business with to accept the Ethical Employer Challenge, as detailed above.  Share content from us with others, anytime you can.
3. Donate.  As I mentioned, I'm currently running this operation by myself, while also struggling to find Ethical Employment myself(which is part of the inspiration for how I started this), and I have a lot of goals for this project, but this all takes time, and money.  The more money that is donated to this project, the more time and resources I'll have to improve it.  Please check the donations section of this site to find out how to donate, using the donate now button.  ALL donations are NOT tax deductible, and go directly into my pocket to be used as I deem necessary to accomplish the goals I have set for myself and this project, and other things as I deem neccessary.  Donations are not guaranteed to be used only for this project.  This is NOT an attempt to make money or get rich, but projects like this require a lot of investment in many forms, and take time to fully evolve. 

If you are a developer, or have some other skill set that you would like to volunteer for this project, please reach out to me at: https://www.facebook.com/eddie.boscana 

Q&A: How do I start this in my area?

Good news!  The Ethical Employer Certification is free, and GLOBAL.  Anyone who takes the pledge to be an ethical employer, is by definition, an Ethical Employer and has the rights to use the seal on any and all branding.  You can verify whether an employer has officially accpeted the pledge by checking our database on our website which give the contact details of Ethical Employers.

Q&A: What are the project goals?