Prince Edward Island Co-operative Council, Charlottetown, PE

Worker coops can be more satisfying than working for the man. Worker-owners aren’t forced into a hierarchy, and they have more say over what the business does than traditional employees. You still have to be responsible managing a coop, maybe more so, but your coworker-owners will likely be nicer and more understanding of personal needs and quirks than middle-management at any corporation. You will probably make more money by cutting out the investors and managers, unless you were one of them, in which case: welcome to egalitarianism! In typical low-paying industries, worker-owners can make several times what they were pulling in as employees. For example, in Petaluma, California, Alvarado Street Bakery worker-owners take home around sixty-thousand dollars a year – a Hell of a lot better than working for minimum wage. As a worker-owner, you are less likely to get laid off, both because coops prioritize steady employment over short-term profits, and because they are more sustainable than their conventional counterparts.