A bar of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap might cost a dollar or two more than a generic bar you get at the grocery store but, quality aside, it might ease your worries to know some of it goes to strong benefits for workers.
The Vista company has won The San Diego Union-Tribune’s top prize for a mid-sized company for the second year in a row, based on employee interviews. Things might have changed a bit during the pandemic, but the company has only increased its perks for workers.
Just some of the benefits include fully paid health insurance, free vegan lunches (pre-packaged now due to COVID-19), free weekly yoga classes (on Zoom at the moment), $7,500 in annual childcare subsidies, year-end bonuses of up to 10 percent and a profit-sharing retirement fund with up to 15 percent of each worker’s salary contributed annually by the company.
Also, starting in March, all workers are receiving an additional $2.50 an hour in “appreciation pay” as the business experiences growth because of increased COVID-related demand for soap and hand sanitizer. Management said it has no set end date for the perk, only that it will continue until the pandemic is over.
“Once (employees) come here, and they are part of our business, they stay for many years,” said Blanca Alvarez, the Vista plant’s operations manager.
Many workers at the plant have spent many years with the company, which its executive team points to as a strength. Alvarez started as a product and packaging assistant 13 years ago, working her way up to supervisor and eventually manager for the whole plant.
The family-run business was founded in 1948 by Emanuel Bronner who fled as the Nazi Party rose to power. His parents, who stayed behind, were killed in the Holocaust. That experience is responsible for the “All-One!” phrase you see on the soaps today — a belief by Emanuel Bronner that all people are children of the same divine source and if we lose sight of that it could destroy humanity.
Today, Dr. Bronner’s president is Emanuel Bronner’s grandson Mike Bronner, 45, who oversees around 300 employees in San Diego County. Counting the years in from before the founding of the company, he is a fifth-generation soap maker.
Company products include bar and liquid soap, toothpaste, lip balm, body lotions, hand sanitizer, biodegradable cleaner, hair cream, shaving soaps and coconut oil.
Bronner said the company has six cosmic principles (kind of like a mission statement) that guide its actions, and one of them is to treat employees like family.
“We want to do right. We want to provide and elevate livelihoods wherever we can,” he said, “whether that is here in our factory or that is where our supplies come from in Sri Lanka or Samoa or Ghana.”
Dr. Bronner’s
Executive pay at the company is capped at no more than five times the lowest starting hourly base pay. That’s $17.86 an hour for a temporary worker or $20.80 for full-time.
Pay has increased as the fortunes of Dr. Bronner’s rises. Revenue has grown from $4 million in 1998 to $130 million in 2019. It predicts revenue of $186 million this year.
Some of that money has gone into safety at the plant: Extra janitors to clean constantly, a temperature checker, face shields and masks for employees, sanitizer and soap stations, upgrading technology to touchless systems and air purifiers throughout. Employees have also been given an additional 40 hours of sick time, added to 80 total, to be extra sure workers stay home if they feel sick.
A lot of workers cite the Employee Giving Program as a major reason why they like their job. Each worker receives $100 to donate to one of five selected charities chosen by the staff.
Employee comments in the Energage survey of Dr. Bronner’s for the Top Workplaces contest:
“I love my job because I am reminded every day of the beautiful change and work Dr. Bronner’s contributes to this world and I am so grateful to be motivated to be a part of that,” wrote one employee.
“I feel like what we’re doing is making a positive impact on the world,” wrote another.
Dr. Bronner’s also gives a lot in donations on its own, $8.4 million in 2019, and recently gave $25,000 in of the Black Lives Matter movement. Some of the recipients were the Movement for Black Lives, Northside Funders Group, Know Your Rights Camp and The Loveland Foundation.
