Hey all, I work at a small chain of adult novelty stores in PA. There’s 5 video & toy locations and 3 smoke shop locations. The owner of our company makes millions a year & we make tens of thousands of dollars in profit a week at my store alone.
The issue: we get paid SHIT. Starting wage is about $9/hr for sales associates. I’ve been with the company since October and have been promoted to key holder, with a $1 raise. After discussing wages with managers, I found out that they’re not even making $15 an hour and were promised somewhere between $14 and $17, but upper management tried to get away with just giving them $13.
Even working fulltime and overtime I’m barely pulling in $500 a week, and that’s only if I completely disregard my mental and physical health in order to work constantly. I love my job but it is draining dealing with the kind of situations that are bound to happen in the industry.
The CEO apparently things we deserve almost nothing as a wage because our work isn’t difficult enough to warrant more. I think that’s rubbish. It’s retail; we deal with customers, answering phone calls, doing shipment, stocking, cleaning, and even have to be prepared to be sexual harassed and personally kick people out, since that apparently comes with the job.
So, my question, how possible would it be for our company to unionize? I know A LOT of employees would be on board as I’ve heard whispering of it in our store and another one nearby. How would we even go about getting unionized if so?
Thank you for any advice or input!