Ben and Jerry Company Motivational Profile

In 1963, two classmates by the names of Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in Merrick, New York came to know each in their middle school gym class. The two instantly hit it off, became the best of friends and in 1978, the two initially had an idea to open their own bagel shop. In their early 20's the two relocated to Virginia and enrolled in at $5 correspondence class on how to make ice cream and came to realize that because of the expensive costs incurred by making bagels, manufacturing ice cream would be more of a practical idea.

In 1978, with a $12,000 investment with $4000 of the money being borrowed, Ben and Jerry transformed an old abandoned gas station into an ice cream shop. Ben and Jerry's almost seemingly immediate success came by way of their use of fresh Vermont milk and cream, and the high quality and generous amounts of fresh fruits, nuts, candies and cookies. These key ingredients

Part of the Ben & Jerry's mission as a company is to create career opportunities and financial rewards for our employees, a commitment in line with our social mission. Ben & Jerry's are committed to paying all of its full-time manufacturing workers a livable wage. (www.benjerry.com) According to our resource, in 1995, Ben & Jerry's established a method for calculating a livable wage benchmark for Vermont for a start. (www.benjerry.com)

This transition was defined as the starting wage for a single person that will help with a quality of life to include expenditures for housing, utilities, out-of-pocket health care, transportation, food, recreation, savings, taxes, and miscellaneous expenses. (www.benjerry.com) Since then, Ben&Jerry's adjusted this livable wage annually, based in part on COLA (Cost-of-Living Adjustment) data published by the government, to ensure the relative value is sustained in today's marketplace. (www.benjerry.com) So as you can see, Ben & Jerry's try to accommodate their employees outside the workplace.

In September 2006, Ben & Jerry's completed a comprehensive evaluation of their livable wage benchmark. The results showed that the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA), as published by the federal government, hasn't kept pace with the true cost of living in Vermont. (www.benjerry.com) So Ben & Jerry's recalculated a new 2006 livable wage benchmark, arriving at a revised figure of $11.78/hour, up from $10.38/hour in 2005. The new livable wage impacted 82 employees in their plants, who received an increase in their base wage and overtime wage retroactive to April 2006. (www.benjerry.com). The total amount that Ben & Jerry's paid out in 2006 for the purpose of ensuring livable wages was $103,000. (www.benjerry.com)

Every full-time Ben & Jerry's employee is eligible for some form of variable pay over and above their base pay. We felt that Ben& Jerry's bonus plans provide an added incentive to achieve sound business results and to build skills and competencies within the Company. In 2006, Ben & Jerry's salaried exempt employees, non-exempt employees and managers were eligible for the Variable Pay Award (VPA) plan which allocates bonuses based on the Company's financial performance and the individual's progress on goals and targets. (www.benjerry.com)

Ben & Jerry's full-time hourly manufacturing