It’s expensive to run a business. But when companies like Walmart or Amazon cut corners on wages and benefits, they hurt the most important people: their own employees. In 1965, the average CEO-to-employee compensation ratio was 21:1. Last year, that ratio skyrocketed to 281:1.
The small businesses of the Green Business Network®, however, actively work against this trend. Though small businesses face steeper hurdles than corporations or chains to keep the lights on, GBN members understand there is no compromising just labor practices. While some businesses like Target quickly buckled under pressure on DEI, or actively union-bust like Starbucks, a truly ethical business does not give up its morals just to stay open.
Profit Doesn’t Require Exploitation
The Ukranian- and family-owned woodcrafting business AltaadiR doesn’t mince words. “As craftspeople, we do not separate profitability from ethical responsibility. Our pricing is based on the real cost of materials, time, and skilled manual labor—not on mass-production standards or the pressure to compete with low-cost imports,” says co-owners Tetiana and Oleksii Riabchenko.
Kim Isley, founder of the tree gifting business Trees for a Change agrees that “employee pay is not one of the places to get creative.”
The national numbers underscore Isley’s claim. To live in West Virginia, ranked in a 2025 SmartAsset study as the state with the lowest necessary income, a person would have to make a minimum of $38.86/hour to attain a livable wage—over five times as much as the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, which was last raised 17 years ago, in 2009.
“If you can’t find a way to make a bit of profit without exploiting the labor of others, you’re doing something wrong,” Isley declares.
Listening to Your Employees
Employee wellbeing doesn’t just depend on wages but in the U.S., work benefits are treated as an optional luxury. Among 41 countries studied by the Pew Research Center in 2019, the U.S. is alone in offering zero hours of mandatory parental leave. Similarly, healthcare is often tied to employment in the U.S., rather than seen as a basic right.
Julie Lineberger of the accessible modular housing manufacturer WheelPad and Co-Board Chair of Green America says the company starts from “the assumption that good wages and benefits are essential.”
“We ask how to build a business that can support these commitments from the beginning,” she explains.
What this looks like in practice can vary across organizations. At Nomadics Tipi Makers, the company’s commitment to supporting workers includes encouraging employees to advocate for themselves and “a healthy work-life balance” and responding respectfully.
“If an employee needs time off, flexibility due to personal issues, or needs extra work to make ends meet, we always listen,” says owner Nicole Loffler of Nomadics.
Humanity Must Come First
“Just labor practices start with recognizing that humans are living beings with dynamic needs,” says Stefan Schachter, co-founder of ECOTEAS. “We structure work in such a way to try to avoid injury and burnout.”
For Damian Jones at Aid Through Trade, the success of a business and the artisans it works with are one and the same. As a fair-trade business, like many Green Business Network® members, Aid Through Trade also must adhere to rigorous standards.
“When you know personally the hands that make your jewelry, just labor practices aren’t an abstract
concept but a visible reality that calls us to operate at a higher level,” Jones says.
Integrity, Not Compromise
Some business owners recognize that committing to their morals sometimes means having to say no or “de-prioritizing something else,” as Robert Behnke of the clothing company Fair Indigo{GBN} puts it.
“In our case, it’s partially the overhead that comes with locating your office in a very desirable zip code with very desirable office space,” Behnke says.
Eliza Loring, owner of sustainable fashion brand OOLOOP, had to turn down working with some designers for the sake of her ethics. And despite economic pressures like inflation and tariffs that have caused some brands to axe their sustainable fibers, Loring stayed strong.
“By refusing to work with certain designers because their materials were not good enough, we found they came back and added more organics and recycled fibers to their collections,” she says.
If these small businesses can afford just labor practices, there are no excuses for the biggest corporations. Vote with your dollar by supporting the small businesses of the Green Business Network® and holding corporate bigshots accountable.
