大象传媒

From the outside, Cafe Euphoria might seem like any other coffee shop in downtown Troy, New York鈥攁n upstate city of 50,000 that has a caf茅 on practically every block. But inside this brick storefront, something much more radical is brewing: a business model that could upend the traditional capitalistic business structure.

鈥淲e are anti-capitalist in our composition to the core,鈥� says Atsushi Akera, general manager of Cafe Euphoria, which also includes a coworking space and curated thrift shop. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to create an alternative economic system that goes against the traditional ways of doing things, [one that鈥檚] based on principles of equity, inclusion, all of that.鈥�

We鈥檙e trying to create an alternative economic system that goes against the traditional ways of doing things, [one that鈥檚] based on principles of equity, inclusion, all of that.鈥�

鈥擜tsushi Akera

Cafe Euphoria has a radical and unique approach: The business is a worker-owned cooperative run by a group of eight transgender and gender-nonconforming folks who are all paid the same wage鈥�$18 an hour, with a goal to raise the wage over time until it reaches $32 an hour. The model is meant to lift employees out of poverty; according to a recent study by UCLA, almost a third of trans adults in the U.S. were living in poverty in 2019.

The aim is to ensure the caf茅 breaks even, with income covering all expenses. Akera says the caf茅 currently makes between $200 and $400 a day during the week, and up to $4,000 on a busy weekend. She estimates the caf茅 will break even after about 14 months and be able to increase wages after two or three years. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 no investors, so there鈥檚 no profit. We push everything out in wages. So the idea is to balance things out,鈥� Akera says.

The desire and has become a focus of worker concerns in the U.S. throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers have also been seeking alternatives to the top-down corporate model that disempowers them. The 鈥�,鈥� as well as a number of unionization drives, show that workers鈥攂aristas included鈥攈ave had enough. Starbucks shops nationwide are , and independent coffee shops are trying out even more progressive policies.

Co-ops have increasingly been hiring people 鈥渨ho have really been excluded from decent work,鈥� says Micha Josephy, executive director of the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast. 鈥淭hat could be for a lot of reasons: They haven鈥檛 been able to access decent education, there鈥檚 discrimination by people doing hiring that exclude them from the workforce. It could be that there are jobs in their sector, but that those jobs are dangerous or they鈥檙e just structured in a way that鈥檚 not worker-centric. Worker co-ops are a way to center workers in how you structure the work.鈥�

At Cafe Euphoria, the worker-centered economic model was not initially the main goal, but has quickly become a defining feature of the business. The idea for the caf茅 emerged from a virtual support group during the pandemic focused on trans and gender-nonconforming folks. While the community was strong at first, it frayed as in-person activities restarted and virtual spaces lost their luster. That鈥檚 when Akera posed a question to the group: What if we create a transgender caf茅?

鈥淭he main thing is that we were driven more by the social mission than by the idea of a worker-owned cooperative. So it was 鈥榃e鈥檙e creating a safe space for the trans and the gender-nonconforming community,鈥欌�� Akera explains. 鈥淎nd then we said, 鈥楢nd we are a cooperative, so everybody gets paid the same.鈥欌��

Josephy says this is a very common path into the co-op world: A business will start out with a social mission and realize that a worker co-op is an effective means of achieving it.

鈥淥ne of the things that democratic workplaces can do is allow people to bring in aims that are not merely economic aims,鈥� says Joe Marraffino, a loan and outreach officer at the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast who has been advising Akera as the caf茅 gets off the ground.

Cafe Euphoria is still smoothing out the kinks, but here鈥檚 how its co-op model works: The wage for all positions starts at $18 an hour, which comprises $13.20 in actual wages and $4.80 in member equity. Consistent with the , all employees are offered an ownership stake of the caf茅 after working their first 50 hours. That means that, as member-owners, all of the workers have an equal say in the direction of the business and own a real asset in the form of member equity. Depending on how the co-op is structured, that equity can be accessed over time or when a worker exits the business.

When wages do reach $32 an hour, the increase will also apply retroactively, Akera says, meaning workers will be paid the difference for all previous hours worked at the lower wage. There鈥檚 no set time frame for the increases, because that will depend on revenue growth.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still learning what that number needs to be,鈥� Akera says. 鈥淗istorically, food service is an industry that underpays their workers, so this will be a challenge for us. But we鈥檙e looking for ways to beat the curve; our tips, so far, have been close to 25% because of the tremendous support out there for our community.鈥� 

The commitment to equity, however, goes beyond the caf茅鈥檚 workers. Everything at Cafe Euphoria鈥攆rom the coffee and muffins to the thrifted clothing鈥攊s priced on a 3-to-1 sliding scale. Customers whose self-reported income is above $62,000 are asked to pay the highest price鈥攕ay, $18 for a lunch. Anyone who makes less than that is welcome to pay the middle price, which might go down to $12. Then, the lowest 鈥渟olidarity鈥� price鈥攕ay, $6鈥攊s intended 鈥減rimarily for members of the trans and gender-nonconforming community who cannot pay the middle price,鈥� Akera says.

鈥淚t is all self-declared, you don鈥檛 have to explain a thing. You just tell us what discount to apply, and we will apply the discount,鈥� she explains.

The sliding scale makes Cafe Euphoria somewhat of an outlier, even in the socially progressive world of co-ops, Marraffino says.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e asking their customers to have an experience of solidarity and not just to maximize their individual gain,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e putting their social aims and their beliefs on their sleeve and hoping that the people reciprocate.鈥�  

So far, they have. Akera says 94% of customers are opting for the top of the sliding scale. It鈥檚 a reflection of growing consumer appetite for equitable business practices.

鈥淚f their model is radical, their timing is right,鈥� says Marraffino. Often, he鈥檒l point out that they are diverging from traditional work co-op practices, but it doesn鈥檛 seem to bother them much. 鈥淭his is a different type of organization that is trying to break boundaries,鈥� he says.

While Cafe Euphoria鈥檚 plans are ambitious, the staff鈥檚 experience so far also underlines some essential truths: The caf茅 has already been forced to make compromises and has hit more than a few road bumps trying to operate within its model.

Take one relatively simple piece of most businesses: running meetings. Without a traditional hierarchy in place, the Cafe Euphoria staff at first struggled to hold discussions that allowed everyone to contribute without the discussion descending into chaos. 

鈥淭hat is one of our challenges, because people can understand [a co-op] in principle, but to understand it in practice is very hard,鈥� Akera says.

After a few iterations, they鈥檝e found something that works: Each meeting starts with a brief general manager鈥檚 report, and then everyone suggests agenda items that are voted on and ranked, setting the course for the remainder of the meeting.

Cafe Euphoria, like many worker co-ops, also invests heavily in worker training. In trying to solve a labor problem鈥攈iring and paying a historically excluded community, in the historically underpaid service industry鈥攖he caf茅 has a much different labor pool than its peers.

鈥淲e鈥檙e picking good people, but we don鈥檛 necessarily have all the skills,鈥� says Akera. That applies to her as well: Akera has had a long career as an academic, and for the caf茅鈥檚 early months continued to work full time as a professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she says she earned more than enough money to live a comfortable life. She retired from her academic post on June 30 to focus full time on the caf茅, where her compensation will take the form of member equity instead of a wage, at least until the caf茅 is on stronger financial footing. 鈥淚鈥檓 a professor, I鈥檝e never created a restaurant before. I鈥檝e never managed a business before. So there鈥檚 a lot of figuring out that goes on.鈥�

But overcoming these hurdles can allow entire communities and industries to reimagine their relationship with work. Josephy and Marraffino say a lot of service-sector workers in particular are now seeking out worker co-ops as a way to continue doing what they love, while seeking economic empowerment.  

And it鈥檚 not just new businesses that are using this model: Josephy and Marraffino are also seeing a lot of conversions, especially as an older generation of business owners retires and looks for a way to sustain their enterprise. One recent example is , a caf茅 in Providence, Rhode Island, that was purchased by its own employees and . 

Chloe Chassaing, a worker-owner at White Electric, says the conversion to a co-op to increase transparency and improve labor practices at the caf茅. A year after the conversion, the shop鈥檚 13 workers have hammered out a model that works for them. The formerly haphazard pay and raise structure has been flattened out, with a higher base wage and a plan to give 4% annual raises to everyone. All of the workers, many of whom are Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, queer, working class, or first-generation or children of immigrants, are offered an ownership stake in the business after their first six months of employment; the equity buy-in is $100, with the option to contribute more in each paycheck, and workers get the money back if they decide to leave.

鈥淣o one is looking to get rich off of this, we just want decent jobs and to be able to have a say in them,鈥� Chassaing says.

The model can also allow historically marginalized communities鈥攕uch as formerly incarcerated people, or immigrants, or transgender folks鈥攖o access jobs and wealth that otherwise might never be available to them, according to Marraffino.

鈥淲hat better way to transcend workplace discrimination than to own the workplace?鈥� Marraffino says.