MEMBER PROFILE

Tara Lambert

Tara Lambert started Getting Down to Business class one month after she moved to Ithaca. “I was planning to open my nutritional counseling practice and this class was invaluable…I don’t think I would have been prepared to open my practice without it. The class taught me everything. I learned profit/loss analysis, break even analysis and how to record and track my finances…”

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"Minimum wage has to do with a power relationship between the employee and employer," said Bill Myers, CEO of Alternatives. "Minimum wage limits the employer/employee relationship to protect the weaker party, the employee. It seeks to answer, 'Can an employer earn enough from an employee's labor to pay a Minimum wage'? Livable Wage is about the life situation of the employee. The research behind Livable Wage asks 'how much income does it take to live in our community'"?

In 1994, Alternatives Credit Union did its first Livable Wage Study to address internal staff concerns about compensation levels. Rather than looking at what competitors paid, or what the statutory minimum wage was, the Credit Union wanted to look at what it took to support a person above the poverty level. It has continued to update this study every two years.