What is the Dr. Bronner's 5-to-1 salary cap?Updated a month ago

Dr. Bronner’s caps executive salaries at 5 times the pay of its lowest-paid, fully vested employee and donates all profits not needed for business development to causes and charities it believes in. 

Our 5-to-1 salary cap was instituted by David and Trudy Bronner in 1998. At the time, the company had fewer than 15 employees, most of whom had been with the company for ten years or more. When new employees were hired, it didn’t feel fair to set the starting salary the same as someone who had worked with the company for 10 years. Using “fully vested” as the benchmark for the 5-to-1 salary cap was a logical way to be fair to the long-term employees while instituting the new policy. Dr. Bronner’s also requires Executives to be with the company for 5 years or more before they are eligible to receive the highest salary.   

A salary cap is important because we believe in social justice. The growing disparity between the rich and everyone else in society is unjust and unsustainable. Outrageous CEO pay is a significant cause of global inequality. Dr. Bronner’s mission is to dedicate our profits to make a better world. Our salary cap helps to anchor our mission. The money we intentionally save on executive salaries enables us to do right by our employees and suppliers and to generate more profits to support charity and activism. We dedicate a minimum of one-third of our annual profits—profits not needed for business development—to social and environmental causes.