Paying people protocol

This protocol is a draft. It has not yet been accepted as protocol and may be incorrect or poorly cited. Please do not use this in your work until it has been accepted.

Please see #protocols on Slack to discuss this protocol further.

This is the protocol for paying people. It is currently a skeleton describing how much and how people should be paid. It is currently not implemented.

When to pay people

Queercare must pay people for their labour if the costs of paying people averaged over the previous three months are less than current cash reserves(which is to say, can expect to be able to pay people for three months)

Queercare can pay people for their labour if the costs of paying people averaged over the previous three months, divided by three are less than current cash reserves(which is to say, can expect to be able to pay people for one month).

What to [do before doing thing]

On Thursday morning, post a reminder in #anouncemnts that people should file their hours for the previous week.

How to pay people

The hourly wage for work with queercare is the living wage for their area as determined by the living wage foundation, multiplied by 1.25, rounded to the nearest penny. All people are paid the same hourly rate. This is currently 13.34 for people working in london, and 11.63 for people outside of london.

For people who are not on monthly contracts, every week on friday, at the same time as [[paying expenses protocol| expenses] are paid, the total reported hours which have not been paid in the previous week must be paid by BACS or paypal.

For people on monthly contracts, on the last Friday of the month, their monthly pay and any additional hours which they have worked should be transfered to them by BACS or paypal.

What to do after paying people

Post the current amount in the bank account in the finance and fundraising chat.

Principles, sources and reasoning

Queercare pays people for political and practical reasons. The practical reasons for paying people are:

- demanding large amounts of unpaid labour results in only privileged people being able to do the work of supporting people, and produces organisations which do not support those who most need support - people being paid by third parties stops them being dependent on people they care for, discouraging extortion. - Historically, support work in queer communities results in bunrout and bad care, because people cannot support themselves while doing it.

The political reasons for paying people are: - recognising the massive amounts of unpaid labour that go into trans communities which are not recognised by capital.

The reasoning behind relativity high(for "unskilled" wages, though low by come standards- London Renters Union pays approximately 150% of London living wage) are to enable people to live a survivable existence(a "living wage" while working four days a week, allowing more time for rest and recuperation, as well as work on their own other interests.

The reasoning for a flat wage is that it is assumed effort put in per hour per worker is the same, and as such should be compensated at the same rate. It is also worth noting that affective skills and feminised labour is historically undervalued in the labour market, and attempts to pay more for more "skilled" work will discriminate against against undervalued skillsets.

The reasoning behind the short payment periods(1 week for unconcentrated hours) are that many queer people living hand to mouth and waiting a month can be detrimental to encouraging people to take part.