Help Us Shape Kepler’s Future

We work hard to make Kepler’s a place where our staff can thrive — both professionally and financially. Everything Kepler's is known for – curation, good service, events, knowledge of books, community focus – directly depends on the caliber and energy of our staff.

Through years of innovation and the unwavering support of our community, we were able to increase the starting pay for entry-level booksellers from $9 per hour in 2012 to $20 per hour today. We’re proud of this progress but also recognize that most of our staff is still earning below the estimated living wage in San Mateo County ($34.76 for a single working adult with no children).

Your input matters! By completing this short survey, you’ll help us continue improving wages, strengthening our bookstore, and ensuring Kepler’s remains a vibrant part of our community for years to come.
1.Which of the following options have you participated in knowing they will help us improve our staff's compensation and our organization's financial health? Please check all applicable options.(Required.)
2.Changes in California law have made it necessary to end our optional 3% Living Wage surcharge on transactions. The revenue generated by this surcharge had allowed us to increase staff wages and benefits to their current levels. It is essential for us to maintain our staff's wages, therefore we are looking at options to replace this revenue.

The most straight-forward option is to add a mark-up on the list price of books. Customers would essentially pay the same as with the surcharge, the total price would just be labeled on each book instead of being added as a separate line-item at the time of purchase.

Please rate these two methods through which we might add a mark-up on books.
(Required.)
Strongly Support
Support
Indifferent
Oppose
Strongly Oppose
A fixed markup on each book. For example, $1 or $0.50
A % markup on each book. For example, 3% or 4%
3.(Optional) Please share any additional thoughts about your responses to Question 2 above.
Current Progress,
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