Our members are democratic worker-owned businesses, and multi-stakeholder co-operatives where workers have significant control, and the individual worker members who make it all happen. Our members range from micro enterprises in research and technology to social co-operatives with hundreds of members.
Read more about the Reasons to Join.
What does it cost?
The subscription fee is one thousandth (or 0.1%) of your labour costs in your last financial year. The minimum level is £150+VAT. Please calculate your co-op’s contribution on the basis of:
- Total wages bill (for employees) / 1,000
- Total paid to members (for self-employed workers) / 1,000
- These added together (for mixed employee/self-employed worker co-ops) / 1000
For example:
- If last year your total wage bill came to £500,000, your subscription would be £500
- If you distribute £200,000 a year to your self-employed members, your subscription would be £200+VAT
- If your total labour costs are less than £150,000 we would still need you to contribute £150+VAT. We think this is the lowest cost for which workers.coop can sustain a member resource.
This formula is fair, because worker compensation is the truest proxy for the financial strength of a worker co-op. Whether you have highly paid workers, or mainly low paid, part time and even volunteer workers, it’s appropriate for every kind of worker co-op. We need to make workers.coop valuable for all our members. Just email us if you need a bit of help calculating your membership fee.
Just email solidarity@workers.coop if you need help calculating your membership fee.
No co-op left behind
Worker co-ops which can’t contribute the minimum £150+VAT because of financial capacity – for example, you are in startup mode – can join workers.coop on a ‘pay what you can’ basis for up to two years.
The network will support you to be ready to subscribe normally in due course, and you will have exactly the same Membership rights as other members, with full access to the network and its resources.
Get half price membership off Co-operatives UK
Worker co-ops joining workers.coop are eligible for a 50% discount on standard membership of Co-operatives UK. The discount doesn’t cover membership add-ons such as their Contact or HR packages.
As the voice of the UK’s co-operative movement, Co-operatives UK empowers and supports co-operative enterprise with specialised knowledge and expertise, to grow the co-operative economy and create a fairer society.
If you are already a member of both organisations, let Co-operatives UK at the point of joining or membership renewal to benefit from the dual membership offer.
“…It’s a genuinely ‘member animated’ network, and a new way of doing things. Our goals are pretty ambitious: we want to change the meaning of work, as well as its control and ownership”
Siôn Whellens
Calverts
Still in need of more information?
Book in a chat by emailing solidarity@workers.coop and a member or a paid worker will be happy to guide you through the process or answer any questions you have.