So, Double Barrel Studios is a boutique production company located in downtown Hamilton. We produce video content for all sorts of businesses and organizations. We can do all types and all styles of content for almost any type of client. I heard about Living Wage. I was doing some basic research online in Hamilton in terms of the employment sector and what was happening in the city.

And when I started to do a little bit of digging into the organization, who they were and what they stood for, I was just really intrigued. We only just began actually hiring employees about a year and a half ago. So, for us, it was really important to set out on the right foot and set the right example in terms of how we operate as a company.

We want to feel like our employees feel good about coming to work. We want to feel that our employees are happy to be here and that they feel like they're being properly compensated and fairly compensated for the work that they do. And it's really, really important that our employees and our staff are happy so that they can bring that energy to set and they can bring that energy to the studio.

And so that's why Living Wage for us was the right thing to do. A Living Wage to me is opportunity. It's giving somebody an opportunity to succeed in what they love doing. It gives people the basic necessities to survive in this economy and it allows for more flexibility in your personal life. Living Wage has meant that I can quit my second part-time job and focus 100% of my energy on what I went to school for and what I'm passionate about.

It allows me to wear kind of a sense of pride when I come to work and that's just because I know that Double Barrel wants me to succeed and that makes me want to succeed for Double Barrel. Implementing Living Wage for Double Barrel wasn't really that big of a challenge because we did it right from the start. So for me as an employer, it feels great to know that we are building a culture of caring.

We are building a culture of taking care of one another. We're building a culture of people who feel that they're treated fairly for the work that they do. And that for me as an employer is a really great thing.

Cake & Loaf is a neighborhood bakery that focuses on from scratch baking, also utilizing as many local ingredients from our local farmers and other local patrons. We pride ourselves in being creative as well as innovative in all of our baking. When Nikki and I first started the company five years ago, we always knew that one of our biggest goals was to create meaningful employment.

Employment that paid well and was inductive to having a life outside of work, that you could have a family, that you'd be able to afford to go on vacation. So that was really fundamental to what we were doing as a business from the beginning. For me, living wage is great because maybe I'll eventually be able to move out of my mother's house, kind of do my own things, and doing those things without having to worry about getting a second job.

I know what my wage is going to be. I know that it's fair. If you treat your employees well, and your employees have the means to have a life, then they'll put so much more back into their work life. Money shouldn't be the biggest worry in your life. It's a matter of priorities, and if a business makes it the priority to create living wages, every business can do that.

Living wage is really important to us because I'd like to be able to go home every day and know that I can afford groceries and shelter and transportation and I cannot come to work and look at my employees and not know they have the same security. Living wage is really important to us.