But I did it because it's the right thing to do, fundamentally. I mean, this is a dumb place to make guitars, really. With the company doing well, and himself personally doing well, he said, doing the right thing was easy, obvious, and moral. But Ball is no wild-eyed idealist. Look, the company benefits, too.
Turnover is now nonexistent.
People who apply here really want to work here. It's raised the bar overall. Like the other 15 cities in California that already have living-wage ordinances, including San Jose, Oakland, and Los Angeles, Santa Cruz' ordinance applies only to businesses that contract with the city to deliver goods or services. Services that a city may contract out run the gamut from street cleaning and pest control to clerical and health services. The impetus behind the living-wage movement came when cities began to realize that contracting with the lowest bidder for city services often cost them more in the long run in social services.