In a world of precarious work, is there a better way to do business?

That’s the question being asked by a new coalition called the Better Way Alliance — and for entrepreneur Helmi Ansari, whose company distributes tea merchandise across 30 countries, the answer is a resounding yes.

The head of Cambridge-based Grosche International forms part of the initiative drawing on a mix of private companies, non-profits, and charitable organizations across Ontario. It strives to raise awareness through a video campaign about the business sense behind paying a living wage, supporting fair scheduling, and promoting stable jobs where possible — all as the provincial government considers similar legislative changes.

The message from this group of leaders is simple: being good is good for the bottom line.

“If our staff is focused on how they’re going to put food on the table and how they’re going to pay the hydro bill, they are not going to be really engaged in the business,” Ansari says.

For Ansari, it was a journey that started by selling loose leaf tea door-to-door, after he returned home from his day job as a business executive with a large company. Alongside his wife, he grew Grosche International into a tea merchandise supplier whose clients include Home Outfitters and Bed Bath & Beyond.

At the core of his dream was building his own business to serve as “a force for good,” a vision he and his wife Mehreen Sait animated through safe drinking water initiatives in developing countries. It was on one such development trip — this time to South Sudan — that a colleague asked what he was doing to help people closer to home.

The question kindled something in Ansari.

“I said, if we’re trying to do something for the whole world, we have to do the same thing for our staff,” he recalls.

His company, which employs a dozen people, became the first multi-site business in Ontario to pay a living wage — the hourly sum a worker needs to earn to support a family above the poverty line, given the actual costs of living in a specific area. Ansari pays all his Cambridge staff and contractors over $16.05 an hour, while the minimum rate for his Guelph employees is $16.50.

Ontario’s minimum wage is currently set at $11.40, a figure workers’ rights and anti-poverty activists like the Fight for $15 Coalition say is too low to keep families afloat. The Star has also profiled the impact of precarious work on issues like mental health.

The approach advanced by the Better Way Alliance is not without detractors. In the United States, where several jurisdictions have bumped up the minimum wage to $15 and implemented measures like fair scheduling laws and paid sick day provisions, critics have warned of potential job cuts and loss of productivity. Closer to home, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce has urged government to ensure any employment law reforms considered as part of the so-called Changing Workplaces Review do not unduly limit businesses’ flexibility and economic growth.

But Kelly Watson, director of people and development for Muskoka Brewery, which is part of the Better Way Alliance, says her company — and community — have benefited from implementing a living wage for its 125 workers.

“They’re more engaged, they’re spending more money on nutritious meals, they’re spending more money connecting socially with the community. To have that full-time employment, to have that money coming into the community on a regular basis really helps those small businesses,” she says.

“(Our success) wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t have engaged and committed people working for us,” adds Ansari.

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While Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review will not consider a minimum wage hike, Ansari says he hopes the new coalition of businesses who have voluntarily implemented changes like a living wage will help foster a broader discussion about how to tackle precarious work.

“These are all things that we still have some work to do on as a society. The role of business is not just to serve society,” he says. “I think the role of business is to help create a stronger society.”