

Boloco is a Boston-based burrito place with 23 locations in New England from Burlington, VT down to Washington, D.C., with most in and around Boston. If you go to Yelp, you’ll see mostly 4-star reviews of its burrito and smoothie menu. It’s very popular among the college crowd, which CEO John Pepper has taken advantage of with many outlets near New England universities. The story of what began as Under Wraps in 1997 is one of good business based on healthy food and treating employees well. Some of the highlights over the years include:

Adding a smaller-sized burrito despite the negative effect on profitability, which now regularly outsells the large size.

Offering Health Insurance to all full-time and most part-time employees.

Offering a Simple IRA plan for all full-time and most part-time employees.

Rounding after tax prices to end with a “5” or “0” to eliminate pennies, saving time.

Offering English and Spanish Berlitz lessons to facilitate employee communications.

Putting a moratorium on new locations until current ones become profitable.

Making employees eligible for performance-based bonus plans.

Offering a dental plan to all full-time and most part-time employees.

Regular donations of $20,000 per year to a community food bank.

Instituting a speaker series for management.

Going green with all-natural meats, organic cotton uniforms, recycling, replacing Styrofoam cups

Hiring a company artist and hanging his paintings of local areas in stores. (source)

But the biggest difference between Boloco and other fast food spots is the salary earned by employees. Pay begins at $9 an hour and goes up to $17 an hour for managers. The average salary at Boloco is $10 an hour. That’s around $3 more than most places.

Many of those things that CEO John Pepper implemented for Boloco would be scoffed at by some business owners, especially the health plans, IRAs and language lessons. But it’s working for them. It’s working so well, in fact, that Boloco grew from one location in Boston to the current empire in a little more than 15 years. They did it steadily and with an eye, at all times, to taking care of both customers and employees. Pepper explained his success:

“As opposed to constantly looking for ways to keep wages down, we’re constantly looking for practices and ways to bring wages up. It’s a lot easier to keep wages down than it is to find better practices, bolder practices, more efficient practices, which come through training. It’s about connecting with guests…and building a loyalty that drives people back, that alongside productivity, is what builds sales and what builds profitability. In that case you can pay people a lot more than what we pay as a rule in this industry.”

Yes, a Boloco burrito costs more than a Big Mac but customers who value the fresh, organic ingredients and compostable/recyclable containers are willing to pay that extra amount. John Pepper has proven that if you give customers a great product and treat your employees like human beings, you can be successful.

This is important to understand now, with fast food employees striking for a living wage. The minimum wage does not provide that living for these workers and employers know it. McDonald’s advises its workers to take a second job and go without heat while Wal-Mart relies on government programs to help its employees get by. Of course, corporations like having things this way: high unemployment and a low wage plays to their advantage in providing a large and desperate employee base.

Despite what they tell us, raising the minimum wage will not raise prices on fast food by more than a few cents. Nor will it bankrupt them. These barons of low-paying business would like you to think that both of those things would happen if the minimum wage is raised. But they are crying crocodile tears.

John Pepper and Boloco have proven that green business practices and well-paid employees are a winning combination. His theory that higher wages can actually help the economy is spot on. When we raise the minimum wage we will also raise productivity, which will lower employee turnover which, in turn, gives those workers money to spend. That is what drives the economy: people like you and I spending money, not “job creators.”

Enjoy “The Boloco Song” written and performed by students from the Berklee School of Music, across the street from the original Boloco location: