To: Dylan Lauren, CEO & Founder of Dylan's Candy Bar and Vanessa Cummo, Human Resources Manager

Dylan’s Candy Bar: Be Sweet To Your Workers

Hi! We are the workers of the Dylan’s Candy Bar flagship store in New York City and we are coming together for a fairer workplace, including:

1. A Living Wage
2. Just Hours & Stable Scheduling
3. An End to Favoritism

Why is this important?

Owned by Dylan Lauren, daughter of famous fashion designer Ralph Lauren, Dylan’s Candy Bar is the largest unique candy store in the world, with $25 million estimated in annual sales. It is widely considered a ‘required stop’ for celebrities visiting NYC, such as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Katie Holmes, Janet Jackson, and Madonna.

Yet, while our hard work has contributed to Dylan’s success, working for Dylan is no candy land.

While Dylan Lauren is the 5th wealthiest heiress in the world, worth $4.6 billion, most of us associates started at less than $10/hour. In fact, at $13.99 per pound, a pound of bulk candy is worth more than our hourly pay.

On top of the low wages, our schedules and hours change week to week. Nearly the entire sales staff is part time, yet they expect us to have open availability, making it nearly impossible for us to juggle other obligations such as second jobs, school, and family. They refuse to give us any guarantee of the amount of hours we will work each week, and yet they get angry with us when we look for a second job.

The low pay and sporadic scheduling makes it hard for us to do what we do best – provide excellent customer service. We know that Dylan’s can do better, so we decided to get ourselves organized!

Unfortunately, when we got together to deliver our own petition to management, they shrugged it off. Ignoring our concerns, they simply told us that any issues regarding compensation could only be addressed in one-on-one meetings with managers and not together as a group.

Now we’re taking our petition to the public to show the company that we’re not alone!

We are asking Dylan’s for:

1. A Living Wage: Increase hourly pay to $13.99 per hour, the price of just 1 pound of bulk candy
2. Just Hours: More stable scheduling with guaranteed weekly hours for all associates
3. End Favoritism: Establish a clear and measurable path for promotions so that advancement is based on hard work and not favoritism

Let Dylan’s know you support our efforts to improve our workplace!

To learn more about our campaign:
• In These Times article: http://ow.ly/pQKE9
• Labor Press video: http://tinyurl.com/qgf5sgq
• DNA Info article: http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131206/upper-east-side/workers-snicker-at-meager-payday-from-dylans-candy-shop