Share Agreement
HR Policies
This page is the plain-language Share Agreement — the document every crew member signs before each season once the [Route Shares Pay System](/route-shares-pay) goes live. It is modeled on the crew employment contracts fishing fleets have signed before leaving the dock for centuries: the whole deal — your share, what comes off the top, and the floor under your pay — in one signed document, agreed before the work starts.
This is a draft blueprint, not a live contract. Route Shares is not yet in effect, and this agreement form must be reviewed and confirmed by an attorney before anyone signs it. It is published now, like every other planned-system page, so the rules are known before they apply.
Quick Reference
- Status: Draft blueprint — attorney review required, not yet in use
- Signed: Before each season, before Route Shares work begins
- Share Weights: Prospect 0.75 / Crew Member 1 / Crew Lead 1.25
- Pool Commitment: 40% of route price, published
- Legal Floor: Hours clocked · pre-route wage-floor gate + legal backstop · blended OT — always
- Never: Deductions from shares (§ 181.79) · quiet rate changes (§ 181.032(d))
Status & Legal Disclaimers
Not yet in use. No one signs this agreement until the owner announces the Route Shares go-live date in writing, together with the published rate tables.
Attorney review required. This draft is flagged for attorney confirmation before first use — including the all-hours acknowledgment, the wage-floor and backstop language, and the signature block.
Not a guarantee of employment. Signing this agreement does not change at-will employment status ([Employment Policies](/employment-policies)) and does not guarantee any particular amount of pay — it documents *how* pay is computed, not *how much* you will earn.
Law controls. If anything in this agreement conflicts with federal, Minnesota, or local law, the law controls and the rest stays in force.
- This agreement form has not been reviewed by an attorney. It must be before anyone signs it.
- Nothing on this page is legal advice.
What You Are Signing — The Deal in One Page
Like a boat crew contract, this agreement states the whole deal before the season starts:
Your share weight. Your tier and its multiplier at signing — Prospect 0.75, Crew Member 1, or Crew Lead 1.25 — and the published rules by which it can change (vesting up, demotion down, always logged, never retroactive for work already assigned).
The pools. Each route carries a fixed labor allowance (a plain dollar amount, set per route) and a drive allowance computed by the published formula: (round-trip miles × $0.50) + (round-trip drive hours × $30). These pools split by share weights exactly as the [Route Shares Pay System](/route-shares-pay) page describes.
Off the top. The drive allowance is funded by formula off the top, and the designated driver receives 1.25× their ordinary tier weight for the drive pool only. Vehicle costs — fuel, maintenance, mileage overhead — are company expenses, never taken from any pool or paycheck.
The published percentage. The company commits that route pools total 40% of route price, published here and on every settlement sheet. This percentage cannot change quietly — see "No Quiet Changes" below.
Partial completion and redos. Interrupted routes pay the completed sites' slices plus prorated drive; redos generate $0 payout lines under the [Workmanship Standard & Redo Policy](/workmanship-redo), with time always clocked.
All working hours. Your acknowledgment that share pay is intended to compensate all hours worked — route work, drive time, waiting, shop time, and redo time — subject always to the legal floor below.
Share Weights Stated in the Agreement (owner-tunable, published before signing)
| Tier | Share Weight | Lay-system equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Prospect | 0.75 shares | Half-share greenhorn — proving period |
| Crew Member | 1 share | Full-share deckhand |
| Crew Lead | 1.25 shares | Short lay — earned leadership premium |
| Designated driver | 1.25× tier weight, drive pool only | Extra responsibility, extra share (e.g., a Crew Lead driver holds 1.5625 drive shares) |
The Legal Floor — Signed Into the Agreement
Boats can pay pure shares with no hourly floor because fishing crews hold a specific federal exemption. Land crews do not, and this agreement writes the land rules in permanently:
Hours are always clocked. Every shift, every person, no exceptions — share pay never means off-the-clock work.
The Minnesota wage floor (Minn. Stat. § 177.24). The primary mechanism is the pre-route approval gate on the [Route Shares Pay System](/route-shares-pay) page: no route is posted or assigned unless every crew member is projected above the legal floor and the company's own $15/hour policy floor. Behind the gate stands the legal backstop — if an unforeseen event still leaves a pay period's total earnings ÷ hours below the applicable Minnesota minimum wage, the company pays the legally required difference. On a properly gated route the backstop should never bind, but it exists by law regardless.
Blended-rate overtime. Overtime hours are paid an additional 0.5× your blended regular rate — total weekly earnings ÷ total weekly hours — under Minn. Stat. § 177.25 and the FLSA, whichever is more protective in a given week.
Itemized settlement. Every pay period you receive an itemized earnings statement (Minn. Stat. § 181.032) in the settlement-sheet format described on the [Route Shares Pay System](/route-shares-pay) page.
These four protections are not negotiable terms of the agreement — they are the law, stated here so the signed document and the legal reality are the same document.
What Can Never Be Deducted — The Whaling Debt Trap, Fenced Off
The lay system's ugliest chapter was deductions: whaling owners charged crews for gear, advances, and store goods at interest, and men ended three-year voyages owing money to the ship. Modern fishing crews still get charged for lost gear. This agreement forbids the practice on land, permanently:
No deductions from shares for gear, damage, or faulty work. Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. § 181.79) prohibits deducting earned wages for claimed damage, loss, or poor workmanship without a voluntary written authorization signed *after* the loss occurs — and this company's policy is simpler: pool splits are never reduced by deductions, period. Equipment costs are company costs. Workmanship consequences run entirely through payouts that were never released ($0 redo lines) and the accountability ledger — never backward into money you earned.
No quiet changes to the deal. Tier multipliers, allowance formulas, per-mile and per-hour rates, and the published pool-to-price percentage are pay rates. Under Minn. Stat. § 181.032(d), any change takes effect prospectively only, with written notice to every affected employee before it applies. The published 40% commitment means the crew's slice of the business cannot shrink invisibly — the boat share never quietly grows.
- Never a deduction from pool splits for gear, damage, or redo work (Minn. Stat. § 181.79). Consequences are forward-looking only.
- Never a rate or percentage change without prior written notice (Minn. Stat. § 181.032(d)). All changes are prospective.
Signature & Acknowledgment Block
The agreement each crew member signs per season contains this acknowledgment (draft — attorney review pending):
> I have read the Route Shares Pay System policy and this Share Agreement. I understand that: > > 1. My tier at signing is __________, with a share weight of __________, and tier changes follow the published vesting and demotion rules — never retroactively for work already assigned. > 2. Route pools are fixed dollar amounts set at 40% of route price; the drive allowance follows the published formula, and the designated driver earns 1.25× tier weight on the drive pool only. > 3. Share pay is intended to compensate all of my working hours, including drive, waiting, shop, and redo time — and I will always clock all hours worked. > 4. Minnesota minimum wage (via the pre-route gate and its legal backstop) and blended-rate overtime always apply on top of share math. > 5. No deduction will ever be taken from my shares for gear, damage, or workmanship, and no pay rate in this agreement changes without prior written notice. > 6. This agreement is not an employment contract and does not alter at-will employment. > > Employee signature: ______________________ Date: __________ > > Owner signature: ______________________ Date: __________
A signed copy goes to the employee, and the original is retained with payroll records. Re-signing happens each season, or whenever a rate table changes (which itself requires prior written notice).