On September 26, members of Kickstarter United, the union that represents Kickstarter employees, voted with 85% approval to go on strike. The strike began October 2 at 8am. After about a month and a half, the union has ended the strike with a resounding victory.

The union prevailed with an impressive list of protections and improvement to employment.

They codified a Four-Day Workweek, with strong protections if management tries to force them to revert to a five-day workweek.

• Temporary changes to Five-Day Workweek must be justified, with notice in advance, and a time limit
• Permanent changes to Five-Day Workweek must involve bargaining with the union
• If management tries to force it anyway, they can strike

They won strong provisions to raise their minimum salary floor considerably!

• An escalating increase in the pay floor based on cost of living, an average 6% increase to the most undervalued workers
• A one-time $6,000 bonus for the most undervalued workers
• Yearly national benchmarking to push pay upwards across the whole unit

They won many improvements to their working conditions with no regressions in our worker protections!

• Cannot replace a role with AI, and management must work with employees if AI changes a role
• Strong protections against replacing full time employees with contractors
• More input from employees with a regular forum for business operations

Congrats to the union and everyone that participated and supported them.

On September 26, members of Kickstarter United, the union that represents Kickstarter employees, voted with 85% approval to go on strike. The strike began October 2 at 8am.

The demands from the union are:

• Protect the 32-hour, 4-day workweek that’s been in place for over three years.
• Establish a minimum salary that provides a livable wage for all workers.

The 3 year agreement between management and staff, covering 59 community support specialists, trust and safety analysts, marketing professionals, software engineers, and other tech workers expired in July 2025. Bargaining began in April 2025 with management rejecting every proposal for a minimum salary and their insistence on returning to a 5-day, 40-hour workweek.

The minimum salary being asked for is $85,000, considered “low income” in New York City.

The union is interestingly not calling for a boycott of Kickstarter and instead are looking for people to rally with them, donate to their solidarity fund, and contact Kickstarter management to tell them to meet workers’ demands,

Kickstarted United was voted on my employees to form in February 2020 and part of OPEIU Local 153. You can read more about the union and the strike on their website.