Bryan Yinger, chief executive at Shur-Way Building Center in Vancouver, is thinking outside the U.S. Treasury to incentivize his employees. He’s giving them Bitcoin. Yinger’s parents started Shur-Way, opening the first location in Portland in 1983, across the street from the sawmill they already owned with Yinger’s grandfather. The Vancouver location, at 7124 N.E. St. Johns Road, opened around 1999. The family business has grown over the years. But the pandemic proved to be a challenge for the building supply center. At first the business was closed. Then it opened but employees were nervous about working. Yet, business was booming, fueled by people staying home and working on their home improvement projects. Shur-Way had lines out the door to the road.

That period was the beginning of struggles for the business. Then came inflation, squeezing employees’ paychecks. “It’s hard for especially our entry-level guys to be able to keep up,” said Yinger. So he endeavored to think of creative ways to help employees be able to keep up with costs. The company revamped its Christmas bonuses to be performance related, introduced profit sharing and then added a Bitcoin Employee Bonus program. Employees will be given a percentage of a Bitcoin each April; the first one will be paid out in the coming weeks. In the second and third trimesters of the year, a similar amount will be deposited for each employee into a Shur-Way general fund. The company will control that until it disburses it in increasing portions to employees several years down the road. The later disbursements, Yinger said, are meant to be a creative retainment tool. So employees will get Bitcoin payments directly each year and more that will accumulate in a group fund for years down the road.

“We spend a lot of time and money training and educating and getting our guys up to speed, and it’s a hard environment,” said Yinger. “People are jumping around jobs because everybody’s just trying to keep up. “So this is another little hook,” he added. Yinger, a self-proclaimed nerd and lover of macroeconomics, talked passionately and thoughtfully about why he decided on giving out Bitcoin. He sees the currency as being a better investment than the other cryptocurrencies on the market and one that he expects to only increase in value over time. Yinger isn’t concerned about Bitcoin imploding because he said it’s a unique cryptocurrency backed by physical power. Bitcoin was the first established cryptocurrency and arguably the most well known.

Yinger is working with Los Angeles-based Swan Bitcoin to pay his employees their crypto bonuses. Some of his employees are eager to see their Bitcoin accounts grow and others are less sure, he said. Those not wanting to keep the Bitcoin will be able to just cash them out. Cody Wilson works in the yard at Shur-Way. He’s excited about the new bonus program. “Digital currency is getting bigger and bigger,” Wilson said. “It’s going to be, I believe, the future of our economy.” Wilson is glad he’s getting a jump-start on it while it’s still developing.

“I think it is a little risky, but sometimes big risks come with big rewards,” said Wilson. “So we’ll see what happens.” Darrell Kelley works alongside Wilson in the yard. He, too, is eager about the bonus program, though he said he was less educated about Bitcoin at first. Kelley said it’s worth a try with the current volatility of the stock market and the potential weakening of the U.S. dollar. Kelley sees the bonus as being like a stock. “It’d be interesting to get in and see where it leads,” said Kelley. “It could lead to something big, right? And if not, then it doesn’t and we just keep going on.”

Brent Weiland recalls standing around at the company Christmas party a decade ago talking about Bitcoin with Yinger. Weiland, who is the general manager at Shur-Way, said they were skeptical of it at the time. But, he added with a laugh, if they had taken their Christmas bonuses then in Bitcoin, they’d be so wealthy they wouldn’t need to work there anymore. He thinks the new bonus program is a great idea. Plus, he added, it’s in addition to all the other bonuses and regular paychecks they already have. “It’s cool because it, quite honestly, just seemed like another excuse to throw money at us,” said Weiland. Weiland likes how the bonus program inspires longevity. It gives what he calls a carrot for employees. “You can always see the light at the end of the tunnel. “I’m excited to see where it puts us all someday,” he added.