this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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The problem is these people in the top positions don't see anything wrong with this.
I remember telling my republican friend that companies could easily raise worker pay. He laughed said that hamburgers would cost $20. I said you don't need to raise the price of the product, the people at the top could make less money. He then said "Oh, they are NOT going to do that."
They always say this, but when you mention the Nordic countries where wages are at least twice ours and fast food is pretty much the same cost, they start ranting about how any country that properly uses socialism doesn't count.
And they almost always end up saying something racist
You're describing privately-held companies paying their employees well, not socialism.
No, they are describing a government that enforces and enhances labor rights and protections.
It's the same picture from 2 angles.
In no way is that socialism.
Right, but the hypothetical person this person is talking to fires back with "that Nordic country doesn't count cause that's socialism"
I'm a Florida native so I've had this conversation with someone, and they're implying the reason why burgers aren't $20 is because of some weird centralized control of prices while also conflating social programs with socialism (and not the economic system)
Well, helping those people realize that the government can do shit and it not be socialism, because words have actual meanings, is a great way to get them to stop voting against their own self interest, imo.
It's why I constantly die on this hill on this site to people who think universal healthcare is socialism, and call themselves socialists as a result.
You are absolutely correct.
I also want to point out, that to those people socialism is when government does 'bad' things like helping the poor. When they ban abortions, it's job well done.
Well of course they don't see anything wrong with this, they're getting paid not to see anything wrong with it. They're paid astronomical amounts of money to keep the status quo by people even richer than them.
He's not wrong and that's issue.
I mean, hamburgers already cost around $10-$15 anyway... and that's without workers getting a pay increase
Cutting CEO pay would not affect worker pay that much.
Fortune 500 CEOs make, on average, about 17MM a year. The average Fortune 500 company has 52k employees.
If you split their entire paycheck among just the bottom 50% of employees you're looking at like $3 per hour. That's... okay. But now you don't have a CEO, and this isn't really sustainable with any sort of inflation.
If you instead raise prices one cent on whatever product or service, you almost certainly will have more money to divvy up among employees, and it's sustainable.
Worth noting I'm for a federal cap on CEO pay but that's more to address the runaway nature of the CEO market, and its downstream effects.
Giving everyone a $3/ hr pay bump from eating an overpaid CEO sounds like a pretty great start
Added bonus!
Except in the real world that is not a bonus.
I think your decimal may be off. For full time work, looks like ~36 cents per hour, assuming full time. But, for many it would be even worse. For Walmart, completely eliminating the CEO pay could increase the bottom 50% earners annual income by a whopping $22.
I agree with the overall sentiment tho. More than what this article shows, I’d be interested to see the percentage and dollar amount increase in disposable income among various cohorts within the top 10 percent incomes.