this post was submitted on 18 Jun 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.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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its more like, if people would stop settling for wages below what you need to survive, then businesses wouldn't be able to function without paying a living wage. but there is always someone willing to do the work for less so they get away with it. imagine a world where restaurants and farms were forced to employ fully waged employees, the entire country would cease to function.
This assumes that there's an infinite supply of well paying jobs that are freely accessible to everyone, but that's not how reality works. If the options are "work for shit pay" or "don't work at all and starve" then people will choose the shit job. It's why market economies aim for a few percents unemployment(and why places like the US really don't want to forgive student debt) because people need to be desperate for whatever job they can get to keep wages low.
A much better way to solve it is just to legislate that if you work a fulltime job you have to be paid a livable wage.
This isn't assuming shit. the problem is people don't collectively deny labor to jobs that don't pay a high enough wage. They're selfinterested and will take offers that are detrimental to the whole system because it gives them any amount of return. It's literally about collective bargaining, or at least refusing to negotiate for anything less than the bare necessities
So in essence you just want to ban employers from being able to offer poverty wages.
Doesn't that mean even more people would be out of a job as the jobs paying poverty wages disappear? They won't pay more, they're way more likely to close up shop.
Should a business that relies on poverty wages stay open? It seems to me that if you can't afford to pay your employees a living wage then you shouldn't be in business since your business is clearly not viable. It's like all these food delivery apps that popped up the last few years. They rely on venture capital and underpaying their "employees" to bring the price down. But eventually they'll be asked to make a profit and the prices will go up. I don't think people will keep on ordering in the same quantities when the delivery fees doubles or tripples, the bussinesses are just unsustainable and if you believe in market economies then they should be allowed to fail.
Businesses can adapt for the most part, they're just not quite there yet, but they will be in 10 years. Raising wages to $30/hour tomorrow would only accelerate that. The real long term fix isn't raising the minimum wage, it's making those workers valuable enough that they WILL be paid $30/hour, minimum wage or not, because they bring value to the table. That also pays huge dividends for society.
The real answer to the wage issue is in things like coding bootcamps, and Khan Academy. It's what people have in their brains.