living wage – Protect the Innocent

You may have heard about a Seattle CEO that decided to raise the minimum salary for all of his employees to 70K. At the time of his decision, all of the right-wing pundits came out of the woodwork to spew hatred and vitriol. They were not only hoping that he would fail and prove their fear mongering, money grubbing tactics and advice right, but I think they were also petrified that he would succeed and show the world the inherent falsities behind their model of selfishness and greed.

Deep down I truly believe all the multi-millionaires and billionaires and corrupt politicians know that raising the minimum wage wouldn’t pose any threat to the success of the company overall. I do think they believe it will hurt their personal bottom line though, which is all they care about. They have no interest in only making 100k a year instead of 500k even if it ensures that the people working for them, who are creating all of their wealth, are able to live with some modicum of dignity and security. The fact that CEOs receiving a lower salary wouldn’t affect their quality of life at all, but would make a world of difference to possibly hundreds of other people does not matter to them at all.

That is why I think the progressives are going about it in the wrong way. They need to stop stressing the moral atrocity angle of it and instead speak to what these greedy people do care about, themselves. After a few years, Dan Price, the CEO I mentioned earlier was surprisingly not bankrupt. His company hadn’t failed, nor had his quality of life decreased, in fact both his company and his life had improved. I know a lot of people who have bought into the myth of capitalism would like to believe that this is just a fluke, but it was the obvious and expected result for people like myself.

So what happens when you pay your employees a living wage? The company doesn’t go under, nor does it stay the same with a slightly smaller windfall for the CEO, it grows and flourishes. The reason for that is because if you have a job that actually pays you fairly, you will do whatever it takes to keep that job. This is the part of the equation that everyone always seems to leave out. Honestly, even if the company is too small to pay their employees any more, just treating them like fucking human beings will have the same effect.

I can say from personal experience that I go above and beyond for my job, and I do so happily, because I adore my coworkers, management, and the organization as a whole. I may not make as much money as I should, but our organization simply doesn’t have the money to pay us more. What they do have is respect for us as people, which is something I’ve found to be just as rare as a job that pays well. And for me, it’s even more important than the money.

Now, you might be asking, why does it matter if the employees are motivated to stay with the company? Well imagine how much money the company actually saves when it doesn’t have to spend huge amounts of time every year training new employees to do the exact same things the old employees already knew how to do and had experience doing. When employees actually stay at their job for years at a time, they become much better at it. They are also more motivated to perform well as opposed to employees that hate their job. With that experience and motivation, employees add a lot more value to their companies. It spurs innovation and exceptional service, which only makes the company do even better, ultimately leading to more money for the people at the top, even though they may initially have to make less to get them there.

At Dan Price’s company, they hit hards times like the rest of the world when the pandemic began. But you know what happened? The employees hadn’t become “entitled” or “greedy” demanding more and more money despite the financial state of the company. No, they voluntarily took pay cuts in the beginning stages of Covid to ensure that the would continue to have a company to work for. They even pooled their money together and bought Price a Tesla for his birthday. They love their boss, because he values them as people. They are grateful to him. It’s because of him that so many of them were able to buy their first houses and start families. I’m sure for a lot of them, it was the first time they were given any respect or consideration by the people at the top of their organization. And with the work environments that exist today, that means everything.

Paying your employees what they deserve to be making already and treating them with respect, isn’t some benevolent act of charity. It’s just smart business. Even if you only care about yourself and your bottom line, it’s still the right thing to do. I truly hope to one day see more CEOs following Price’s example. I also hope that politicians and political pundits would start emphasizing the stupidity of continuing on the way these companies are now. They are acting against their own interests as well as their employees’ and our society as a whole. Few things are more profitable or personally rewarding as having fiercely loyal employees all working passionately toward the same goal for a company and a group of people that they love.

3 Advantages to Consider for Your Kosher Certification - OK Kosher

Up until I was around 20 years old, maybe even older, I didn’t really know very much about politics. I honestly wish I could go back to those simpler times. It feels like I had a lot less to worry about back then. It’s always easier not to know. My entire family are democrates, so that is about as far as my political awareness went. I was taught vaguely that poor/low-income people were democrates, rich people were republicans. A very simplified explanation of the two parties in America, but I still believe it holds up. At least that’s what you would expect.

As I got older I came to find that there are tons of poor people voting passionately against their own interests. A good portion of the republican base in fact. I was astounded even more when I became a social worker and got to listen to clients who could hardly survive on the small amount of government assistance they received simultaneously complain about “lazy, good-for-nothing” people taking advantage of the system and voting to cut social security benefits. They seemed totally disconnected from the fact that they were the people their beloved Fox News hosts were referring to when they condemn these societal moochers.

I guess they thought it couldn’t have been in reference to them, because they were good people. They hadn’t done anything wrong. They weren’t worthless, scheming, monsters taking advantage of other people. Yet they were still quick to jump on the bandwagon of hate, directing it at some imaginary, caricatures of people that were making it harder for people like them who really do need that help to be taken seriously. It always broke my heart to meet clients that continuously tried to justify their need and convince me that they weren’t just “some drug addict” or something.

What has been reminding me of all of this lately, is the controversy over the unemployment income many Americans have been relying on since this pandemic began over a year ago. Everyone is able to see the absurdity of going out to find work, when you would receive more money by staying on unemployment instead. It is the perception of this absurdity that varies. Conservatives cry: You can’t give everyone so much money or else they’ll never go back to work! While liberals and progressives insist: If these people were paid a living wage to begin with, this wouldn’t be a problem. We must raise the minimum wage so that these people have an incentive to return to work.

Obviously I agree with the latter. The government didn’t just arbitrarily decide on an amount to pay, they based it roughly on how much these people would need to survive. If working full-time isn’t allowing you to earn that measly amount, clearly THAT is the problem. Not that the government is giving you enough to live on. This seems so simple to me, but I know that nearly half of the country would disagree. These types of disheartening conflicts are the reason that after passionately throwing myself into politics for a few years, I’ve begun trying to ignore it all together again. It is just to painful. It seems so hopeless. I’m tired of fighting.

One of the main things I don’t understand though, is what other people think the government’s purpose is. I’m starting to think my idea of it has been misguided and idealistic. It seems like throughout school I was taught that the government, at least in America, was established “for the people, by the people.” I was under the impression that it’s only purpose was to organize our collective resources as a nation so that we could best serve the entire population. In my mind, government was just a way to work together as a society so that we could accomplish things we wouldn’t be able to as individual citizens. Not only that, I thought it’s purpose was to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable among us, to help people. Not only for moral reasons, but to the ultimate benefit of the whole. Having a system to take care of the less fortunate gives those people the opportunity to some day give back to society again. At the very least it would deter them from criminal activity, because they wouldn’t need to engage in that to survive.

I hear all the time that “it’s not the government’s job to support you.” But isn’t it though? Isn’t that why we have a government in the first place? To take care of our citizens? I’m often tempted to ask these people what they think the government’s job is, if not to protect us and support us. I’m trying to stay curious and not let the unsettling mindsets of so many people get to me too much. It’s just not worth the grief it causes me. And I’ve accepted that fighting about it won’t make a difference. All I can do is watch is stunned silence, or turn away.