this post was submitted on 07 Nov 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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Dude, this is depressingly true even on the smallest scale. I work for a guy who employs 6 people. He owns his business. We had him come out on site to help us one single time last summer and almost had a heatstroke doing what the rest of us do every day. But he's the one who makes the phone calls and signs the checks so he makes a lot more than us.
I still would rather make a living doing this than working for a faceless corporation, but there are some aspects of capitalism you just can't escape.
In all fairness, this doesn't sound like an exactly fair comparison. If it's a small business with only 6 people (7 including the owner) then he's a lot more exposed financially than a larger company. It means he doesn't have any of the protections that a larger or incorporated company would benefit from. If anything major goes sideways, then he's finished. The workers can, in theory, pick up and go find a new job somewhere, but the owner could be financially ruined (this happened to my dad and he never recovered. Although to be fair to him, he busted his back working alongside everyone else, sometimes even longer than them).
The amount someone gets paid isn't always a direct ratio for how much physical effort they put into something.
I don't know your boss or anything, so I'm not trying to contradict you, I'm just pointing out something that came to my mind.
You make a solid point. He assumes the risk and that's why I'd still rather work for him than a big corporation.
The point I was making was just that the actual value of our company is created by us and we see a much smaller percent of the profit than he does. That compounded by the fact that he physically cannot hold the company up by himself comes off as condescending from our perspective sometimes.
He's also a bit power trippy about it too. Like in that "boss vs leader" meme, he's definitely the boss. Your dad sounds like a leader.