4 ms·
Would it not be wonderful to have a pay cap on the ratio between the highest paid employee and the lowest paid? We could extend this to all sectors.
by sova 6y ago
Would it not be wonderful to have a pay cap on the ratio between the highest paid employee and the lowest paid? We could extend this to all sectors.
- correct_horse 6y agoThis would most probably result in corporations laying off the lowest paid employees and paying contractors to do the same work.
- arthurcolle 6y agoCan you share some data that illustrates why you think this is a good idea?
- lawnchair_larry 6y agoNo, this almost certainly would not achieve the outcome you’re hoping for, and would likely create new problems.
- KMag 6y agoYou'd presumably want that limit to also extend to subcontractors and suppliers as well. It would be a wonderful human achievement to substantially raise wages in Bangladesh, for instance. Presumably we'd need garment price assistance for lower-middle class people in Western societies to partially offset the disproportionate impact on their lifestyles. I like the sentiment, and we shouldn't let fear of unintended consequences prevent all human progress, but there are significant risks with regard to unintended consequences and concentrating government powers on wages and social programs beginning to approach failed utopian experiments of the past.
- sova 6y agoThanks for your comment -- what is "garment price assistance?" As other commenters have skillfully pointed out, this would likely have deleterious effects unless, as you say, it was implemented in a fully-downstream fashion to include the whole pool of workers including contractors and the like. And of course, when regulations get too stiff in one city or state or nation, companies move. That is also a big obstacle in this idea. But there is at least one company that has the CEO salary capped at a certain number of multiples of the lowest-paid employee, and their culture seems to be great.