4 ms·
What does it mean that they underpay their workers, except that they pay them a smaller percentage of the economic value produced by their labor than you think
by comp_throw7 5y ago
What does it mean that they underpay their workers, except that they pay them a smaller percentage of the economic value produced by their labor than you think they should? Is that just a deontological claim? Because I imagine "my moral system says software engineers should be paid more, no, don't worry how much more, I'll tell you when to stop" is not very convincing as an argument.
- Pfhreak 5y agoI'm of the opinion that workers should retain 100% of the value they produce. Not for deontological reasons, but because I hold the belief that the outcomes of paying the "leaf nodes" in an organization maximally results in a healthier economy, a healthier population, and more democratic workplaces. This is not limited to software engineers. I believe the same is true for any worker, from fast food to manufacturing to engineers.
- comp_throw7 5y agoHow do you imagine this working, in practice? Do you want to force companies to have 0 cash holdings at all time? That seems like it might lead to some, ah, undesirable fragility.
- oblio 5y ago> What does it mean that they underpay their workers, except that they pay them a smaller percentage of the economic value produced by their labor than you think they should? That's easy to measure. These companies have a per-employee revenue which is easily a 5-10x multiple of average total compensation paid per employee, and in some cases it's also much less than the per-employee profit. So they could pay a ton more while also making a healthy profit. Apple is the worst example of this.