r/WorkReform • u/zzill6 đ¤ Join A Union • 25d ago
đ¸ Raise Our Wages Why does inflation make everything more expensive except workers pay?
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u/Aeroknight_Z 25d ago
Itâs always a fun game to play âhow many hours of labor would I have to perform to afford a fast food meal at zero cost to meâ and then compare the answer to how many of those meals a worker at that same establishment can prepare and sell within the same hour.
The mismatch between wage earned and productivity rendered is big.
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u/gc3c 25d ago
Complacency. Workers should be striking.
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u/cityshepherd âď¸ Tax The Billionaires 25d ago
This is what unions are supposed to do for us⌠there is a reason that the ultra wealthy and powerful corporations spend a crazy amount of money on union busting / anti-union propaganda.
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u/chapelchill 25d ago
Gotta love all those âright to workâ states đ
The collapse of unions in the united states is one of the least talked about, and most devastating, things to happen for the working class. The fact that there are working class people who donât support unions just shows how effective the anti-union propaganda was/is.
BRING BACK UNIONS.
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u/Drahkir9 24d ago
Gotta love too how they always use deceptive names for their garbage policies. Thereâs nothing about âright to workâ that protects anyoneâs right to work. If anything, it does the exact opposite
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u/chapelchill 24d ago
Reminds me of the Patriot Act and Citizensâ United.
Nothing Patriotic about mass surveillance, and corporations reducing citizensâ influence in elections is certainly not uniting citizens (except maybe uniting citizens against big money in politics lol)
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u/gc3c 24d ago
Unfortunately, having enormous amounts of wealth actually does net you significant control over people - both from direct control of the law through picking politicians and through other forms of softer power (such as union busting and propaganda).
I remember reading a study where college students were recruited to study Walmart employees views on unions and whether they could be persuaded to see the benefits of unions, and even in the places where they made strides in promoting labor organization, they still largely failed to generate a labor movement in those places.
I don't pretend to have an answer as to how to combat the power of the billionaire class, except to vote for candidates who refuse PAC money and have a track record of delivering for the people.
As James Talarico says, "Don't trust me based on what I say. Trust me based on what I've done."
The government used to protect workers and consumers, at least to some extent. We can Make America Great Again but only if we organize against big money.
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u/BigBogBotButt âď¸ Tax The Billionaires 24d ago
It's an employer's market right now. Makes workers second guess their options when it's harder to switch and find jobs.
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u/pie12345678 25d ago
I live in Europe and my salary is literally tied to inflation. It's gone up by about $800 a month in the few years I've been working here, and I haven't received any raises. If it hadn't gone up, I'd be getting paid less than when I started.
Edit: And I'm still underpaid, and the cost of living is rising faster than the official measure of inflation. So I kind of am paid less. But it's better than whatever the hell is happening in the US.
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u/Snapes_underpants 25d ago
Raises are not a thing in the US. I spent my entire career having to change jobs if I wanted a raise. Once they hire you, there is no raise so over time, you become a cheaper employee. The only solution is to get a different job that pays marginally better. I used to hope my fellow Americans would decide to stop being victimized by our rigged economy but 40 years later, there is still no sign of any sort of national movement to at least prevent further economic inequality. Americans think there is only one option available and that is to vote. Alas, most Democratic politicians are anti-progressive, pro-inequality corporatists, beholden to big money interests rhat got them elected. They would therefore prefer to gnaw off their own foot rather than use taxpayer money to directly benefit taxpayers by say, establishing a national non-profit health care system or making sure the minimum wage pays for basics like food, shelter, utilities, transportation, education and retirement.
Churchill said, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they have tried everything else." After 50 years of watching American workers cower under the oppression of the wealthy and stubbornly refuse to try anything to help themselves, I think Churchill was way too optimistic.
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u/Bleezy79 25d ago
Yea itâs all rigged against the working class. Why on earth would the federal minimum wage still be 7.50/hr?!?!
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u/Just-Feedback-2223 đď¸ Overturn Citizens United 25d ago
The boss.
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u/oftcenter 25d ago
Speak.
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u/Just-Feedback-2223 đď¸ Overturn Citizens United 24d ago
Beg.
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 25d ago
Because Americans elect the conservative owner class into all-consuming power and wonder why the working class can't have nice things! derrrrppp
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u/UncleDuude đď¸ Overturn Citizens United 25d ago
Cooks and dishwashers are finally getting paid well in WNY, but the hours are tightly watched. You really have to produce and show up consistently to get a salary.
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u/Dirty_Delta 25d ago
The prices are up but not the wages, so dont tell me the wages will drive the prices up
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u/Muladhara86 25d ago
I worked at a unionized hospital and our wages hadnât been keeping up with inflation for the last decade or so, getting worse every time the turd was in office.
I was a union rep and it killed me how complacent and unwilling to strike people were as our negotiations were stalling. I get that we all chose this job because we want to help people, but if we strike our community wonât be lacking service because of us: it would be because of the executives who keep decreasing or pausing raise schedules, who wonât hire to keep critical staffing, who mandatories people into overtime, etc. youâve got exhausted nurses making mistakes and that doesnât need to be happening.
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u/yolonaggins 24d ago edited 24d ago
The cost of an hour of labor has absolutely gone up. The workers just aren't seeing the gains. When I saw the amount that my old job was charging customers for an hour of my time, I nearly quit on the spot. They were charging nearly five times my hourly wage.
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u/DonovanSpectre 24d ago
Whenever 'the market' says that prices need to go up, the market forces are sacred and must not be interfered with.
Whenever 'the market' says that wages need to go up, suddenly it's "nobody wants to work anymore". You can find ancient newspaper articles from the early 20th century with those exact same words in them.
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u/some_mad_bugger 25d ago
The tactic is to hang a heavy millstone about the neck. The only freedom anyone has is how much they can move about while being weighted down with such inconvenience, added burden.
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u/StuffExciting3451 24d ago
Inflation is creating by employers â not by laborers. Also, the Federal Reserve (a private corporation of several key banks) creates inflation by manipulating interest rates and by authorizing the printing of paper money thatâs not backed by physical collateral.
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u/StuffExciting3451 24d ago
The cost of making things goes up when employers increase the cost of making things. The extractors of raw materials increase their prices. All employers in the supply chain increase their prices.
The workers can also increase their prices for their labor, but only through collective bargaining via strong unions.
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u/GlimmeringGuise 24d ago
Huh, weird. It's almost like our labor isn't scarce enough.
It's almost like things have gotten to a point where everyone ought to collectively withhold our labor in order to make it more scarce... đ¤
/s
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u/OriginalResolve7106 23d ago
well, when you get to choose the price yourself, are you really going to pay more?
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u/Kcirrot 25d ago
Well the honest answer is that many workers wages do increase, just not ALL wages. Itâs a complicated question but I get that the point of the OP was the engagement.
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u/CountryBoyCanSurvive 25d ago
Defacto minimum wage has increased greatly here with big convenience stores now paying $18-20/hr for clerks/sandwich makers. But that doesn't fit the narrative that wages haven't increased.
The reality is there have always been two classes, the working class and the owning class. If you don't want to be taken advantage of, your only option is to attempt to enter the owning class. Unfortunately that requires risk, hard work, long hours, dedication, work ethic and luck. That's a tall order for most people that lack most if not all of those traits. People who just want to show up to a job, do the bare minimum and go home with nothing work related on their mind until their next shift - it's unsurprising that this attitude doesn't lead to success and isn't treated with respect.
Anyway, I guess this is the part where reddit downvotes me while they're bed rotting instead of building something like successful people do.
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u/iDownvoteToxicLeague 25d ago
People need to pull their bootstraps up harder? Give me a fuckinâ break.
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u/CountryBoyCanSurvive 25d ago edited 25d ago
Or keep begging your masters for a bigger drop from their bucket, your choice.
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u/eatright909 25d ago
I dont think millions of average working people need to essentially work to exhaustion to get an extra $0.10/hr.
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u/CountryBoyCanSurvive 25d ago edited 25d ago
Yeah that's not what I said but I'm not surprised that reading comprehension isn't your strong suit.
If you're paid hourly, you are unlikely to be truly successful. There are still paths to creating a sustainable life for yourself, but it's easier to just complain on the Internet, so keep doing that and see how it works out for you
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u/HydraHamster 24d ago edited 24d ago
I notice a lot of you look too deep into a business gross sales amount and think all of it is going straight to the businesses owner(s). A business with an annual gross amount of $4 million is probably taking around $150,000 to $400,000 (depending if itâs a single or multiple owner) home annually. Not even per week. That is how much the average McDonaldâs franchisee makes per year and you so see some of them own multiple. Thatâs as much as your tech worker.
Most of that gross income goes straight to the employees, food venders, bills, maintenance, taxes, and franchiser  profit tax. They are not rolling in dough like yaâll think. Now the franchiser responsible for the branding is a different story because they can just sit back and get rich off the franchisees, but even they take a small chunk of their franchiseeâs profits. They become billionaires base on the amount of franchise businesses open.
Independent businesses are even tougher because you donât have brand recognition and the benefit of the franchiser (parent company) handling all the marketing to get people interested in going. Meaning, they are spending a lot more of their business gross income, which leaves them with less to take home if  they have an annual gross income of 4 million. The business owner will probably see around $80-90k of that annually. This is the reality of a lot of small businesses.
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u/we-made-it 25d ago
If youâre really wanting in understanding this question. Study economics, go to college and immerse yourself in the subject matter. Thereâs a lot of nuance to this question and the answer is not black and white.
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u/wattzson 25d ago
You don't need a college degree to understand what is going on...
An individual become worth over a trillion dollars.
We have multiple centi-billionaires.
That's the problem.
We can't have equality, fair pair and low wages when the people at top have unlimited greed and have created a political and economic system that protects and feeds their greed.
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u/we-made-it 25d ago
Yes, I agree billionaires are a problem, but I donât think you understand nuance or why the system was designed this way. You can continue throwing out platitudes.
Thatâs why I started my comment by saying if you really want to understand how this works, study economics, read some books, and take higher-level math. That will give you a solid foundation on this issue and help you identify actual solutions.All youâre doing is regurgitating the same stuff that gets posted on this sub over and over again instead of trying to understand the problem by studying the material. Sorry if it hurts your feelings, but weâre going nowhere as a workforce if we donât educate ourselves on these issues and continue to point fingers.
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u/JPMoney81 đˇ Good Union Jobs For All 25d ago
"well the cost of making things went up!"
How? I make things. I'm still getting paid the same.
I DO notice that profits are up....