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Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

theguardian.com

1–10 of 81 posts

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#2
I'd be interested in the economics of founders selling to their employees from a founder's point of view. It seems like a way to protect a founder's legacy after they exit.

Where does the money come from? Do the employees get a loan and then the money from the loan go to the founder? Does the founder provide a loan to the employees and receive regular payments on the loan? Do the employees have to have cash? Do all employees own equal shares regardless of role of employment length? Do employees buy businesses at the market rate?

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#3
> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do.

Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from.

I'm happy that these days are gone now, and skills and professionalism can be valued by the free market by people competing for them; why, despite pure populism for the lowest common denominator, someone wants to return to something like this, is completely beyond me.

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#4
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

Seriously. Can you imagine trying to hire a skilled professional who has put years of effort into acquiring a skill when you won't pay them any more than a retail cashier?

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#5
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

All sounds good in a free market, you know unless the major players are working together to lower pay intentionally: http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/koh-anti-poach-order/

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#6
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

It's a guardian article :)

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#7
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

The market rewards leverage though, not skills.

They only coincide sometimes. Academia is one place in particular where the two do not go together.

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#8
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

All sounds good in a free market, you know unless the major players are working together to lower pay intentionally: http://fortune.com/2015/09/03/koh-anti-poach-order/

Yeah, it's still a better alternative to fixed pay rate.

Re: Worker-owned businesses: 'We get paid the same regardless of role'

#10
post #3

> We all get paid the same hourly rate regardless of the roles we do. Good luck retaining any skilled professionals then. One of the most repulsing stories that I got from Soviet Union from my grandparents was about excellent engineers being on the same pay scale with manual labour workers. No matter how much do you put into your skills, the system had standard pay scale that you couldn't break out from. I'm happy th…

The market rewards leverage though, not skills. They only coincide sometimes. Academia is one place in particular where the two do not go together.

Markets rewards what you can give.

You can have a lot of very hard to learn and impressive skills that have no economic sense whatsoever. Don't expect to get paid for them.

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