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When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

nytimes.com

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Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#91

Post by bryanlarsen »

chimpburger wrote: post #34
pm90 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What nonsense. Many thousands of workers will be compensated much better. Other retailers will have to increase their wages. This is a good outcome.

Did you even read the article? Many thousands of workers will be compensated less. The higher wages came at the cost of no more free stocks.

Nobody is going to be compensated less. The "extra" compensation they received before was simply a consequence of the fact that Amazon stock quadrupled in the last three years.

So if previously they got $14 + 0.50 in shares their total comp ended up being $16. But they still got paid less than somebody who was paid $15 in cash straight up (who could have then purchased AMZN on the market).

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#92

Post by csharp »

chimpburger wrote: post #34
pm90 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What nonsense. Many thousands of workers will be compensated much better. Other retailers will have to increase their wages. This is a good outcome.

Did you even read the article? Many thousands of workers will be compensated less. The higher wages came at the cost of no more free stocks.

I think OP meant that it will hopefully cause other employers to follow lead and raise wages (e.g. fast food, other retailers, etc).

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#93

Post by pnutjam »

kopo wrote: post #89
mruts wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just not true at all. Everyone's money goes into the same pot. And "passive" investments are essentially just crowd-sourced active investments.

For every dollar passive investors produce in the market active investors produce 22. Who do you think is paid more attention too?

I'd love to see a citation for that, including fees siphoned off.

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#94

Post by pnutjam »

sgt101 wrote: post #72
Aloha wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a company choose to not prefund its pension when times are good, they can't complain about it when times are bad.

Astonishingly in the UK it's actually illegal for companies to do this.

Only in the U.S. can managers pretend pensions are a give away and not part of the wage.

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#95

Post by bildung »

CydeWeys wrote: post #76
patrickg_zill wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious about how many hours you would say you work each week? Or how many total hours per year? A normal 40 hours per week is usually seen as about 2000 hours per year.

The exact definition of a full time salaried position, as defined by the federal government, is 2087 hours per year, FYI. Why such a weird number? Because it takes leap years into account: 365.24 × 5/7 × 8

Is there no legal minimum number of paid vacation days in the US?

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#96

Post by harrumph »

mtgx wrote: post #69
biocomputation wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's just this simple. I don't know why more people can't understand how basic this is.

The better question is - why are so many in such a hurry to defend billionaires?

>The better question is - why are so many in such a hurry to defend billionaires?

I think it's because the tech industry is positively lousy with deluded persons who see themselves as embryonic billionaires. When you believe your asshole sprays gold coins every time you update a git repo, you tend to overlook that production is arranged under capitalism to have the ownership class expropriate the majority of the value that workers create.

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#97

Post by hiram112 »

bildung wrote: post #95
CydeWeys wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exact definition of a full time salaried position, as defined by the federal government, is 2087 hours per year, FYI. Why such a weird number? Because it takes leap years into account: 365.24 × 5/7 × 8

Is there no legal minimum number of paid vacation days in the US?

No

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#98

Post by boomboomsubban »

bildung wrote: post #95
CydeWeys wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exact definition of a full time salaried position, as defined by the federal government, is 2087 hours per year, FYI. Why such a weird number? Because it takes leap years into account: 365.24 × 5/7 × 8

Is there no legal minimum number of paid vacation days in the US?

There is no required paid leave in the US. No paid vacation, no paid sick leave, no paid parental leave.

*edited a typo.

Re: When Sears Flourished, So Did Workers. At Amazon, It’s More Complicated

#100

Post by lucideer »

whoisjuan wrote: post #14

Sears' huge pension liabilities was cited as one of the main reasons that prevented any possible re-structuring that could have saved the company when it was declining and heading to bankruptcy... I mean, let's be realistic here. For how long was Sears in this pitiful state?... Getting all that real estate + semi-established brand was a private equity's wet dream, yet nobody ever contemplated that option. And now tha…

> Is not about pleasing shareholders and fucking up employees as this article claims. It's a problem of business viability and long-term expectations.

Perhaps. Or it could be about competing in a marketplace where pleasing shareholders and fucking up employees makes you more competitive. The problem is not that Sears treated its employees well, rather that its competitors are allowed not to.

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