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Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

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Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#191

Post by sytelus »

kelnos wrote: post #161
sytelus wrote: post #105

Unpopular opinion: For big companies, if you take all of the exec pay (C suits) and give it out to rest of the employees, the average employee income only rises by 3-5%. While CXX packages are extra-ordinary, one has to understand that its often drop in the bucket for big balance sheets and even less relevant when you have couple of hundreds of thousand employees around. So the metric of disparity we should use is no…

I don't understand why you'd think that's a good metric. If the Cxx team each makes 100x what the average employee makes, it doesn't matter if there are 10 employees or 10,000. There's rampant income inequality either way.

The metric reflects the level of responsibilities. If you are managing and making decisions that directs activities of 100,000 people, then you do have that much more responsibility. So your comp as % of total comp of your report is good metric.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#192

Post by zxcmx »

sytelus wrote: post #190
pembrook wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I embezzle $10,000,000 from a giant company like GE, its also a drop in the bucket on their balance sheet. But that doesn’t make it right. American public company executives are grossly overpaid, and there’s been numerous studies proving this. Both historically in the US (exec pay has ballooned here since the 1980s) and currently in most other developed countries, companies with lower exec compensation don’t show…

If you are responsible and accountable for $5B revenues and associated decisions, won’t you agree you deserve 0.5% of that revenue? This is generally accepted reasonable management fees for things like index funds. Your credit card company or your iOS platform or Uber takes much bigger cuts.

Maybe we should give the president a share of GDP?

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#193

Post by Gibbon1 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #169
tyrust wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With this practice, your total pay is always equal to the minimum wage. You get minimum wage even if you earn no tips. In other words, the tips are worth zero to you, they just save your employer money.

No, your tips can exceed the difference between the tipped minimum wage and the regular minimum wage, in which case you'll be making more than minimum wage. That's the norm.

In a few states like California there isn't a difference in the minimum wage for tipped and untipped workers.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#194

Post by Gibbon1 »

people_not_bots wrote: post #158
Mandatum wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is possibly the most exploitative form of compensation I've heard of in the Western world.

My daddy was a miner and I'm a miner son https://youtu.be/5iAIM02kv0g?t=52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqDVObM1kxc

True story. My ex-wifes grandmother was the daughter of a sharecropper who grew tobacco. Start of WWI a friend wrote her dad that if he came to California his friend could get him a job. Well her old man sold everything, bought a broken down car, and drove the family to Santa Clara. When they got to California she remembers her absolute joy when she asked her mother where the tobacco fields were and her mother told her they don't grow tobacco in California.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#195

Post by dayjobpork »

donatj wrote: post #25

So possibly unpopular point of view here, maybe not on HN, but I think pay discrepancies can be entirely fair. I'm almost certain my pay is different from my colleagues, but I've bargained like hell to get it. When I was hired, every time we've been acquired. I'm no executive either, I'm just a developer with a proven history of give-a-damn. I think it's perfectly fair game in a job where it's hard to replace individ…

How do you know they actually pay you more?

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#196

Post by dayjobpork »

“We are constantly reviewing compensation philosophies to better recognize the talent of our highest performers and keep us competitive in the industry, all with the aim of rewarding and investing more in top employees.”

This is execspeak for screwing the majority and only giving their chosen few a decent raise.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#197

Post by zpeti »

woodruffw wrote: post #50
donatj wrote: post #25

So possibly unpopular point of view here, maybe not on HN, but I think pay discrepancies can be entirely fair. I'm almost certain my pay is different from my colleagues, but I've bargained like hell to get it. When I was hired, every time we've been acquired. I'm no executive either, I'm just a developer with a proven history of give-a-damn. I think it's perfectly fair game in a job where it's hard to replace individ…

> I'm almost certain my pay is different from my colleagues, but I've bargained like hell to get it. When I was hired, every time we've been acquired. I'm no executive either, I'm just a developer with a proven history of give-a-damn. Whether or not pay discrepancies can be fair, this doesn't sound like a case of them being fair. What happens to your (hypothetical) colleague who gives just as much of a damn as you do…

On your first point - it is a completely idealistic worldview to believe that somehow, without effort everyone should be treated equally by everyone else, without any conflicts about boundaries, what you are worth etc.

If you are not willing to fight for your corner, that is an issue with you. You can't expect the world to come to your rescue.

This is just as true in relationships as in business. What happens when your partner dumps 100 tasks on you and doesn't realise they're being a dick? Will you stand up for yourself? Or there's just some simple situation where the other person doesn't see your perspective?

Life is full of situations where you either stand up for yourself, and communicate, or someone runs you over by standing up for themselves. And they might not do it with bad intentions, it's just that everyone has different interests.

If you aren't assertive, you need to learn to be, or accept that you will be treated unfairly. There are obviously nuances to this entire point, you might be able to outsource your assertiveness to others, like a friend to help you, or a union at work or whatever, but unfortunately there will always be situations in life where you need to stand up for yourself, and if you don't, that's 100% your fault and responsibility, no one elses.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#198

Post by ryandrake »

woodruffw wrote: post #92
scottLobster wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue your first example is actually fair. Someone who has trouble negotiating in professional circles is going to have issues far beyond the workplace, if nothing else they're going to get repeatably screwed buying a car, and they should work on that. Why shouldn't the more aggressive, more strategic people earn more on average? I'd argue they give more of a damn by definition. The ability to project social forc…

> Why shouldn't the more aggressive, more strategic people earn more on average? I'd argue they give more of a damn by definition. The ability to project social force is a positive trait if used well, and can directly benefit the work if turned in that direction. One potential reason: being aggressive and strategic, as qualities, are orthogonal to one's skills. They're just as good signals for being an abusive manage…

Maybe I'm just an amateur, but this whole idea of negotiating your salary being some complex, strategic parlay--like you're brokering peace in the middle east--doesn't really match my experience with getting job offers. It's not like there are a lot of dimensions to bargain around. You get an offer from the company, and you can basically do one of three things:

1. Accept the offer

2. Walk away

3. Say "How about more compensation?"

If you do 3, the company will either say:

3a) (95% of the time) "How about no?"

or

3b) "How about this small amount more?"

And from there you can accept or walk away and that's pretty much it. You can write the decision tree on a post-it note. What are people talking about when they say "aggressive and strategic"? Bang on the table more? Yell and scream? What are you captains of industry doing that the rest of us aren't? In my view, we are just workers--our only leverage is our willingness to walk away, which is usually fine with the company. They have a long line of candidates out the door.

Re: Blizzard workers share salaries in revolt over wage disparities

#200

Post by galoisgirl »

tonitosou wrote: post #55

i dont understand why salaries should be same for a similar role. If I work twice as fast and with a better work quality than my collegue why shouldn't i get double his salary? are we in a communist country?

How do you measure that you're twice as fast?
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