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Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

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Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#221

We had an all-hands meeting recently where we got to submit anonymous questions. One of the questions was 'with inflation rising at 6%, will the company reconsider their 'standard' 2% raise?' The lady answering looks dead in the camera and goes 'Honestly? No' and goes on to talk about how we're reasonably competitive with the local market. Hey, credit where credit is due, at least she was a refreshingly straight shoo…

What I don’t get is this: this person is also an employee who would benefit from that raise ratio. So why is she feeling like her job is to defend the competitiveness of the company in front of other coworkers? The incentives are completely messed up in corporate

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#223
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want a raise the best thing you can do is find a new job. Note that this doesn't always even involve taking it. Go get a job offer that pays better and bring it to your boss. If they want to match it, great. If they don't, bye.

From the other side, whenever a member of my team has come to me asking to match an offer I've always refused and wished them well in their new role. If someone is unhappy enough to start job hunting rather than talking to me then it's a clear sign that they'll leave soon regardless of any pay rise. Psychologically, every pay increase makes someone happy for a short time, and then they get used to it and they start t…

If a employee comes to you asking for more money, how fo you respond? How much do you give? How much have you given in the past?

I’ve tried your approach and it’s usually a token amount or “sorry there isn’t a budget”. When I have an another offer then suddenly they find “flexibility”. But that said, I don’t even ask for more if I’m so unhappy I see myself leaving anyways.

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch Ray Dalio's videos on the long term debt cycle and how the economy works in general. Another interesting topic is what is called the "fourth turning" which sort of says that major changes happen around once a human lifecycle. We are going to have some major economic changes in the next decade, but no one knows how that will look. I think it's 50/50 whether it's violent or not.

You are being overly dramatic. A hundred years ago, workers were treated so bad and had such bad living conditions it makes you sick just to hear about it. THAT lead to some violent revolutions in some countries, most of them young, undemocratic, or unstable. Some of them migrated 2,000 km from their home. People have food, shelter, entertainment.

its not only about food, shelter and entertainment, its about perspective. if you have to slave away for another 40 years, living paycheck to paycheck, can barely afford a family, a revolution in whatever form it comes might sound good. Check out the Strike at Kellogs, 80h/week, 16h Shifts for barely any money and the Company just wants to fire the striking employees. You can only press so much productivity out of people until they push back and i think we can see that this pushback is starting...

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#225

As someone who does OK, but lives in reality (not the bay area), I feel a revolution coming. I hope it's not a violent one, but who knows at this point. Hopefully it's just a politician with big policy changes. People feel completely disenfranchised. You keep hanging housing over their head but just out of reach like some baby toy, then inflation spikes everything else. What's the point of working even? I don't know…

I feel the same way. I hope I'm wrong, but my prediction is that we will have another civil war in the US within the next 10 years. We cannot continue our current cancel culture and political hatred indefinitely. It will come to a head and people will start killing each other. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but unless we get off our current trajectory, I fear I'm not.

I sincerely hope this comment ages more poorly than any comment ever made.

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#226

We had an all-hands meeting recently where we got to submit anonymous questions. One of the questions was 'with inflation rising at 6%, will the company reconsider their 'standard' 2% raise?' The lady answering looks dead in the camera and goes 'Honestly? No' and goes on to talk about how we're reasonably competitive with the local market. Hey, credit where credit is due, at least she was a refreshingly straight shoo…

What I don’t get is this: this person is also an employee who would benefit from that raise ratio. So why is she feeling like her job is to defend the competitiveness of the company in front of other coworkers? The incentives are completely messed up in corporate

Because if she didn't defend the company on the call she'd be fired??

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#227

As someone who does OK, but lives in reality (not the bay area), I feel a revolution coming. I hope it's not a violent one, but who knows at this point. Hopefully it's just a politician with big policy changes. People feel completely disenfranchised. You keep hanging housing over their head but just out of reach like some baby toy, then inflation spikes everything else. What's the point of working even? I don't know…

>>As someone who does OK, but lives in reality (not the bay area), I feel a revolution coming.

As some one who lives in India, where inflation is perennially high. I can assure you revolution is not coming, in fact not even a protest march.

Revolutions needs a lot of hunger and suffering, its not things like milk going from being $9 to $12 a unit.

The common man delays things like fighting for almost as long as they can, its only when things just go too far do things like revolution happen.

USA is not even remotely close to any such situation.

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#228
post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The revolution will not come from the left. The "left" elites have forgotten the people, and the left in general is talking more about identity issues than class issues. The revolution will be more Trump than Bernie. Like in the early 1900, where more revolutions where fascist than communist.

What people in the US call left elites, is being called slightly rightwing in the EU. When I hear comments like „state-funded housing is socialism“ I have to chuckle. That’s just how you make sure people won’t starve if they don’t resort to shady business. Bernie‘s ideas would be called leftist here, but not extremely so.

It's hard to debunk this since if we declare all democrat party to be "left", then yes, some democrats will be slightly rightwing. But there are definitely some "left" currents that started in US universities and are spreading to the rest of the world. The kind of stuff that Jordan Peterson is preaching against is definitely not considered "slightly rightwing" in the EU.

Re: Worker pay isn’t keeping up with inflation

#229
post #205

Not sure how inflation is calculated globally; but where I live (Norway) we leave housing costs out of inflation. That always seemed very strange to me. Our main cost of living, (which has gone through the roof the last 25 years) is somehow left out of the calculation. My rent, or cost of buying a house - is much more important than the cost of a Snickers bar.

I don't know about Norway, but in France it is weighted at 7% of the inflation calculation, which is way below what people actually pay for housing. In theory, it is because housing is considered an investment, but in practice it doesn't seem to hold up and is critized by some economists. I also find it very strange.

> it is because housing is considered an investment

Ok, perhaps that partly makes sense for people buying homes. But paying rent cannot possibly be considered an investment; unless you are trying to marry a landlord or something :-)

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