this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Why would I be a CEO for twice the pay as the clerk? I'm sandbagging it all day long at those rates.
World needs a lot more store clerks than CEOs, as it turns out
No doubt there!!
Presumably, because you like the stuff you do. Some people like guiding things, others want to work construction, ect. Pay should just reflect the effort, risk, and knowledge involved with a job. If you don't want to be a CEO and that isn't a terrible choice, that is a good thing.
It should be out of passion, not money, that people pursue a particular career.
If pay reflects risk then in your system we need to also actually hold CEOs accountable because in the current system CEOs can do abhorrent shit, get a slap on the wrist, resign with a multi-million-dollar golden parachute and get another exec job a few months later. Let's have prison sentences for exec misbehaviour. Then I'll agree that they deserve that danger money.
To that end, I had some thoughts I have from my notes:
-A-
I think leadership pay rank should be decided by workers below the leadership role, unlike most job classes. The wait staff at a restaurant can vote whether their manager gets $40k, $60k, $80k, or even $100k, but that takes away from the proceeds of the restaurant. This means that workers have to decide what is fair and makes sense for their restaurant, else it goes under. Fired or resigned workers can still vote for leadership from their prior workplace, provided they still are receiving retirement benefits. Every day you work at a pay grade for a job, you get a 1:1 ratio of paid sick leave or retirement. This encourages workplaces to focus on the happy retention of veteran workers, rather than churning through "green" staff.
Of course, the workers and managers at that restaurant can cast votes for the leadership above their location - say, for example, the McDonald's CEO. So the CEO has to convince their workers that they have the best interests of the business in mind, else they lose their pay. Or worse, get expelled from leadership outright.
-B-
While in debt from the collapse of a company, an leader can't receive their personal income beyond Rank 0's $10,000. The excess earnings from their income is used to pay for debts. Retirement months and savings are also confiscated to pay for the debt.
One of the elements I have in mind for the proposed system is a hard cap on personal income, wealth, and assets at up to $100,000 each, totaling $300,000. Anything beyond the limits is automatically confiscated by the government. This gives the government incentive to pursue white collar criminality.
Companies, of course, should be considered separate entities - which means that they can't directly nor indirectly support the lifestyle of a CEO. Companies also have soft limits on wealth and assets that is tied to employee headcount and pay ranks. We will need mechanisms to provide for AI displacement, too.
I see your thought process here. I am just being pedantic about the 2x based on the amount of stress differences between levels at my company, but we likely share the overall gripe against capitalism. Passionism sounds like a way better economic philosophy.
because you went to business school and like the challenge of heading a company?