Company Raises It's Minimum Wage to $70,000 and All Hell Breaks Loose

If your top talent is making 70k then you don't really have any top talent.

A few were worried that fees would rise or service would fall off. "What's their incentive to hustle if you pay them so much?" Ms. Brajcich said they asked.

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It's sad that people really think:
a) 70k is "so much"
b) Good workers would suddenly become bad doing so if they got paid more.
How stupid can you be?

The Ancient_sl said:

If your top talent is making 70k then you don't really have any top talent.



It's sad that people really think:
a) 70k is "so much"
b) Good workers would suddenly become bad doing so if they got paid more.
How stupid can you be?

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a) 70K is too much for jobs not worth 70K. If he was a web development studio and everyone he hired was a developer, then great, I'm sure the starting wage issue is good there? The trick is that he's hiring call center CS people at 70K and sr acct managers at 70K and, presumably, some amount of tech staff at 70K. If you don't think there's going to be drama internally when you get paid the same for making the company 'work' as someone who just answers phones and promises the world but you have to deliver, well I guess lucky you.
b) I've seen this countless times. Seriously, you've must have never been in management? I get the 'well if I made more I could do a better job' argument all the time. We're not talking substantive reasons, just they want more money because they've been mediocre for a couple of months. I've seen countless people given a raise (usually with a promotion) stop caring because they are comfortable. I've seen middling commissions replaced with larger wage increases and great cheer only until comfort replaces effort and they "can't handle the stress" because they "aren't being paid for it".

This is not rocket surgery, it's human nature.

As for CEO pay - much of it is incredibly disproportionate, but that's a larger problem within the US economy itself - the same goes with sports champs, movie stars, architects, etc. There's so much money willing to be spent on infinitesimal improvements in the top 1% that people luck out because of it and get paid 10x-100x+ more. Certainly I think lots of positions overpay just like lots underpay. There's also a large problem with companies like Apple holding liquid assets instead of reinvesting it into the economy through manufacturing, R&D, etc. but all those fucking hipsters couldn't be bothered to care about the fact that their device overlord is paid just as much as all the other 'wall-street types' are and making absurd margins as they dial all their friends on their iPhone 6s.

Lyrical_sl said:

Inflation is never a good thing. Why don't we go back to paying people to dig a ditch, and then fill it back in by the end of the day? That will really boost the economy. Or better yet, why don't we just print a million dollars off for each citizen and send it to them? /sarcasm off

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That's exactly what's done all the time to boost the economy. It's called consumerism and it's how our economy works.

Palum_sl said:

b) I've seen this countless times. Seriously, you've must have never been in management? I get the 'well if I made more I could do a better job' argument all the time. We're not talking substantive reasons, just they want more money because they've been mediocre for a couple of months. I've seen countless people given a raise (usually with a promotion) stop caring because they are comfortable. I've seen middling commissions replaced with larger wage increases and great cheer only until comfort replaces effort and they "can't handle the stress" because they "aren't being paid for it".

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Oh look, you can't read. I never said more money would turn a bad worker good, I said it doesn't turn a good worker bad. Nice try though.

Lyrical_sl said:

Actually, as he said, this is the $15 argument carried to the extreme. There's a huge difference between that, and the crazy ass rant that ended in an NRA argument.

I know that the board is overwhelmingly a bunch of hippies, but how do you defend this guy? He had good motives, but pissed on everyone that had more seniority, skills and merit. If you've ever managed a bunch of people, you find that 20% of them bring 80% of the results on your team. You have to reward the ones that are actually bringing results, and get your weak performers to earn their keep, or let them go. I'm not talking about comparing people on a different level, I'm talking about co-workers on the same level.

Could he have done some sort of bonus, based on tangible results of each individual? It would have made more sense.

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There is way too much shit going on this story that isn't known or being reported. I don't believe for one fucking second that two people quit a 70k job out of protest of other people they felt didn't deserve it. Those two people obviously had offers to make more money elswhere. This is conviently left out of the story because it doesn't fit the political narrative. Then you have this lawsuit where details are vague and did the owner know it was coming. Way too many things that are unkown in this and people as usual pick what they want to back up their own political beliefs.

The owner should never have let this shit go public but he obviously wanted the attention. For me it's hard to speculate on what he should have done because I don't have the full picture because too many details are missing.

Lyrical_sl said:

Just stop.

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I'm not going to stop assaulting your limited and ignorant world view just because you tell me to.

Hey no fair, I posted this highly politicized article in the business forum, and now people are saying things I don't agree with!

The Ancient_sl said:

Oh look, you can't read. I never said more money would turn a bad worker good, I said it doesn't turn a good worker bad. Nice try though.

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It can and does. More money without a reason can turn a good worker bad. I've seen it happen numerous times. Good workers appreciate reward for success and they also notice when others don't do as much but get the same or better. It breeds contempt. It is counter intuitive at times. But if everyone did things that made sense, people wouldn't ask for demotions because they just "didn't want to manage anymore" or quit their job of 5 years because they want to take a month long vacation only to be screwed when they get back, yet people do, all the time.

Palum_sl said:

lol, this is the most basic issue with the $15 minimum wage bullshit.





Well, no shit. If you work your ass off for $15 now, why would you continue to do so when you could go get a less stressful job at a fast food or big box retail chain?

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This is kind of my issue with the whole idea of jacking up minimum wage a lot. Even though I make significantly more than $15/hr, it devalues my salary. If a retail worker is making $10/hr right now, and I'm making $30, it sets a precedent for my value. When you jack up the retail worker to $15 in 2-3 years for no apparent reason, but my wage stagnates at $30 still, I've suddenly gone from a 3x minimum wage salary to 2x.

In this case it clearly bothered his employees. The ones making more than $70k said fuck this and walked, because now their work was devalued. They were still making the same amount and doing the same amount of work, but the system was dicked up by boosting the minimum so much.

Lyrical_sl said:

Never doubt the ability for humans to do something if they feel they are being treated unfairly. There are two sides to the coin. If a newbie gets a 100% raise, and a guy at 70 gets a 0% raise, the guy at 70 is going to lose his shit.

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You might want to look further than that bad article then.

Everyone was getting raises to at least that minimum point - it wasn't the ceiling for exceptional staff.

Palum_sl said:

It can and does. More money without a reason can turn a good worker bad. I've seen it happen numerous times. Good workers appreciate reward for success and they also notice when others don't do as much but get the same or better. It breeds contempt. It is counter intuitive at times. But if everyone did things that made sense, people wouldn't ask for demotions because they just "didn't want to manage anymore" or quit their job of 5 years because they want to take a month long vacation only to be screwed when they get back, yet people do, all the time.

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Well you are building a nice strawman again. Resentment over another employee's pay is not the same thing as suggesting a good employee is just going to stop working because he's making 70k now and has no motivation.