Companies and paying proper wages

[Swirlythingy2025]

if companies paid proper wages for the roles that people do most companies would not make enough profits so when is society getting a better economic model than capitalism ?

I didn't say anyone should unskill.

I think that what people view as the basics are often not aligned with what the basics actually are. Before the age of social media there was less of a shift to a big house, new car, holidays abroad etc being part of the basics and yet now it's something that many feel they should be entitled to have. The reality is that the basics are shelter, nourishment, warmth, health and means of communication.

I agree that the cost of living has made things tough for many, and the cost of housing compounded by the lack of social housing especially is a huge issue. But it is also one which cannot be undone without negatively impacting millions of people so will never be undone.

And the post was about companies paying proper wages. My point was that companies pay according to what they receive and how difficult it would be to replace the role.

Before the age of social media there was less of a shift to a big house, new car, holidays abroad etc being part of the basics and yet now it's something that many feel they should be entitled to have. The reality is that the basics are shelter, nourishment, warmth, health and means of communication.

SM wasn't a thing when I was a young teenager. Houses were cheaper though & we went on holiday...wages have stagnated!

Noone ever said life was fair. The fact is in this example is that the public sector is funded by taxes, and noone ever wants to pay more tax.

In the private sector it's supply and demand that drives a product's price and if costs, including wages, go up the item's sale price will go up and people won't buy. Businesses are all about the bottom line.

Economics should be a mandatory subject at school alongside English and maths IMO.

Business are run by people who want to make a profit. They need to pay tax, their VAT, their national insurance, pay for the systems that run the HR side of the business and all the issues that arise from employing people.
They need to maintain the business environment and buildings, they need to invest in new equipment, training and expansion plans.
They have the stress and responsibility of all of this and much more.
If their profit is diminished by tax changes they have to amend something to make it work.

In the private sector it's supply and demand that drives a products price and if costs, including wages, go up the items sale price will go up and people won't buy. Businesses as requested all about the bottom line.

"In 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.

What changed @AgnesX ?

The way I see it is this

Companies are there to make a profit, it’s a business and no business would be in business if it didn’t make a profit. For lots of companies there are shareholders, who also want a profit, now some of those shareholders are individuals who use the payment of dividends as income to live on, some don’t need to and a lot of shareholders are pension companies, that then pay that pension out to pensioners, and if those pensioners didn’t get that income they would be claiming benefits in order to survive ( worse case but just look at what Trump has done to share prices) so then everybody would have to pay more tax to pay for it, so even less money to spend

yes in an ideal world companies would pay decent wages for everyone to accommodate price rises, but those prices rises are not the fault of the company, many are down to global issues that the man on the street, or the CEO of the company/business have had no hand in and can’t stop.

Should business owners and companies increase pay every time there is a price increase? Can’t you see they would go out of business eventually? And anyway would that price increase for the wages have to be passed onto the consumer at some point to allow the business to succeed? Or should they call it quits at some point and go into liquidation because they can’t afford the wages bill

At least we have a NWM, not a lot but better than it was, but it’s not as simple as increases in wages to cover cost increases. There is a much bigger picture out there and knock on impacts to everyone in some way

Well, there's plenty of articles out there that explain why CEO pay has gone up so much in the past 30-40 years, and whilst it's unethical and demoralising to have such huge pay differentials, reducing CEO pay would have negligeable impact on employees' pay. If the AstraZeneca, NatWest or Ocado bosses spread their pay across their huge companies' workforce, it would add at most £10/month to everyone's wages. The exceptions are where the CEOs are majority shareholders, and they basically pay themselves whatever they fancy.

@SoSoLong I'm aware of what the articles out there so hence my question was directed at another response taking about supply and demand...

i thought society abolished slave labour years ago ? yes i can understand your points but why should people be paid pittance when the companies make £££ profits ?

true

but it still is odd

There should be a wealth tax - people with far far far less are taxed more in relation to their income than the wealthy.

We tried communism. It worked so well that it managed to impoverish a country full of 20th century Germans, difficult though that might be to believe.

West Germany had a social market economy between 1945 & 1990. Its citizens were able to buy world-leading Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi & Porsche cars, all made in Germany. East Germany had communism between 1945 & 1990. Its citizens had to wait 10 years to be allocated a Trabant by their government.

Free market capitalism, free trade & competitive markets are not perfect, obviously. When left unmanaged they create levels of inequality, exploitation & environmental destruction which many find unacceptable. Which is why most countries have progressive taxation systems & enforce laws (eg minimum wage, employment protection, sick pay, maternity pay etc etc) to mitigate these things. But until we come up with a better system for allocating resources, setting prices, managing demand creating the wealth which pays for vital public services, the reality is that we are stuck with it.