I don't know about you, but I get pretty angry when I see the wage disparity everywhere. Even in my own experience, I've worked for companies whose bosses made a grossly disproportional amount of money compared to their employees. That really upsets me.
So when a recent Reddit thread talked about this, I got triggered. And as I can see, I wasn't the only one. Let's see what other people had to say about it.
And it got everyone else talking. Here's what the original poster said, "I got a $0.25 raise this year which absolutely is not keeping pace with inflation. and then I get to walk into work and see the owner's new toy."
Can you even believe that? I don't know about you, but that seems like a total slap in the face if I've ever seen one. At least this boss didn't have to bring his new toy into the office to show off, huh?
Here's what some other folks shared on this Reddit thread.
"My company laid off 20% of employees and gave the rest of us a 10-15% salary cut.
They keep scheduling team-building activities for morale. Yeah, that's gonna fix our issues."
"We knew layoffs were coming. 30 guys out of 150 so pretty sizable. That was the day the boss decided to show up in his new Porsche."
Oh, yeah, talking about good timing. Am I right? Why some people lack tact is beyond me.
"Had an employer take delivery on his new Aston-Martin DB9 (delivered to our office building and parked in the handicapped space) the day before he announced he had sold the company and we were all losing our jobs."
I have no words after I read that.
"Just saw a Tiktok that said 'boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That was a poem for a simpler time. Now the boss makes 1000 and I make a buck, let’s steal the catalytic converter off the company truck.' Or maybe the boss's Ferrari. I’m not here to judge."
I want to laugh but this is just sad.
"My boss once told me they couldn't afford raises this year. We had a party on his pontoon boat and used his mansion for the after-party. He kept bragging about how he traded his house with a helipad for this one because it had a boat dock. HELIPAD! HE OWNS AND OPERATES A HELICOPTER but we can't have raises, sure."
Wow!
"The CEO of a place I used to work froze raises and cost of living bumps for everyone below management. At the same time, he received a $9 million executive bonus for the year and bought a house in Malibu under his wife's charity's name. The same charity he strongly suggested all employees donate to the month before."
That should be criminal, no?
"I took a pay cut during the pandemic. My boss then bought a lake house and $200k boat. Still haven't had my pay restored to pre-pandemic rate."
That's just not right.
"A coworker just walked out today. He was told a $0.50 raise was all the boss could afford. He then found out the boss bought two new holiday homes in cash this past month, [expletive] two holiday homes because 'the market is crashing and prices are plummeting.' Coworker was offered new job elsewhere at $15 per hour more so he took it. When the boss and him were arguing in the lot today, the boss offered him $4 more for him to stay on and then called him selfish for leaving when he refused."
I say good for him.
"The company I work for is very big on telling everyone how much money they made each month and the VP tries to nonchalantly brag about how much he takes home from that. They then question why they can’t keep the people they have working there, when their starting pay is complete [expletive] and they’re super horrible on keeping up with reviews."
Let's see how long they can keep this up.
"This totally happened to me. We had a Christmas party in the warehouse and the owner was showing off his new $450k motorhome with hydraulic slide-outs for the living room and handed everyone year-end bonuses that were $5 Walmart gift cards. Within a month, he lost half his staff."
I'm horrified at that.
"I worked for a privately owned family business once. They had multiple private jets, I did IT work in their hangar. They had an absolutely massive garage with a full-time mechanic to maintain their fleet of exotic cars. I did IT work for him too. I also did work for their private guards. I got to see it all and people wonder why I was especially bitter when I got laid off. I was laid off by someone who spends my entire annual salary in half a day using their private jet, or a single pen stroke buying the latest supercar."
I would be quite pissed off too.
"I used to work for a gigantic oil company in Houston. In 2014, the CEO asked us to help the company save money by collecting money to buy each team's coffee, or stop printing in color, etc., because we were going through hard times. The day he made that request, he drove into the parking lot in a new Bentley (freshly printed paper plates and all) and he's saying that while waving his arm with a huge Rolex. I quit a week later."
Quite misguided, no?
"If I stay at my current job until May, I’ll have gotten 50¢ a year for eight years. I love my job, because working with dogs is so much fun, but $4 across eight years means I’m looking around to see what else there is. One boss just bought a house, the other one’s spouse makes enough they don’t need to work at all. However, every single employee has at least one other job or lives at home or with multiple roommates. My boss should be able to afford a house. But so should every other employee. Everyone needs to be able to afford to live on a single paycheck. More importantly, one way to get there is to end the concept and existence of billionaires."
Amen to that.
"At my last job, I got cornered by one of the senior VPs who kept going on and on about how he just spent a little over $25k building a bar in his game room. He even said he didn't really use it or plan to use it; he just thought it would look nice. Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself that he just spent a third of my gross yearly salary (roughly half of my net salary) on a [expletive] whim. I'm so tired of the out-of-touch douchebags. Thankfully, I found a job that's paying me damn near twice as much. I'm making sure that with my higher pay I keep myself grounded and never lord it over anyone's head or flaunt it."
Bravo!
"Had a boss ask us to hold our checks for a week to make payroll as he was picked up in a limo. At our work. Stupid can’t even begin to describe it. Still doesn’t realize he lost employees over it."
Oh, my goodness. What?
"I hope the top comment can edit it to include the following information:
If you're dissatisfied with your job, your coworkers are probably dissatisfied too. Organizing labor can be scary, but there's help. Contact the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC https://workerorganizing.org/), and get information on how to organize. Fill out a form, and a consultant gets in touch with you within 48 hours. They can advise you on the next steps and get you in touch with existing unions."
"Logistically, you'll want to gather information from your coworkers. Find out if they're dissatisfied and how much. Ask them, 'If you could improve one thing about your job, what would it be,' or, 'What's your biggest problem working here?.' There's help out there. There is strength in numbers. You're not alone. Good luck."
"NOTE: I started posting this online because I was fed up with just shrugging and not doing anything when I see these issues. I'm not associated with EWOC, I just have heard good things. If anyone else has other resources they should respond to this comment."
I don't understand how some people can knowingly treat their employees so badly while at the same time showing off their wealth. Are they all narcissists? I guess so.
Well, it's time for employees to stand up to this and do something about it. If you can find another job — great. But if not, at least try to organize. I mean, it's better to try than just put up with it, no?
