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0 pointswpietri3y ago0 comments

That's ridiculous. Most companies can do it. You're just saying you don't want to because you can get away with exploiting employees' aversion to changing jobs. Pretending that greed is "basic math" is just deflection.

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5 comments · 1 top-level

marktangotango3y ago· 4 in thread

> Most companies can do it.

Compensation is a Huge lever on earnings. There would certainly be a consequence on the stock price if margins diminished due to overly extravagant raises, which they most certainly would in a most if not all cases.

oblio3y ago

Any medium or large company can very easily find out current market rates.

If they focus on those, it wouldn't be "overly extravagant raises", just... "staying up to date".

wpietriOP3y ago

Yes, that would be the greed part I was talking about. If the current stock pricing depends upon worker exploitation, then obviously ceasing to exploit workers would cause the stock price to fall, at least in the short term. (In my experience, treating workers well pays off in the long.) But that doesn't turn the continued exploitation into "basic math".

edmundsauto3y ago

For big tech, a lot of your comp is in stock. So this would diminish the salary increase effectively by reducing the stock price.

IME, people are a lot more sensitive to lowered stock prices than meager annual increases. The latter doesn’t feel emotionally like a loss.

wpietriOP3y ago

I don't think that's generally true for people in big tech. Just the highest strata. And to the extent that causes problems, I expect they'll be much smaller than the sorts of market fluctuations we're seeing lately, which companies already have tools to deal with.

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