<story><title>What workers want: raises that beat inflation</title><url>https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/what-workers-really-want-raises-that-beat-inflation</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>charlie0</author><text>Yes we want raises that beat inflation. But I think what we really want is a bigger share of the profits a company makes without them raising prices. Unfortunately,   Wall Street demands ever growing profit margins and revenues. Meaning that whenever wage increase, they simply do their part to cancel them out by raising their prices as well.&lt;p&gt;I get that some companies have slim profit margins and can&amp;#x27;t do this easily, but others can clearly choose to pay their employees more.  They just choose not to. This is an ideological thing and not an impossibility. See Gravity Payments.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zdragnar</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ll be honest, having worked at companies with profit sharing, you&amp;#x27;re better off taking the raise unless you&amp;#x27;re working for commission, and even then now is a rough time to be on commission.&lt;p&gt;If you can afford to risk your income on your company&amp;#x27;s fortunes, start your own or join a startup with a founder who seems trustworthy.&lt;p&gt;For me and most people, predictable income is much better than risky equity.</text></comment>
<story><title>What workers want: raises that beat inflation</title><url>https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/what-workers-really-want-raises-that-beat-inflation</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>charlie0</author><text>Yes we want raises that beat inflation. But I think what we really want is a bigger share of the profits a company makes without them raising prices. Unfortunately,   Wall Street demands ever growing profit margins and revenues. Meaning that whenever wage increase, they simply do their part to cancel them out by raising their prices as well.&lt;p&gt;I get that some companies have slim profit margins and can&amp;#x27;t do this easily, but others can clearly choose to pay their employees more.  They just choose not to. This is an ideological thing and not an impossibility. See Gravity Payments.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rgersten</author><text>This is spot on. I think there is a nuance across industries that is often missed here too. Certain industries really can’t raise prices or wages without tanking the business. Restaurants, mechanics, doctors, etc are often operating on razor thin margins with prices set by the market. For medical&amp;#x2F;dental&amp;#x2F;therapy their prices are often set by insurance reimbursement rates that haven’t kept up with inflation.&lt;p&gt;The flip side is like you said, companies raking in record profits with massive cash on hand. They could easily afford to share more with employees and would probably benefit from a happier and more invested work force. The stratification between C-level and everyone else is higher than it’s ever been.</text></comment>