I haven't really read anything on this topic, or studied it fully, but it's just a thought I've had.
So, imagine a restaurant. The owner pays for a building space, and all of the necessary equipment to run the restaurant, and then decided he needs to hire 10 employees to keep it running.
What if the owner made a deal with all of the employees where a certain percentage of profits would go toward reimbursing the owner for his initial investment until he was fully reimbursed, and a certain percentage of the profits would be placed in a savings account so that the restaurant could save up for future renovations and new equipment and things like that. But, all of the rest of the profits would be divided equally between the owner and all employees depending on the number of hours that they worked.
Would this be a sustainable business model?
Would it even be legal to do this?
If the business didn't make a profit, then none of the employees nor the owner would make any money for their work. So, is there some way that this could be done legally if the employees know the deal beforehand and agree to it knowing that there is no guaranteed hourly rate?
I'm just thinking about this and wondering if it's even possible, because if not, then it seems we are doomed to always work for less than what our labor is producing for our employers, and there is nothing that the employers can do about it even if they wanted to.