I'll try to keep this as simple as possible. I am a new business owner. I have a fairly profitable landscaping business and I pay my employees well over the average pay (generally 1k to 2k+ a week). I did this because having always worked for someone else I made a promise that if I were ever signing checks I would pay my people not only a living wage but a good living wage at that. Most of my guys make anywhere between 45-100 an hour depending on the job.
I constantly see people screaming about Amazon and other low skilled jobs and calling for higher pay. I pay my workers a high amount because they are doing more skilled work than packing boxes or dropping off packages.
My question is, has anyone considered what will happen to small business if magically Amazon started paying the box packers let's say $60.00 per hour? Amazon can afford to do that, but I can't. If Amazon workers started making a hugely increased rate how would I keep my company staffed without being able to afford a large pay raise myself? And if I worked the pay increase into the price of the job how would my customers be able to afford that? It seems like just another way for big box stores to shut out small business.
I am all about people making a living wage, but I think most of that reflects to the cost of living. Why are we not fighting the insane rising cost of living vs demanding kore money for work? I honestly don't feel like packing boxes is worth more than 17 dollars an hour. How can we justify giving large raises to box packers and then skilled electricians make the same amount because their small company is not Amazon? I get that ceos shouldn't be making 2000x base employee salaries but maybe that's a call for ceos to make less and jot box packers to make more? It's just a thought and I'm genuinely curious.