Ebenezer Scrooge is our cultural touchstone for the miserly employer who mistreats and underpays employees.
And I'm absolutley not here to defend him or claim he was a great person or a good employer.
But, have you noticed that almost every modern employer is actually worse than Scrooge?
Seriously. Bob Cratchett's wage, 15 shillings a week, when converted to 2022 dollars works out to around $15/hour.
And that money went a bit further back in the bad old days. Bob was the sole wage earner at his house, yet he had a house, kept his family of eight people fed, the only real hassle he had was that Tiny Tim needed medicine he couldn't afford (gee, doesn't THAT sound familiar).
Most Americans are working for employers who are objectively WORSE employers than the most infamously bad boss in all literary fiction.
If you aren't earning >$15/hour then your boss is worse than Scrooge.