I am a laboratory analyst at an environmental lab in southern California. Basically what I do is use microscopes to analyze environmental samples for mold and asbestos. There is obviously a bunch of nepotism at this workplace since it is a family owned small business. All of us employees are pretty tight with eachother, and the bosses are “nice” to us when they're not making horrible decisions that affect us in order for them to profit more. I recently started talking to one of my coworkers about wages and was really surprised at how little they are making compared to me. What I get paid isn't by any means a great wage, but it's enough considering I don't have kids and don't pay rent since I live with my mom. Granted I have 5 years of experience working in labs, so they offered me a higher wage because they really needed me to work there. But my coworkers who are doing just as much work as I am are not even being paid a living wage in California. Both of them have at least one other job in addition to working full time here. I do have some power here as they do not want to lose me or any of us. it is hard and takes months to train on this kind of work. My coworkers are obviously looking for better jobs, and I don't want to lose them as coworkers either because they are good their jobs and I like them as people. But I feel so horrible with how little they are paid. Even when the workload increases significantly, our bosses refuse to give raises. Meanwhile their son who is the “lab manager” gets paid more than all of us and barely shows up to work.
How can I bring up to my boss that my coworkers should be paid more, or else they will leave and we'll all be fucked? My boss of course does not like to be challenged on his decision making as I have tried to do it before. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!