That's what we should start asking when they say they can't afford to pay us more.
I just read the post from the person working at Sephora about being told to work harder cause the company can't afford to keep paying overtime, and that was my first thought.
Why not?
Where does all of the money go?
“They” keep turning it on us – “No one wants to work anymore!” and “You need to work harder to make up for the lack of employees” and all of the other stupid phrases we keep hearing about the working class.
So, “why not” turn it on them? Show me. Show us.
And if they can't, ask again, “Why not?” – in an ideal world, that question would keep going up the chain of command until eventually the highest money maker would have to prove/justify why their income (as someone who isn't actually doing the brunt of the work) should be so, so, so, so much more than the employees that “make the machine work” / interact directly with the customer/product/service.
I know, I'm dreaming, asking for transparency and ownership of their greed.