Every once in a while, but especially after getting our first job, we tend to wonder - why am I getting paid so little, while my boss earns serious money by sitting in a nice chair all day.
The answer is neither easy nor clear at all. Some assume that those who finish the day physically exhausted should be paid much more. This is, however, an outdated and illogical way of thinking. I will try to prove why.
Walmart Stores Inc. is an American chain of discount retail stores. The company operates 8 500 stores in 15 countries - the stores’ combined area would cover the entire Manhattan (81,75 km2). With revenue of $464 bln, it could easily be the world’s 25th economy (between Norway and Argentina). And with 2,2 mln employees, Walmart is the third largest employer, after United States Department of Defense and People's Liberation Army of China; McDonald’s is the 4th one. At the same time, the company’s CEO, Mike Duke, earns approx. $20 mln annually while the average employee is paid $12,57 an hour. All that information means that an average Walmart employee earns less money in a year, than Mike Duke does... in two hours. Is this fair?
Well, if an average Walmart employee does not do what he is supposed to do, the most serious consequences may be a sticky floor or a customer may receive a little too much in his change. If the CEO, however, won’t do his work properly, the company might lose millions of dollars in negotiations of buying new fleet of trucks. It makes you think about it once again, doesn't it?
From time to time, groups of young activists protest in front of the stores like GAP. They are fighting against the low pay and poor conditions of those people in foreign countries who actually make the clothes. But what exactly does “low pay” mean?
The answer is neither easy nor clear at all. Some assume that those who finish the day physically exhausted should be paid much more. This is, however, an outdated and illogical way of thinking. I will try to prove why.
Walmart Stores Inc. is an American chain of discount retail stores. The company operates 8 500 stores in 15 countries - the stores’ combined area would cover the entire Manhattan (81,75 km2). With revenue of $464 bln, it could easily be the world’s 25th economy (between Norway and Argentina). And with 2,2 mln employees, Walmart is the third largest employer, after United States Department of Defense and People's Liberation Army of China; McDonald’s is the 4th one. At the same time, the company’s CEO, Mike Duke, earns approx. $20 mln annually while the average employee is paid $12,57 an hour. All that information means that an average Walmart employee earns less money in a year, than Mike Duke does... in two hours. Is this fair?
Well, if an average Walmart employee does not do what he is supposed to do, the most serious consequences may be a sticky floor or a customer may receive a little too much in his change. If the CEO, however, won’t do his work properly, the company might lose millions of dollars in negotiations of buying new fleet of trucks. It makes you think about it once again, doesn't it?
From time to time, groups of young activists protest in front of the stores like GAP. They are fighting against the low pay and poor conditions of those people in foreign countries who actually make the clothes. But what exactly does “low pay” mean?
An American journalist, John Stossel, had an episode in his show about the sweatshops - factories infamous for low wages and long work hours. In the episode, Stossel takes a trip to Africa to see in person, how things look like. He meets a woman who is working for clothing companies that make their apparel in the sweatshops. What might be interesting, she states that when people discover that the sweatshop is going to be built, they are joyful. Strange? Not really. The reason for that is that sweatshops pays few times more to the locals than they would made working on a field. A dollar a day, or even an hour means nothing for us - for people in developing countries, where cost of life are much lower, it is an average pay and in many cases, even a blessing. Here is a clip.
Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett wake up each morning to earn more money. So does poor Chinese people and Africans. There may be many reasons of the differences in salaries. The last hundred years proved that you are paid for what you know and can do as well as how vast your responsibilities are.
Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett wake up each morning to earn more money. So does poor Chinese people and Africans. There may be many reasons of the differences in salaries. The last hundred years proved that you are paid for what you know and can do as well as how vast your responsibilities are.
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Sources:
- http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=walmart
- http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/walmart
- http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/lower-pay-walmart-veterans-initiative-step-direction-veterans/story?id=18220671
I don't think that problem is the differences in salaries for people in different positions and in different economies. The problem is a scale of this inequality.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote that everyone gets up in the morning to go to work and earn money, as if it doesn't matter that some people live in extreme poverty and others in excessive luxury.
You think that you have a great responsibility, because when you make a mistake, your company will loose some money? In the same time, if you are a Chinese factory worker, if you make a mistake and you get fired from work, you or your children will die of hunger.
Anyway, now, in the time of crisis in Europe, in big companies (especially in Germany and France) there are tendencies to counterbalance salaries. Maximum payments of supervisors are clearly defined as multiple of salary of the low-level employee, so they can't grow unreasonably high.
Another thing is, that even when some CEO gets fired from work because of exposing their company to millions of dollars of loss, then go with the multi-million severance payment (good example is our national stadium). "Paying for vast responsibility" means paying for nothing.
I totally agree with you, Katarzyna - CEO of course should earn more than normal employee, but not as much! They don't need this money to survive, if they got a half of their pension they would lived on the same high standard.
DeleteI think there is no answer to this question. We can contemplate why some people earn a lot of money for nothing. They just sit on their really huge chair and try to make a good face. We often think that they do nothing. Sometimes it isn't true, because they are responsible for lots of things. But there are various cases. We can't clearly say that physical work is harder than mental.
ReplyDeleteThere will be always a problem with differences in salaries. Unequal payment is a problem in all countries. We know that some countries are in need and I think people try to do a lot to help them.
I don't think that the salaries should be the same for all jobs, but it can't be a reason to justify the exploitation. In many countries like China, people work several hours in a day for a miserably salary, even for the cost of living in this country, whereas large employers earns a lot of money by cutting back the salaries of their employees or by evading taxes.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that they have great responsibilities, but in my opinion, a doctor has more important responsibilities in his job.
However, large employers have made their fortunes by themselves, so it's logical that they earn much more money than their employees, but I think they should be more controlled by the justice, for example to prevent the tax evasion that I have mentioned before, among other things.
The boss has very responsible position and we aren't aware of it. Do the bosses have any influence on the efficiency of the work? Of course they do. He or she can organize work so that everybody knows what to do and what they are responsible for. The boss creates the atmosphere at the work place. He or she can make it friendly and hostile, they can prevent real rat race or implement rules of fair play. This is a few positives of being the person called "boss". They are responsible for many serious cases so I think the salary should be suitable. What is my opinion about sweatshops? A lot of people agree on it because they don't have and don't see any better way for their life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I am aware of the important role played by the heads of large corporations. People point out how much they earn, but no one mentions that without them most of these companies would not exist. However, it must also be remembered that some are simply filled in this position, for example, due to nepotism or influence among the authorities. Still most of them are people who have earned their own success. Companies are their work, they provide jobs to many people, which is appreciated in the form of their remuneration, and in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that. Yes I agree that it shouldn't take advantage of others and low wages of employees should also be taken into account. As noted in the article, for workers in Africa, for example, wages that are not paid still provide them with much better living conditions than other jobs. What is good. For me, the only problem is the distinction between wages between countries. There shouldn't be so much difference in the amount of money received by the same employer for the same job, depending on whether you work in America or, for example, in Africa.
DeleteI think there will always be differences in salaries. Some people work hard and earn a pittance, some do nothing and earn a fortune. However, there is no one good rule. Some people are just lucky, some people are cheaters, but there are also those who deserve for their enormous salaries with their hard work.
ReplyDeleteI think that the problem of differences in salaries is in many countries and I don't think that we could do something about it.
I agree, that alway will be differences in salaries. As for me, social status enjoyed by people in many cases depend on luck, connections. A social differences have always been present. However, I personally think that is not important how much we earn, but are we feel satisfied with our life, from work. Not only money makes us happiness.
ReplyDeleteI think there is another one aspect of this story, because of course the salaries are different in countries, but the problem is that this people works all day or night in factory. This people live for a factory and they don't have time for their own hobbies. I disagree with the opinion that boss earns serious money by sitting in a nice chair all day because generally to be the boss of the big company they sholud to do a lot work in the past, but of course there are some exceptions...
ReplyDeleteI think that always will be differences in salaries. In modern world is capitalism and that is one of the right of it. Rich people like a Bill Gates and other billionaire had a wonderful idea for their business. In my opinion they had a lot of lucky to predict future and upcoming trends. There is not true that money earn themselves. There is a lot of work to do to be a billionaire and more stress. I thing that it is a very hard jab.
ReplyDeleteCEO earns a lot more because managing a huge corporation is much harder than working as cashier or putting merchandise on store shelves. In my opinion their salaries are adequate to the work they do.
ReplyDeleteTo make the business is quite easy, you must have a good idea to make a many, like Bill Gayts. We should found the hole in the marker, after that establish a company and develop it. Why they earn the many, one part of the richest people of the world for their satisfaction and idea, second part for the women’s, and last group for impress others. And show them their power.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that is outdated to say that those who finish the day physically exhausted should be paid much more. I believe that they should be paid enough money to have a comfortable life. Truth is, in this world the really big money goes to those who have good ideas, have an ability to predict the changes in market. All the above means intellectual work not the physical work. And the first one can be more exhausting than the second.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why different people earns differently is different positions :). For example I'm a cashier in Auchan and I'm responsible for one thing - lasering products. My boss is responsible for me and for my the same position friends so my boss is responsible for 20 or 30 cashiers that is why boss earns higher salary. I worked in a karting racetrack and I had the lowest position and I wanted to earn more but when I saw that I hadn't experience for high salary position I gave up.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why for example CEOs earn so much money. That's fact that their job is very hard and more stressful than blue collar workers positions but still this is weird. I was shocked when I heard that most of the money from loans from US government to the bunkrupt banks was given for high position workers of this banks. It is ridiculous and absurd.
ReplyDeleteI think that sweatshops topic is connected with two opposite situations. First is about too low payment. European and American people are thinking that Africans are exploited, when they work for this company. On the other hand, when in a poor villag a new sweatshop is built, people get a new job, which is better than working on a field. In my opinion, this phenomena are not negative, because people in poor land have a completely different economic situation in comparison to Europe and when we protest against this shop, it may be not too good.
ReplyDeleteI think, that some people earn a fortune, because they are clever. Secondly some people worked earlier (during the school, during the study) - they were learning a lot of and worked during the study. Other people had a good time on the study and they did events every day. Today the most important is creativ thinking and speed action. About this say proverb: "as you sow, so shall you reap"
ReplyDeleteSo, yoy think that all these white collars deserve their salaries? I don't think so. Of course, they use big amounts of money. But that is not their money. That is not money which they earn. This money is earned by poor people from the lower positions.
ReplyDeleteLook at the banking sektor. These people don't have any special qualifications, any responsibilities. The come to the institution, ruin comany health and get big redundancy payment. That's not fair. That's just sign of injustice of modern capitalism.
Salary is not dependent of knowledge, skills and enterprise. It's social rank, prestige and... luck?
I agree with you. Salary depends a lot on social prestige. Knowing people means having money. But knowing wright people is kind of cleverness.
ReplyDeleteI think that people earn diffrent because it depends on their job. It is true that salaries of some kind of jobs are not really satisfactory, like being a nurse. Now, young people make many diffrent things, they make a blog or a site where they sell clothes, jewelry and they earn lots of money. I think that all depands on our creativity and our desire to amelior our life position.
ReplyDeleteThe dicrepancies between the salary and hardness of working is nothing special and exploiting poor people by the ones who have a power is commont from ages. It is very sad that business operetes in a way that harm poor people and feed rich person lavishly. Which is kind of surprise it that people in e.g. Africa usually don't see how it works and are happy with job which offers them poor conditions and low salaries, but the idea of working in a city where a hunger is a common problem, working in sweatshops seem to be a blessing for inhabitants.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's pretty easy to explain. The bigger responsibility - the bigger salary. The white collars are not working hard, but their responsibility is pretty big - they are responsible (in theory ;)) for money of someone else, often pretty big money.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a part of truth. I agree that bigger responsybility means higher salary, but not in this scale. A one hundret menagers earn more then, 5 bilions of purest people. Most of them don't have anything to eat. And they also are importants parts of big companies revenues. If they dont need to work for so low money it will be impossible that menagers earn on the same high level
DeleteI think that it is one of the best question in our life. Why He have such a salary, when he is doing less. This question is killing me. I work as a barist, I'm having a nice time in my job, I don't have big responsibilities and so on, while my friend is a menager in coffee bar in the center of warsaw, he is doing more job, he has a lot of responsibilities all need something from him, and he's salary is lower than mine.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why it is like this, maybe it's because of ours bosses?
The truth is that the differences in salaries will be always. People in higher positions have more responsibility than those at the lower positions, so they have a more appropriately paid. The problem occurs when the scale is impaired and these earnings are disproportionate larger, huge even. Unfortunately, I meet with this problem also in my work.
ReplyDeletePeople are so diverse, that is why they have different salaries. Some of them worked hard for years, collected experience and knowledge, some of them are just dumb and lazy. So the smarter ones find a way to earn more money. But the differences are to big in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHuge disproportion in wages is important problem in world economy. For example in 2012 the best paid executives from Swedish industrial companies wages was 46 times higher than wages of the best paid blue-collar workers. What mean that for whole period of professional activity, blue collar worker will earn the equivalent of annual earnings of executive. We should point out that in developing countries differences are even dipper. This induce justified sense of unfairness that may desent into dangerous riot.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand it differences in salaries are something natural. There is no doubt that working in so stressful environment, under persistent pressure should be paid well. What is more, most of CFO has unique qualifications and high wages are a way to avoid high turnover rate. Marginal revenue from their work is much bigger which implicate higher salary.
In conclusion, I totally agree with Katarzyna, main problem is not occurring of differences but scale of them.
I think that we will never get justice on the field of salary. People that have an influence on that fact earns a lot of money so why they should change this situation they have no interest in this. I thing that being a CEO is also hard task because you are taking responsibility about everything and if your team do a failoure you will be faired to. Concerns earn a lot of money on building work places in countries where they don't need to pay a lot for employers and this is unfair because they earn on people work a lot of money that they should pay them.
ReplyDeleteI think, that we should never look into someone's pocket. We should mind our own business. People on higher jobs learn more money, becouse they know more, they are better than others, or becouse of something else. This is how nowadays world work and exist. Globalisation is common process, that we cant stop. There will be always some imbalances in the population and I think, that we cant do anything about this. When you are CEO you are personally connected to the company, and if it falls, they can sue you. So it is job with some kind of risk on it.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the salaries are really different. And it depends where you work and what job do you do. It is clearly that person who has higher qualification and graduated university has possibility to earn much more money than person who finished his education after secondary school. But I think that huge meaning has also luck. Differences in salaries are unfair but in my opinion nothing in our world is fair.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion,salaries should depends on our skills and experience.It's ok that owner of the company has more money than some manager of this company,because he has to create almost everything on his own.The biggest problem is about simple worker,who work for minimum wage.In our country it's really hard to life for that money,because everything is rather expensive for them.What is more,they rights are often broken,on example,they have to work over 10 hours for the same wage or they have not got enough breaks.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I think about people who get enourmous salaries I can't fathom the mechanism that leads to it. I fully agree with the first comment, Katarzyna's one. However, maybe because I'm not a specialist and have never learned about business system, the only thing I can say are quite simple. If I were a CEO I wouldn't feel fair to other emloyees earning a great multiple of their wages. I can understand that developing your skills and knowledge is making your market value higher. Nevertheless I will never understand why one man can get a monthly salary equal to another man's life fortune?
ReplyDeleteI have nothing against bosses earning big amount of money, sure, they have great responsibility to deal with. Also it's hard to deny, that creating a vacancies is very important and useful. But I have to disagree with what the author of the text write about situation in Africa, or any other places where big companies locates their factories. To earn one dollar per day, is extremely little and I think that if we want to be somehow relative at this point we should rather compare that salaries to salaries of workers from the country where the product is sold and not to salaries of people who dies because of hunger.
ReplyDeleteI agree with first comment. CEO should earn more than normal employees, but on the other hand not too much. If these people got a half of their pension they would lived on the same high standard. I think that our salaries should depends on our skills, because this is the most important.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion they had big idea few years ago and they really knew what they should do with it. They employed proper emplyees and now they can rest. I'm not good bussiness women, earn a fortune will be hard for me, but I'm jealous also impressed :) Economic is another problem because employers want to exploit employees but not everywhere. You should deal with it, not allow.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that the salary are very different. Not always money received for work are consistent with the scope of their duties. Just like Patrycja Filipiak said, "salaries should depends on our skills". That is true. But it is not a reality, unfortunately. So, we need to do what we have to do, in a lot of cases.
ReplyDeleteBeing a CEO is obliged not only with work, but also with responsibility for the company as well as many, sometimes even hundreds thousands of employees. Their destiny is dependent on operating boss.
I agree with the statement that people should be paid for their knowledge, their work and the risk they have to deal with everyday. It is easy to say that differences in salaries are unfair but, honestly, I would not like to be CEO even if I earned really big money. I think that responsibility in this kind of job is overwhelming - we have to remember that not only millions of dollars depend on CEO's decisions. One wrong step of CEO may ruin life of many people - having lost big amounts of money or its dignity, company is forced to start downsizing and, as a result, many people became redundant. Would you be able to work under a pressure like this?
ReplyDeleteMost of people earning millions of dollars (excluding actors) had really good idea and took risk to embody it. Of course they were lucky too, but if they hadn't been determined to make their dreams true, they wouldn't be so successful now. I want to believe that they deserve what they got.
I agree with the statment that we should not compare our salary to a CEO's one. First of all, CEO has to face with different level of responsibility. That kind of job is extremely stressful. Moreover, the crucial things are knowledge and experience. It is much easier to find a salesman than a CEO who is effective and does his job really well.
ReplyDeleteWell I see in comments that some people get tons of money for "nothing". Ok but, before that they had to work really hard for this, then they became CEOs or something. Bill Gates wasn't rich when he was born.. He invented everything byt a hard work and now he is collecting money for this. Everyone starts from the beginning.. maybe not everyone but most and only the best can get high.
ReplyDeleteI have read all the comments and in my opinion all of them contains a grain of truth. It is obious that the subject of salary is kind of a seret among the people and from many years there is a fight and argument in this subject. I do not want to take a position in this 'conflict', because I try to understand both sides. All working people would like to earn as good money as it is possible, but unfortunalely not always it looks like that. The salary is a very individual thing and in my opinion we cannot compare the money which would be earned by the businessman and for example factory worker, because both of them have different responsibilities or duities.
ReplyDeleteIn short, CEOs make so much money because they're paid with stock and stock options. You don't have to be an expert to see they stand to make absurd sums of money when stocks rise.
ReplyDeleteIn short, CEOs make so much money because they're paid with stock and stock options. You don't have to be an expert to see they stand to make absurd sums of money when stocks rise.
ReplyDeleteIn short, CEOs make so much money because they're paid with stock and stock options. You don't have to be an expert to see they stand to make absurd sums of money when stocks rise.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone would like to earn more than it earns. This is normal. With a million you want two, and with 2 you want 4 Unfortunately, in most cases impossible. The fact is also that the hundred richest people in the world could eliminate famine in the world. But the world can not be so easily changed. The problem of the exploitation of workers is serious. However, African, who by us earns little, without work in the company could not make money at all. I write quite pessimistic. Probably in the future, none of us will be earned per minute as much as Bill Gates
ReplyDeleteWe can think it is vey unfair that some people earn impossible money, but people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc can be wrong examples, because they earn money thanks to theirs big ideas, which have changed our life. For me, the wierdest think is a sportmens' salaries. For example football or basketball players in NBA earn hundrends of millions only for their skills in concrete sport . Acrobats in circus often make more astonishing things.
ReplyDeleteNobody said that life is fair... Of course it is not. But people are often ignorants.I mean, if you ask anybody if it is ok that people in Asia or Africa earn so little, they will obviously answer that it is not. But if you ask them if they want to pay more for clothes (so people in Asia could earn more), the answer probably will change... Of course it is not fair, but the way to make more profits is reducing costs... I don't really think that we could do something about it. We may try to be on the other side-where we are the one who take all the benefits.
ReplyDeleteI think that differences in salaries will always happen, but they should be smaller. Everything ought to be balanced. It is obvious that person who works on more responsible position earns more than an ordinary employee, but everyone should earn enough money to be capable of making living and doesn't be afraid how tomorrow would look like.
ReplyDeleteWho forbid rich people - someone said. And this is true. If you have a good idea, you can find a good sponsors and you can start your business. You can be a millionaire. And this is sad, because thanks to money you can do more than anyone. Yes, this is bad, that people working for rice bowl or one dollar. But to be honest - who can change it? If people working and agree on earnings like that.. Nothing is gonna change.
ReplyDeleteSome of people who's commented this post claim that the differences in salaries for people in different positions are unfair, especially when we take into consideration a scale of this inequality. In my opnion the problem doesn;t lay in the earnings of top managers or owners of big companies (which are extremely high). The problem is low income of "normal" employees.
ReplyDeleteIf someone has a great idea for a business and achieve something thanks to his or her intelligence, education and hard work I don't see anything wrong if this person will earn millions. Owners and top managers have really responsible role in the company. Decisions which are made by them have impact on all company and, as a consequence on employeers.. They often work overtime to achieve something more, to get better market position. A lot of people think that executives spent all day in the office, sitting on the leathern armchair and do nothing. It isn't true.
On the other hand, I totally agree with Eliza - "the way to make more profits is reducing costs". That is why more and more factories are located in Africa or Asia. People who live there suffer from poverty, famine and unemployment. Job in factory is a great chance for them to make ends meet. Companies viciously extract this fact. In my opinion there should be some regulations which would make a minimum salary higher.
Big differences in salaries is a controversial topic. In my opinion don't exist simple solutions of this problem. People earn a lot of money because of many reasons like: good qualifications, personal skills, knowledge, but also: luck or families connections. Only thing which governments can do, it's educate people that is important to help others and introduce high moral standards. None law can't change this disproportions totally.
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that we shouldn't compare manual worker's salary with white-collar worker's earnings. I agree with Monika that being CEO it's really responsible and so stressful work. CEO must have great social skills, possess the ability to be an effective leader, make big decisions and chiefly face and prevent failure. In my point of view CEOs earn equally to the amount of responsibility they acknowledge, their salary should be suitable. Poverty, famine in Third World countries keeps the world awake at night. For people living in Africa or Bangladesh every work is worth their weight in gold. It's so important for them to work in clothing company and earn only one dollar per day than do nothing.
ReplyDeleteI think that salaries are adequate to jobs people do. Cashier doesn't have to study marketing, accountancy and law and his work isn't as stressful and responsible as CEOs job. Also, normal person works from 9am to 5 pm but CEO works all the time, he must be available 24h/7 and he must be ready to solve any problem even at night.
ReplyDeleteIn poor countries every dollar counts, it is better for people to work in clothing industry than to do nothing.
I think that the high differences in salaries people recieve
ReplyDeleteare fair. It is the employer who decides what salary you should
recieve for your work and if you don't like it then why don't you
change your job or make your own company? Then you would see if the
salary you recieved was fair. You can be only mad on high taxes,
but it's not a part of the dscision.
People who are bosses worked very hard to be there where they are naw. It is easy to say that salaries are too low, working hours too long and too much else that we do.
ReplyDeletePeople have become accustomed to the fact that they will get money for nothing. And look through the prism of all that they only deceive and exploit their employees.
Of course, not everything is fair and many people are actually mistreated in the workplace.
But I want to say that everyone can be the boss, "that does nothing." Need to have just an idea and a great determination to make your dreams come true.
We all have to work hard, but some do it much faster.
So if we are not forced to work in factories, let us use every opportunities to achieve maximum success.
This problem exist since ancient times and there is no answear to it. There were always poor and rich people, kings and peasants. Nowadays it's all the same but only names have changed. And also comparing Bill Gates to Chinease or African poor is not right. But world is full of inequality and it will stay like that, unless there would be a nuke war and everything would be gone. Maybe that is the only solution
ReplyDeleteIt's all because of economy... African would never earn the same amount of money as American even if they did the same job. We are not born equal. It's sad but true. But i will say something that makes someone feel better. Life is what you make it and we are not born to pay bills and die:)
ReplyDeleteEvery time there is some differences in salaries. But this kind of problem is unavoidable. It is hard to compare working as a boss in the huge corporation and casher in the supermarket. Sometimes you have to pay everything for your job experience and you will earn too little than your college who has a secondary education. Why? Because many people have a fortune, a luck. The most important thing is having a good idea to set up your business. Every day you can hear complaining about low salaries or disprarpies in earnings in comparison with devotion and overtime in your working place. It doesn’t depend on your job experience. The truth is that you can’t predict your future. After some time you will see your mistakes or good choices. When Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc., was in college at the University of Texas, he started building and selling computers for people he knew at college. Soon, he dropped out and focused all his efforts on his business. The son of an attorney and a schoolteacher, Gates entered Harvard and dropped out two years later to found Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen. They had a luck and bravery. Unfortunately, it’s so sad that people come across an injustice and meanness.
ReplyDeleteThe world will be always unfair for someone. Only communism assumed that everyone sholud have the same number of everything - money as well. The differences in salaries is a essential feature of capitalist economy. It is important to aaccept that there must be somebody who leads others - the boss. Sometimes he achieved this through hard work, sometimes not, but there sholud be someone who earns more than us. Thanks to that we have powerful motivation to work hard, in hope, that in the future we could promote for that position. This is the best option for us, and for our country.
ReplyDeleteThe world will be always unfair for someone. Only communism assumed that everyone sholud have the same number of everything - money as well. The differences in salaries is a essential feature of capitalist economy. It is important to aaccept that there must be somebody who leads others - the boss. Sometimes he achieved this through hard work, sometimes not, but there sholud be someone who earns more than us. Thanks to that we have powerful motivation to work hard, in hope, that in the future we could promote for that position. This is the best option for us, and for our country.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour earnings should be directly proportional to the responsibilities that you carry on your position, if the serial employee makes a mistake he does not usually consequences of such a high rank. The head has to make a lot of tough decisions and is often responsible for the success of the entire company ... Regular employee can contribute to success, but will never be its author. On the other hand, there are those employers who use the position worked out by their predecessors - they do not deserve to earn as much money, because the only thing they have to keep the empire ... another thing is that the board is often more than enough . Per employee three directors ...
ReplyDeleteMany people forgot about responsibiliti. It's not only huge salary and less job. Being a boss or an owner is a plenty od responsibilities. We have to care about our employees, about key decisions. It's stresfull and time consuming. Wehen you are a CEO in some company, your life is totally absorbed by your work. when you are subordinate employee you don't have to take your job to home with you. Maybie you have less money, but you have less stress too.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the problem is unsolvable – it exists since ancient times and we still have no idea how to equal our jobs and our salaries. I think that nature doesn’t care about equality. Someone is bigger, someone is smaller. Someone have to be poor, to make someone else rich. It’s sad, but real. We have to do everything, what we can, to make us “bigger”, because a lot of time people destroy their chances by themselves.
ReplyDeleteFor me that's obvious that managers and bosses have much more money that the employees. Creating ideas is not as hard physically as performing commands. But the idea is first and most important. Aa average employee doesn't care much about company's future, develop and finances. He doen't have a lot of responsibility. That's a huge difference between boss and worker. That difference is worth a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteThere always be inequalities in salaries – that is obvious thing, idea of getting more or less same money for different work is simply utopian. However the problem is how big inequalities are. According to Oxfam GB “Richest 1% will own more than all the rest by 2016” (https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2015-01-19/richest-1-will-own-more-all-rest-2016).
ReplyDeleteI also cannot agree with the argument that companies’ CEO, managers or politicians bear so big responsibility for their decisions. Let’s read about 2008 global financial crisis that led to 2008–2012 global recession. Where are the authors of that collapse? In jail? The responsibility of crises was nationalized – taxpayers had to pay all costs of it.
I don’t agree with the idea that paying ridiculously small wages to workers of factories located in the developing countries, requiring long working-hours in bad conditions is acceptable because this is how the work looks like on this area. Of course these people will be happy that they have job, because they have no other choice of getting money for living. But the fact that conditions in their country are poor does not mean that American and European entrepreneurs could take advantage of that. Everyone deserves a good payment and work in decent conditions.
http://www.ibtimes.com/death-lehman-brothers-what-went-wrong-who-paid-price-who-remained-unscathed-through-1405728
Survival of the fittest at it's best. Some people are just lucky, but I personally believe luck to be a skill as well. Some of those directors had fantastic ideas that allowed them to build such huge companies, and some earned them; either by hard work or by manipulating circumstances. To maintain such a high position, they have to have a certain set of skills as well. So do I think it's unfair that a grocery shop worker doesn't earn as much as the CEO? That mopping floors or counting change, while an absolutely legitimate way to earn a living, isn't quite the same as maintaining a huge company? I think the answer is clear.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, when it comes to sweatshops, I think there was a passage in a book called "Shantaram" which spoke of a similar situation.
The main character, a white man, described how he felt guilty for taking multiple showers a day because the water supply had to be restocked manually, by climbing to the roof of the building with heavy loads of water. He said that a couple of men were charged with that task, and he felt that he was making their already difficult job even harder.
However, after getting to speak to them, he learned that they were incredibly proud of their work. They were happy that they earned a honest, steady income, and they didn't mind it being difficult because they were serious about it. In fact, when he hinted at feeling guilty, they felt offended. They were working hard for their income, so who was he to feel like he knew their situation and treat them like children?
The responsibilities of CEO of a company are much bigger then those of a regular employee. I find it fair, that the one whose job is more relevant for the company is also the one who earns more money. However, wages of low echelon workers in U.S.A. are often so low, that they don't let workers make any savings, which could be used e.g. for education and as a result changing their job situation. In my opinion, huge companies should pay more to their employees in developed countries.
ReplyDeleteThis comment was written by Cezary Wargin
DeleteIn my opinion the only reason for the difference in pay is that not everybody do what they really can. A lot of people just go to any kind of work, because they prefer to earn some money than take a risk and do what they actually were born for. Most of people feel ok with doing nothing special in their lives so they earn nothing special. Just normal money. Only creative people which can do really something above average can earn more than "gray matter".
ReplyDeleteSometimes bad things just happen. Some people have luck and they find wonderful job with good salaries. Unfortunately, most of citizens don't have that luck. It's sad that most of the people around the world cannot earn a lot of money. Sometimes it's connected with laziness. In many situations you need to be brave and take a risk. By doing that we have opportunity to find well-paid job.
ReplyDeleteIt's natural that CEO earns more money than an employee, however the gap between their salaries is huge. Of course, ceo certainly worked hard and learned a lot to get his position, and if he is a head of the company he must have the abilities, the physical employee didn't have this journey. Meanwhile, ceo does not need this much money to live like a boss, and a physical employee doesn't earn enough to live. If someone works physically I often hear people say 'he was too lazy to study so now he has to do it, what goes around comes back around". I mean, that's so wrong. You see the man, you don't know his story, you don't know his journey.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite obvious that not everyone can earn millions. Someone who has a physically job couldn't earn a lot of money, like more than someone who has intellectual job. Almost everyone can have the first kind of work, because you don't need to have any special ability to do it, but not everybody is able to study a lot, finish the university and manage a company. Earning a lot of money is a very subjective statement. It depends for example on where we live or in which conditions we were growed up.
ReplyDeleteIt is normal that some people earn more money than classic physical worker. When you have got managing position you on the whole need to be graduated, have extensive knowledge like how's going international trade etc. But I can't agree in 100% that physical employees always earn less money. Now, as student, without my diploma, I see that my friends in this moment of theirs life earn more - as physical workers. So your salary always depends on you high position.
ReplyDeleteI think this is fault of capitalism. Few person in the world have the same money what others people at entire world.
ReplyDeletePeople in developing country, have difficult situation, so money which the earn is a blessing, but conditions in factory is pretty bad. I have example in Cambodia where H&M company make clothes, it was a lot of protest, so this company send police to shut them down.
It is natural that simple job is connected with little salary. Employee does not get a large payout when you can easily find someone to take his place. Everyone should have the right to choose what they want to do, and get fair salary. Usually highly paid job is connected with huge responsiblity. Not everyone is ment to be a millionare.
ReplyDeleteThat's true that there're differences in people's earnings, but in my opinion it isn't a bad thing. The eight richest people in the world have as much money as 3.6 billion other people. Is it unfair? Bill Gates's a billionaire thanks to his creativity and hard work. He did something very useful for people all over the world and deserved to be rich. In Poland, state property was recently in force. Was it good for society? No! So why do some people want everyone to earn the same amount of money? I can't understand it. If you want to be rich, you should be hard-working and never give up. And listen to the advice of Donald Trump, which are available on the platform (the last topic)! :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Martyna (see the comment above)! I don't see anything bad in the differences in people's salaries too. The most of rich people had to put a huge effort to reach their wealth - they must have been (and probably still are) hard-working and determinated to succeed. Many people think that rich people had only a lot of luck or good relatived/friends and that's why they have so much money. I think that these people are just jealous and make up a lot of hypotheses - "Why has he more than me? He must have stolen something!" and so on. I think that every person can try to reach some kind of richness - it's not vorbidden to try. But as long as people won't understand that, the conflicts about differences in salaries will still appear.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on this subject is completely different. The problem is not the differences in earnings for different countries. It is for their presence in one environment. Saying that the boss can earn so much because they bear more responsibility for the fate of the entire company is not entirely fair. Often their remuneration exceeds the salary of a regular employee many times. In my opinion, physical work, although so different from the mental one, also requires a fair remuneration. If we work mentally, we can bear more responsibility, but physical work costs us more effort and also results in more frequent illnesses. People working for over a dozen hours in difficult weather conditions are exposed to more illnesses than sitting at a desk.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is the constant cost cutting from the bottom. Why when you need to touch the price of goods, you always take the payment to the person at the bottom. Taking away from a small salary makes such people lose motivation. Why should they work so hard and only provide them with basic expenses. They also want to be able to go on holiday or buy a flat or a car.
People should finally understand that without people working in shops, cleaning, driving public transport vehicles or farmers, they would not be able to function. All of this person should be given fair pay and respect for their work.
Why do they earn so much? I don’t think we can find property answer for this question. The world is based on social difference,there are people who rule the world and those who work for them. It's obvious that those who are in high positions earn more. I think the problem is that employers who works for huge concerns have got very low earnings. We can often hear about very bad working conditions, from morning to evening, often in a dangerous for health and life conditions, for a very low salary. I think it's good that people are opposing to such a treatment more and more often, they boycott the shops and take parts in protests. Although it won’t probably change the treatment of people by large corporations, at least it will help spread the problem so that more organizations fighting for human rights will be involved in action against such behavior.
ReplyDeleteDifference between people's salaries is something common. I noticed that the richest people often had an idea, a creative notion or cleverly invested their money. Hierarchy was something obvious even in the ancient times and so it is obvious nowadays. I wouldn't say that someone who earns a lot just sits in their comfortable chair and do nothing. I believe that they worked hard to achieve their goal (as long as they did not come from nowhere and got their position "for old times' sake"). However, what horrifies me is the fact that in the developing countries people's standards of earning is so dramatic. It can be called sweated labour. We should raise awarness of such phenomenon instead of counting other people's money and taking part in this rat race around us.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's obvious, that if you are taking more responsibility than other workers, you are getting higher wage. However I have never thought that sweatshops in poor countries can be a good thing. I perceived sweatshops as big chain stores' means to maximize its' profit. In this video I saw, that building factories in undeveloped countries is a great opportunity for local residents. They can work in sweatshops and get paid twice as much as if they worked on the field. Sweatshops are also alternative for young girls, which are forced to prostitution to make money.
ReplyDeleteStudents from the United States didn't realise, that their protests can be a bad thing for indigent people, which work in sweatshops. It is true that under the influence of social pressure international companies will relocate their factories from poor countries to other places - it will deprive lots of people means of earning money.
I noticed here 2 problems. First one is that rich countries treat others like their own factories. They just send someone to start a company/sweatshop. Of course, the workers have good salaries, but it is still nothing else than using the unconsciousness of a poor society.
ReplyDeleteSecond problem is inequality of earnings. To be honest I just don't understand those people, who are shocked by the salaries of their bosses. Some of them are the founders of the companies in which those employees work. How could they earn more than the founders? Also there is a difference between mental and physical work - I work in both areas and I can certainly say that working physically is definitely harder. A lot of low-paid workers think that people who earn more do nothing except for sitting in a chair - that isn't truth, they work harder than others can imagine
In my opinion it's quite obvious that not everyone earns the same amount of money. Someone work more someone less, someone builds a company and someone is working there for only two weeks. The salary suppose to stay as it is, because (most of the time) is suitable for the position.
ReplyDeleteDifferences in salaries have always been a controversial issue. The salaries won't ever be equal but some people dispute the fact and because they work hard and sacrifice their personal life to be able to maintain a job and observe their bosses that seem to be doing nothing they are lead to belive that they should be paid more and that people who earn a lot of money in fact didn't deserve it. For sure there are people who achieved something by stroke of luck and insincerity but there are also people who succeeded in becoming wealthy by its devotion and hard work.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the inequality in salaries for me the most important factor is the gender pay gap that still exist in many contries, among them is Estonia that has the highest gender pay gap of all European countries. Women there earn 30% less than men for the same jobs and very little has been done to change this state. Different pay levels for employees doing the same job sounds fair for me (for example when they have work experience, a higher academic degree or additional skills that might be useful in some unusual situations) but the gander discrimination is definitely something that cannot be justified in modern world we live in.
Differences in earnings always open to doubt. Sometimes I also feel, that it is not fair, but it happens under the influence of emotions. When I think about it rationally, I understand this point. I see in my work how many duties my menager has and how big responsibility he has. He has to take care of whole workplace, all employees and all customers. His work is more stresfull and oppressive. Moreover, earnings depends not only how hard work is, but also what skills we need to do this job. Skills acquisition is also difficult and time-consuming. I can agree that sometimes we can find unfairness but case of earning is better than was years ago.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that you must deserve for a good earnings. You must show other people that you have something precious, something, what can be useful to somebody. You should have any idea for yourself. It is important to have something what differentiates you from others. It mustn't be something material. Even your abilities can be equally princeless. It is relevant to show you (emotional) strengths and seek for esteeming and fortune.
ReplyDeleteI’m afraid the sweatshops will exist as long as people want to work there and that will happen as long as the standard of living in developing countries is different than in developed countries. You don’t have to go to India or China to find the sweatshops. There is a German factor nearby the place I come from. So Polish people are the cheap labour force for Germans but people want to work there because a salary is better than another places in the neighbourhood even though they have to work physically very hard. I think the same mechanism works in poor countries. A friend of mine is a Supplies Department Manager in that factory. She often have to stay longer at work to finish her job and she always comes back home exhausted (responsibility for supplies not to stop production is very stressful what is the reason of many health problems). She doesn’t have time and power for her children and she’s not happy with that but the money is good. So it is always the matter of choice.
ReplyDeleteI think that we shouldn’t compare white-collars salaries and blue-collars wages. I believe that the earnings depends on work what people do. In addition being CEO require some qualifications, knowledge and huge experience. This position is demanding and can be stressful. On the other hand people who don’t have any professional experience and don’t have any specialized knowledge can work as a cashier or call centre employee. This post doesn’t require huge responsibility. So, I’m convinced that our earnings should base on our knowledge, experience and the responsibility which we have to take.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion people will always complain about how much money they earn. But i totally agree that people at higher positions earn more money than pople on lower positions. It is totally fair. Firstly, how much money we earn have to be in correlation to what we knew and how we are educated. Secondly, CEO have to watch what employees do. He takes the responsibility of how company do (employees not- of course they can be fired but CEO will take the responsibility of what they did). That's why he must earn more money than standard worker in the company. Lastly, I think that when you don't earn much money on low position It will be good for you. You will work harder to earn better job and of course better salary. If we will have high salary on easy job we will not have ambition to do our job well and be promoted.
ReplyDeletePeople shoudn't get the same amount of money for different jobs, but we should support ones that need it mostly. By that i mean that countries that are in poverty and hunger should get some sort of support. Being an ignorant and focusing only on your life and your business especially if you have a lot of money like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. It's quite obvious that there will always be unjustice in this world. And also if you make lots of money from hard work is great and you should be proud, but compassion and love to others might matter more. Because one day you might wake up with lots of money but being lonely and that is much more sad than being poor.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author. Also not everyone could be a boss of the huge company. You should learn a lot, have skills and also some luck. Otherwise if everyone would be just sitting on a chair, who would be working? And if people protest to earn more, let them do it, they should have possibility to tell the world what are they thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible that everybody around the world have the same salaries due to a number of factors. It can depend on policy for instance. Variety of salaries is positive phenomenon to my mind. I am inclined to believe that it would be unfair if person who has a higher education and person who has not education has the same salaries. Certainly, it would have result in society’s dissatisfaction. Hard working and studying will not have sense. There is no point in comparing the boss’s pay with employee’s pay. Climbing the career ladder is for everybody, after all. Obviously, salaries are not enough in proportion to commitment or exhaustion. It will be never equal. I have second thought about justice around the world. Sometimes dumb lock or good fortune is enough to earn a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteFor me we should not write: one earn to much another too little. There is free market. If someone do something what other people want to buy, he will be rich. For me there is no formula how to earn a lot of money. Of course you can study (or do) something what is edgy and earn big money, but such people very often are employee. For me if you want do something new, you don't have to graduate.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is "easy" to earn big money when you live for example in Europe, but third world gets help form UNO - now there is relatively few people who live for less than 2 dollars per day. It have been changing in last years.
Autor of this text is absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteTo get a job at the highest position, a lot of people take a lot of time and work to complete their studies and get an higher education. In many cases it is guarantee of a well-paid job, so it's clear that they couldn't earn less than manual worker. Each payment should reflect the work's contribution as well as the burden of responsibility for their decisions.
Pay differentials between people on different position, in different jobs is something natural and inevitable. Person on high position with have important tasks and big responsibility. That work usually need years of working and learning, abilities and work experience. So that person should earn more money than person, who do less complicated or responsible work, even if it more physically harder. It’ s good to try minimize social inequality and provide every person, who need it social support and determine minimum pay at suitable level. But it is impossible to all people around world earn the same money.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, people high above you once stood where you do now. They climbed the steep stairs of hardship, experience and time to get where they are...or they just got lucky, that happens as well. The thing is, you're not gonna start your career at the top of the chain, you'll have to make your way up there somehow. Yes, the payments vary greatly between positions, jobs, countries etc. but that's just the way it is. Get most out of what you have to work with.
ReplyDeleteBig differences in salaries is a complicated topic. In my opinion there is no simple solution for this problem. People earn a lot of money because of many reasons, for example:qualification, personal skills, knowledge. On the other hand we can't forget about importance of luck or families connections. The one and only thing which governments can do, it's educate people that is important to help others and introduce high moral standards. None law can't remove disproportions totally.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with an author that those who work physically shouldn't earn much more. I think that salaries for that kind of workers are unfair and for sure they are too small. We all understand that someone who graduated University, who is specialist or just have qualities necessary on high position should earn more. They were working hard to attain it so they deserve it, but it doesn’t mean that people without those capacity don’t deserve decent salary. They do different jobs but they work just like educated people do. I don’t appeal to taking money from managers and give to physically working people, I’m not a Robin Hood, but I suggest that minimum wage should be increased. In my opinion society have to appreciate physical work much more- not only by increasing salaries, but also by showing respect for employees.
ReplyDeleteThat problem exists from ages and in my opinion people can not solve it. Differences in salaries due to different works are dependent on a lot of factors with government's work policy ahead. I do not agree that people who work physically should earn less but unfortunately our world economy is not created in the way that if you work more, you earn more. And nobody change it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that we live in age of globalisation but there are still so many places that differs from well-developed countries.There are places where people don't think about fringe benefits, nice office and company car but only about some money to survive. They think that it is blessing that they can work in clothes factory whereas in some Europen countries these conditions and salary would be terrible.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind this gap between owner's and workers' salaries shoulnd't be so huge. It turns out that people are like wolfs for each others and it is just an exploitation.
As we all know, in different fields, different kinds of education, amounts of knowledge and experience are required, in companies’ structures the same thing applies. There are different positions within the firm which concern various salaries. To me the main idea is good, because that way people get paid for example for their hard work back at school, uni and so on, and also for how hard they’ve been working for the period of time thay’ve spent on the job by getting promoted. The main problem with the situation described above is that some differences in salaries of people working at the headquarters and companies’ offices are really big, maybe too big. On the other hand the problem with people in foreign countries working within these companies is very tricky. If these people’s wages went up, others working for example for local farmers could protest to get more and because farmers do not have as much money as these big companies, they would come back to other big companies which export their products. These firms would either give tchem the money they’d want orf ind a different localisation for export. Also, if they were given more money in different fields, maybe they wouldn’t want to work in factories any more, and that would be a big problem. The other thing is that increase in wages would cause an economic growth and in effect new vacancies in new fields would appear and even less people would work in their factories, in long run universities would also be set and people would get amitious, which is not profitable to these big firms. If it happened, they would probably have to rebuild these factories to be safer and give their workers better conditions of work. I think that’s why these big fish decide not to do anything about these conditions, the problem doesn’t concern tchem or their loved ones so they don’t really care.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy to be a boss. This is a very responsible and stressful job, so it is obvious to me that the CEO should earn more money than people in lower positions. They have their own responsibilities and they didn't achieve success from doing nothing. If it was such an easy job, then everybody could be a boss.
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ReplyDelete"With great money comes great responsability". I think that in many cases, the inqualities in earinng money are the result of different responsability on different posistions. I'm agree with author of article: in the end of a day the CEO takes a great responsability for his company. He earns a lot of money but his/ her decisions are worth a lot of money. If he makes a mistake, he will pay for it a lot. Auverage employee with auverage salary hasn't so much responsability on his shoulders. If he makes a mistake, in the worst case, he will be fired. In case of CEO's mistake, it must cost a fortune for his fault. He might be a bancrupt and ends without any money, being heavily in dept. With more money, it comes more pressure and stress. Sometimes it isn't so wonderful as we might see it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it should be quite logical, why do CEOs earn way more money than an average employee. First of all they somehow had to get to the place they are right now. Meaning that for years they have been working hard day by day in case to create the company of their dreams. They took a risk, they didn't know that they would succeed. Yet they still cannot stop, they cannot take long vacation without any distress. They need to constantly be aware of what is going on in the structures of their company, since they know that one mistake can cause everything to collapse. So I think that calling them out and saying that they shouldn't earn so much money is at least frivolous.
ReplyDeleteUsually those who earn a lot had to sacrifice a lot when they were younger. People who focus on money and business don't have a lot of time for partying, meeting friends or dating. I saw a comment stating that it is unfair that a person with a wife and kids to feed earns so much less than a CEO who is single. I don't agree. It's not unfair. While one of them was wasting time marrying his wife and having kids, the other one was working and could start a family now without ever worrying about the money. If you don't have a stable financial situation, you should never start a family. You are only making them and yourself miserable.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's the wage gap that's the problem, but rather how much you can buy per hour of work. Prices are going up, and while the minimum wage is also going up, the standard of living is going down from decade to decade. And one can argue what this is due to. There are certainly many reasons. But it's hard not to notice that young people often can't even afford to take an apartment loan anymore, and most of the money they earn goes on food and health care.
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