Comments on: Bankers and cleaners

By: Iglika Ivanova

Iglika Ivanova — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:21:19 +0000

Even if you subscribe to the notion that people should be paid based on the value of their contribution to their employer or client, it’s hard to argue that one person’s contribution is 100 times more valuable than another’s. Yet, these are the kinds of disparities we see in pay structure in many large corporations.

By: vantown

vantown — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:47:35 +0000

Tom, that is a very helpful way of looking at it. I don’t think that every person should be paid the same or even very close to the same — but every person’s work should be paid at a reasonable minimum that recognizes their fundamental worth, regardless of the job they perform. The current minimum wages are far from adequate against this test. And in fact they actually devalue a person’s time or fundamental worth — many people in the low wage workforce have to work so many hours (two, even three jobs) just to make ends meet that they struggle with exhaustion and stress and do not have adequate time to spend with their families.

By: Tom Kertes

Tom Kertes — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:54:29 +0000

We should also keep in mind that when to work we give up time, which is a measure of a person’s worth (the worth of their time alive). Since all people are of equal worth, we should also factor this into how much we pay people, and differences in pay. This is not to say that all workers should be paid the same, just that one factor should include the equal value of our time alive, or the equal value of each and every person as a human being.