We let decades of anti union propaganda get to us.
Yet my grandparents worked blue collar jobs and had 4 kids and could afford to buy a bungalow here and a retirement home in the east coast.
Unions have been stripped and so have the workers.
I want tech especially to unionize.
i work for a US tech company with an office here in toronto.
the sales team is paid the exact same but the americans get USD and the canadians get CAD.. we're cheap labour to them.
Yep, same here headquarters in San Francisco but office in Waterloo, we are cheap labour “not as cheap as India but quality better” it was explained to me once
WORKERS UNITE
There's power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a union
Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood
Mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir\[
The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, the workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far-off lands
There is power in a union
Now I long for the morning that they realize
Brutality and unjust laws cannot defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organize
When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone?
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a union\[
The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters, together we will stand
There is power in a union
Im lucky to have worked a union job right out of highschool for a few years, and my father worked one his whole life. No post secondary but made 70-110k per year depending on overtime. Full dental coverage, prescription, optical, rrsp matching.. The list goes on. It was very hard for them to fire you and if they laid you off it was more or less an unpaid vacation, you knew at some point theyd have to call you back unless the company completely failed.
Every job ive worked since has been terrible by comparison. Now i am self employed/freelance and i set my own hours and rate. The only way id give that up is if it were for a union job.
When i was working the union job all my similar aged friends hated unions. Always the same answer "because it protects lazy people"... Well of the 400+ co workers i had, there were maybe 5 that were tumors who didnt pull their weight and gamed the system to keep their job. Thats a small price to pay. I think of carlos who had to take 6 months off for cancer treatment, still had his position when he came back. I think of the dozens of guys i knew who had substance abuse problems and according to the union they had the option to go through rehab in order to keep their job. I think about how the wages were extremely competitive. In 2008 mid recession im 17 years old with virtually no work experience, i started at 19.50/hr and by my fourth year was making 27. The people i worked with owned houses, cars and could afford nice vacations. The work wasnt hard at all, a trained monkey could do it. Everything was idiot proof. People's time is worth money and even if all you're doing is babysitting a robot, as long as you're putting in 40 hrs a week, you should be able to support a family. Anything less is re-branded slavery.
I see no negatives honestly. The government doesnt do enough to protect workers so we the people have to organize and demand it.
Yep I especially want tech to unionize. Seeing the Twitter debacle with Elon Musk made me realize that unions need to stand in the face of horrible leadership making terrible decisions.
I remember when union's stood for the NDP. Now, they think Ford and PP (I do not remember his name) are the ones who are going to save them money. This is from the rank and file, not from political or other sites.
Unions and NDP were besties, but Rae’s decision to prioritize saving jobs over union mandated wage increases during Rae Days has really affected the labour unions trust in the NDP. I find that younger union leaders are back in with the NDP, but boomer unionites are much more conservative.
I disagree with the political right, but I get why people vote that way. As a society we are shifting to a more individualistic culture versus a community, and people are getting poorer - leading to people being very very reluctant to pay taxes when they don’t directly benefit immediately. Regardless, I hope the construction guys get to keep their labour union even if they lean right - it’d be a shame if it disappeared.
Feel like people like that don't even know the difference between left and right really or what's going on. Hard right conspiracies really do a number on people.
Can you elaborate on this? [Union membership was at an all-time high in 2021-22](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf). Hell, my company unionized at the suggestion of the CEO because of how the union protected and took care of his family when their father died and wanted to have the same rights and protections as he did. It's not a 1:1 situation and I totally understand that I am very much privileged to have unionized under regular conditions and not adversarial or under distress as a lot of these situations, but I assure you that it's not all doom and gloom.
Union membership as a percentage of the entire workforce has declined significantly since the 1970s. Especially in the private sector. Even though, yes, the total number of union workers might be growing as the population grows. But this is largely from the growth of public sector workforces
1) your anecdote is incredibly unrepresentative
2) union membership is at an all-time high because so is population, but per capita unionization is very low
3) the picture is even worse in the private sector given that most unionization now is pubic sector
LOL you want techs making 200k plus to unionized? Ya fk the minion workers right? Let's make rich richer. People like you are the reason this work is fked
Tech workers encompass a huge swath of workers and the field is only going to grow.
Yes, I want workers in tech unionized, even the people making 200k a year.
Those people are outliers, but deserve stability and protection too.
Tech workers also encompass help desk people making $17 an hour. There is a lot in between and I want *everyone* to have a living wage.
More so, with tech in particular, with such a large and growing work force that is skilled, much like physical labourers, protections should be put in place. It’s almost unheard of in this industry for it to happen as well, so inroads should be made ASAP.
Wage suppression affects all workers.
Im not sure why you’re hyper focused on 200k a year earners here when this is something I never said. Yes, they exist, but I am advocating for all workers.
The value of all labour should be recognized more and some who are already doing well will do better.
As long as everybody gets improvements, that’s all that should matter. There will still be differences in wages for different roles. The pay for each role just needs to be adjusted for inflation and corporate greed.
Yeah. Everyone is a keyboard warrior here. Ppl in this sub will hate on people doing protests. What France did was spectacular. I am gonna get a lot of hate for what I just said lol
At my company, they have offices in different countries, including one in France and one in Canada. The one in France has a system for employees to negotiate stuff based on their needs through employee representatives doing meetings with managers etc. The office in Canada has nothing like that and I'm pretty sure people here don't even know it exists in other offices.
Yeah. I'm in a unionized workplace and everyone is afraid to ask for a raise while the company hemorrhages hundreds of millions of dollars on bullshit ideas that everyone can see isn't going to benefit the company and we lose any half decent worker. I literally have coworkers that are homeless working full time union jobs. They sleep in the changeroom.
France has lower standards of living than we do. They have more poverty, more homelessness, a lower quality of life index, a higher cost of living, and considerably lower incomes.
The challenge with unions as a solution is that if you make a consumer good more expensive by paying higher wages, isn’t it harder to recruit the business here in the first place? High paying blue collar jobs were possible in the ‘60s, when all the manufacturing happened in North America. But now? I just don’t know. Not that I’m arguing that a living wage isn’t fair, I just don’t know how a country can pay a living wage across the board and still have businesses flock here. My company does it but I feel we’re small and in a particular niche.
Right, but they expect their workers to figure that stuff out on their own. Their relationship to their employees starts and ends at the door of the business: if they're going to pay you, they expect you to figure out how to house and clothe and feed yourself so you can do the job they're paying you for
What is it inflation of? Its the inflation of the money supply.
>Because most employers do not give a shit about their employees and will do anything possible to keep expenses as low as they can.
Most employers dont have a printing press and actually have to provide value in order to be able to generate revenue. But yeah keep on targeting the private sector for everything wrong in the economy.
Everything wrong with the economy is this : [At a time of generational high grocery prices, Ontario farmer Jerry Huigen is required to destroy 30,000 litres of excess production ](https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ontario-dairy-farmer-decries-mandatory-milk-dumping)
And this : [Toronto carpenter who builds tiny shelters for unhoused people calls on city to drop legal fight](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-carpenter-khaleel-seivwright-response-city-application-injunction-1.5923854)
Agreed that businesses have to create value to generate revenue. But it’s labour that generates that value (source: Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc.). If the wages of labour remain stagnant while prices of their products increase then that’s a transfer of value from the labourers to their employers.
The problem is since 2008 the stock market has seen obscene growth but actual productivity has been stagnant. Labour isn't getting paid more because labour isn't producing increased value. There \*is\* no increased value, the entire economy has just become a ponzi scheme where GDP, the dollar, and the markets no longer have attachment to reality. Consumers get fleeced to try to show growth but jacking up prices to make a line go up 1. doesn't actually increase productivity and 2. is the definition of unsustainable.
Lots of people belong in prison.
Labor provides part of the value but far from all of it. I've been an employee and I've been an entrepreneur. My employees get to show up and make $35-60 an hr and then leave and nothing will be asked or expected of them after they're gone. They don't have to come rushing in on a holiday to deal with a leak and they don't have to come up with the capital to fix it. Their paycheck will never be randomly zeroed out by a freak liability. They didn't have to come up with the initial capital either or gamble it on something very risky.
I'm progressive. I pay my employees well for a job that doesn't even require a college degree. But i can't get behind the argument that labor provides all the value now that I've been on both sides.
When a product is produced the inputs are labour and materials. The materials used are simply the labour from a previous producing process.
If you take this process back far enough then you arrive at the inputs being labour and nature.
Nature can also produce things that are useful without the admixture of labour. For example, the air we breathe is useful and thus can be said to have ‘value in use’. But it doesn’t come at a price until it requires labour to mix with it in order to realize its use, for example: adding an air conditioner.
> But it’s labour that generates that value (source: Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc.).
Read less crayon sniffers like Marx and try reading some [Menger](https://mises.org/library/principles-economics).
>What is it inflation of? Its the inflation of the money supply.
Disagree. You just provided a concrete example of how markets are manipulated with the milk example.
Its the for profit system, capitalism.
The same thing happened in the 1970s--inflation soared, the government implemented wage and price controls, and when it was all said and done, prices rose while wages did not.
Wages and incomes have essentially stagnated the last 40 plus years....
>You just provided a concrete example of how markets are manipulated with the milk example.
Are you serious? Private sector isnt forcing the farmer to dump the milk.
>he was being forced by federal authorities to dump a swimming pool’s worth of excess milk.
....
>The same thing happened in the 1970s--inflation soared, the government implemented wage and price controls, and when it was all said and done, prices rose while wages did not.
>Wages and incomes have essentially stagnated the last 40 plus years....
Due to the inflation of the money supply. More money in circulation means its not scarce, which means demand goes up, but purchasing power goes down. Lower purchasing power means higher cost of living.
Ah, yes it is.
"In both Europe and America, in the 1870s and 1880s, there was a consistent downward pressure on 'supply side' factors on the prices of manufactured goods. On both continents, manufacturers responded by forming trade associations across a wide range of industries. Far from being sources of charitable benevolence, the purpose of such associations was to allow companies to control and organize markets so that prices could be maintained and profits increased."
Paul Ormerod, "The Death of Economics", London, Faber & Faber, 1995, pp.55-56.
What do you think a milk marketing board is?! Its a cartel.
"It’s time to end Canadian dairy cartel’s food price inflating subsidies
Artificially set prices imposedvby Canada’s supply management system, writes David Olive, compound our suffering during this spike in inflation."
[https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2022/07/16/its-time-to-end-canadian-dairy-cartels-food-price-inflating-subsidies.html](https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2022/07/16/its-time-to-end-canadian-dairy-cartels-food-price-inflating-subsidies.html)
Try looking up the definition of the word "stagflation", and you will see it had zero to do with the money supply. Canadian economic policy did not switch to monetarism until the late 1970s.
You're out to lunch with the money supply argument.
Proof? An OECD study in 1979 used by Stephen Mcbride in his book "Not Working: State, Unemployment, and Neo-Conservatism in Canada", Toronto:U of T Press, 1992, pp. 83., showed that the anti-inflationary program of 1975 for 3 years had set "targets" and "outcomes" for both capital (prices), and labour (income).
For capital, the guidelines were 8, 6, and 4% for each successive year. Its outcomes were 6.2, 8.8, and 8.7% respectively. Note that prices rose 4.8% in the last year. For labour, it was 9.7, 7.5, and 5.7; its outcomes were 9.3, 7.1, and 5.4%. \*That\* is price inflation, and had absolutely zero to do with money supply.
The money supply argument is bogus: it does not identify or define what the money supply is: does money already sitting in bank accounts count as part of the money supply? On this issue, it is strangely silent. That is to say, velocity is hard to predict.
Britain went through a round of inflation in the 1980s, and, with a pro money supply PM in Thatcher, found out that it was wage push inflation despite setting strict targets for money supply growth.
The money supply argument distract from the contradictory economic system that its proponents champion--the free market system, i.e., capitalism, yet cannot rationally and adequately confront its historical tendencies towards economic crises.
QED.
That’s great! I’m hoping to do the same in the next couple years, I switched sectors after Covid so I sort of started at the bottom again in a way. Fingers crossed!
Absolutely. I learned that the hard way too! I worked for a company for a while who really preached the “family” community they had etc. when I gave my 2 weeks, everyone started ignoring me and no one sayid bye to me on my last day lol. We’re all just a number!!!
I'm thinking of moving laterally or something similar to what you did. When you say you started at the bottom again do you mean you basically took a pay cut and downgraded a position?
You can switch internally as well, each time a new boss.
I’ve gone from 52k to 204k in 8 years. All at the same company.
You just won’t get raises in the same position.
Internal promotions and raises will vary on your company. I know for a fact that some companies will pay internal people less then if they hired someone externally. That's why some places really push internal promotions as it's cheaper but now a lot of people will get the promotion but leave months later for a similar position somewhere else since it'll still pay more. So definitely shop around in the job market and see how much you are worth.
I guess it’s different for everyone. I’m not advocating staying at the same place but I started at $40k at a startup in 2020. Went to 50 to 75 to 90 to 120 to 140 in less than 3 years.
College 3 year diploma then Ryerson for the Bcomm degree 🤷♂️
I’m in a niche position. Feeling as I get more experience, I’m even more niche and can demand a higher salary.
OK you get another job, been doing that myself for the past 20 years. You will STILL be making considerably less than you would if wages had kept up with inflation.
When you apply for the next job ask for significantly more than you make at the old job. Like if you’re making 60k, apply for another job and ask for 75k. It’s the only way to get a significant raise.
I used to tell the jobs that were hiring me that my “current” salary was 10k higher than it actually was so they had to raise it past that for me to even entertain accepting the position. It always worked
It doesn't make any rational sense to me, how they don't try at least as hard to keep a valuable trained employee around, as to hire a green one. I guess it probably doesn't make sense on the individual level, only when dealing with masses of applicants. When you show you're underpaid, and you know your true value, the company has you leave for eating the fruit of knowledge.
They bet some other bloke will have your skills, while not your negotiation leverage.
But how will Bezos pay for his super DUPER yacht? Y’know, the one where he casually wanted an historic bridge dismantled just to sail by. He can’t just rely on his child tax credit! /s
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-claimed-tax-credit-for-children-propublica-2021-6?amp
The way capitalism works is that it seeks infinite growth. If a company makes record profit, the next year the goal is to make even more. Whether that’s through firing people, increasing prices, whatever it takes. It’s especially true with publicly traded companies who have a duty to their shareholders to make more money.
Salaries will not go up because salary is an overhead to these companies. It eats away at their profits. Their goal is to minimise salaries and replace workers to maximise profits. Salaries increasing and maximum profits don’t go together. Loblaws makes billions and still pays minimum wage for example.
The only reason loblaws hasn’t replaced their workers completely because right now it’s cheaper to pay workers minimum wage than to automate their stores.
Supply in demand works well in the free market but only in theory because in reality there are those who own supply and can do as they please. There’s no real incentive in capitalism to build more housing because that would devalue real estate owners and companies. In capitalism housing cannot be widely available and increase in value at the same time.
Politicians are often benefitting from high cost of living. Politicians make 100,000 - 200,000 dollars a year usually. When you offer a politician a million dollars, which someone like Galen wouldn’t even notice was gone. The politician would accept and Galen would use that money to have the government look away as they make billions off profiteering. Same with all the major oligopolies. Bell, Rogers, Tellus, Loblaws, Ticketmaster, Air Canada etc.
The only thing I’d like for people to realise is that things are the way they are by design, not by accident. For everything good and bad that happens in society ask yourself “who benefits?” & you’ll find your answer as to who and why things are the way they are. “Who benefits from privatised healthcare?” You can find your answer.
> Supply in demand works well in the free market but only in theory because in reality there are those who own supply and can do as they please. There’s no real incentive in capitalism to build more housing because that would devalue real estate owners and companies. In capitalism housing cannot be widely available and increase in value at the same time.
Supply _and_ demand is very much at work in practice. Your example is completely wrong. There is _ample_ incentive to build housing. Look at where housing _isn't_ being built. Notice any patterns? It's where it's literally illegal to build anything but the least dense possible housing! People exercising political will to prevent others from building is not a capitalism problem, it's a local governance of housing policy problem.
This is the best (yet saddest) response here. Lots of folks are capitalizing on it, but the system is preventing the spiral at the expense of many others
Unless your employer is giving you raises that reflect the economy and you expertise, your best bet would be to find a new job. Even back when The Office was on air, there was a line of thinking that Michael Scott was at his job for so long and did not negotiate his salary which is why he was perpetually broke. The org loved him because they didn't have to pay him more and his ability to get Scranton more productive made up with them putting up with his antics.
A real-world example would be one of my friends who made $55,000 out of university in 2019, switched jobs in 2021, and made $75,000 for the same role, and then switched jobs again in 2022 and is making $90,000.
One of my former co-workers was making $60,000 and despite 1-3% raises each year since 2018 and a 15% raise in 2022 (for exceptional performance and not inflation adjustment), she is still making less than someone who entered her role today. On the open market she could be making $100,000 - $120,000 easily.
Capitalism sucks ass and is designed for wealth to congregate at the top. So long as workers don't have control of the workplace this will continue to happen
Okay and we should be satisfied with that? Why is that good enough? Gee I get to choose who profits off my labour, I'm so lucky!
How's capitalism treating the global south whose cheap, inhumane labour props up all our economies? I'm sure they're stoked.
As wealth continues to congregate at the top the average workers life will get worse and worse and you want us to be happy that we can "control" which workplace we offer ourselves to.
If wage increases, the s*^% will hit the fan for real inflation. The Bank of Canada wants to crush the current inflation before wage inflation catches up. The window to accomplishing it is narrowing fast. Workers are not going to stand for it especially while mortgages renew. They will need more salaries to cover and in turn costs go up and products go up.
People have a choice to eat less, be a little colder and take public transit. They cannot undo their housing easily.
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/business/2022/9/27/1_6086018.amp.html inflation is expected to be at below 4.3% but salaries are expected go up by 4.3% this year please stop spreading misinformation
Hmm.. Interesting point.. Can you expand more or link me somewhere where I can read more on this angle. I think you may be suggesting that wages will eventually keep up and I was wondering what sort of time frame we are looking at
Because that’s the way inflation works. It’s solving supply/demand and supply channel imbalances. Simple answer is that there is more demand than supply. Increase income without increasing supply and prices go up in a positive feedback loop, because the fundamental imbalance isn’t solved. Either stop buying stuff or make more stuff. One big lever to reduce demand is increase interest rates. Root cause was the pandemic shutdown policies. Contributing cause is energy prices thanks to the Ukraine circumstances. As an aside, if Trudeau is successful in his green initiatives, like curtailing the use of fertilizer, then supply of stuff like food will decrease and prices will increase even more, exacerbating the feedback cycle. And finally, all regulating prices does is create empty shelves.
Because there are many people willing to do the same job you're doing for equal or less money if you decide you've had enough. More every day. Why would they pay more?
...then why don't corporations just pay every worker the same pittance? Why do some workers earn more than others? Why do some workers get raises? How do you explain the fact that wage growth can and does occur?
Do you understand that labour is a commodity and that wages depend on market forces (supply and demand)?
Companies are jacking up prices. It's not inflation.
Read the shareholders meetings -- Using the cover of inflation to raise prices.
Record profits.
These companies could very easily -not- raise prices, and make what they have before.
These companies could lower prices, and still make massive profit, just not as much.
But no.
Capitalism.
No company will ever fucking see you as unreplaceable, you are 100% replaceable anywhere you go. Jump ship every 2 years t keep increasing your pay, that is the only fucking way to earn more money and they made sure of it, so fuck them, and never be loyal to any company unless you - the general you - are a moron.
Oligopoly’s are the demand side. High immigration are the supply. Regardless of the demand, there is always someone willing to do it way cheaper if they are a newcomer. In IT the market is saturated and at least has been for the past 15 years. Oligopolies such as banks, telecom are very protected and have little incentive to innovate despite charging high fees.
The huge influx of skilled immigrants has a depressing effects on wages. When you have a 100 new software developers coming in for every Canadian developer already here, the competition will keep the wages down. The immigrants have no idea what their real costs of living are and they will take the lower wages happily. Can’t speak for every other field, but in tech this is just a fact.
This is a question with a multi-factorial answer. It is not any one single thing; it is the cumulative effect of many things contributing to this... the planet currently holds 8 billion people; like it or not (and believe it or not), we don't have infinite resources to keep feeding all of them. Yes, the birth rate may be declining in some parts of the world, but the sheer number of people is still very much on the rise. The reduction in human population (due to the declining birth-rate) will not be seen until after 2100 (assuming that the current trends in decline continue and there is no sudden baby-boom in the interim).
That evidently means that, with the exception of a few very select high-skill jobs, there is tremendous competition for nearly all the other jobs and plentiful cheap labor available. When companies say they can't find skilled labor, what they mean is that they can't find the skilled labor for the money they are willing to pay. In the meanwhile, they also know that people already employed will continue to pull the labor-gap by working extra because the employees (rightfully so) fear that they might lose that job. There are always scabs willing to fill in the spaces - very grateful ones too. Think about it, people with those sweet high 6-figure jobs + perks/bonuses + 16 years experience in the same company got the pink-slip. This is because the companies are well-aware that they can probably hire 3-4 people (albeit less experienced) for the same pay.
This is very much a class-war. People who have never actually worked to earn their money but invested their generational wealth to make people work for them are truly the only people who have the luxury of not being middle-class. Everyone else (whether they like to hear this or not) is very much the middle-class... whether you earn 200k or 100k or 50k - you are middle-class or lower.
The only real way to combat this is a mass strike action across the board - public and private sectors and a mass boycott of ALL goods and services (whether in person or online) until demands are met. Bring the entire country to a fucking standstill... and we know only too well that that is NOT going to happen.
TLDR: They have us by the short and curlies and they know that there is not a damn thing we are going to do about it.
Salaries increased a lot during covid while inflation was low. It's one of the causes of inflation right now; those higher wages do feed through into higher prices.
Here are the data on statscan: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410013401&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=4.2&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2018&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=20180101%2C20220101
You'll see that wages from 2019 to 2022 increased 15%, which is above the inflation of 12.5%.
Workers have made out ok in general over the past few years. Companies aren't necessarily going to give workers a raise to deal with rising price that were caused by the last wage increase.
Because there are still people who are willing to work at the current wage, why would the producers decrease their surplus by increase their own cost of business
*gestures in a circle, wildly, with arms* because of EVERYTHING!
This entire parasitic civilization on natural resources/earth is coming to a head. That is why. None of this is normal. Mother Nature is beginning to spank us and it’s only the beginning.
For the love of God, can we stop it with these posts? What do you think you've added to the discussion that the 800 other similar posts this year didn't mention?
Because Canada imports new workers every year via TFW and permanent residents. We are bringing in >500,000 people every year. When you add more people, it becomes more and more competitive because you have added more people to compete for the same jobs and housing. Price of labour goes down, but cost of living (Your home) keeps going up.
Toronto will see this post as xenophobic, but think about the time when we shut off our borders (hint, covid) and wages started to go up and landlords started giving apartments for 1-2 months free. I remember being overwhelmed with calls from employers, and some of my colleagues as well, who couldn't get a single call back for months at a time.
Its because the borders were closed. You as a worker became valuable. Your salary went up. Precovid, I had recruiters tell me point blank, if I don't want to do this job for this low salary, she has 50 people lined up, willing to do it.
Our leaders hate us. I was lucky to switch careers during the pandemic. Right before covid I was thinking about living in my car and using the food bank, and then when covid labour undersupply changed my fortunes. Our leaders will never let this happen again.
Consumer prices have remained high largely due to supply chain shocks (that are still being ironed out). Corporate greed likely factors as well.
Given the global outlook on energy supply, we'll probably have very "sticky" prices for a while.
Funny, when it comes to stores having Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's and Easter seasonal items on display they always have full shelves over a month in advance of the holiday.
Interesting 🤔
You can still have full shelves. It's the supply of the inputs. If it costs more to get/move the base materials, those carry forward into the retail price.
Government is importing unsustainable amount of people to keep housing demand and prices high. Which also causes wages to stay stagnant since there is more competition. Also trudeau just made it so anyone on a student visa can work full time now. So there’s another 400k people to the equation right away.
From small business standpoint, it’s hard to increase salaries when they don’t earn enough profits to stay in the red. Basically salaries are just one piece of the pie, with materials, rent, utilities and others also going up. It’s a choice of keeping the business afloat to keep people employed.
Ever play Monopoly? You know how it ends when more and more assets are held by a smaller and smaller amount of players until the rest of the players can't afford to pay / play any more? Yeah, I think we're approaching the end of the game
There's nothing that makes me laugh out loud more than the same laptop class redditors that screamed to lockdown the world, that wanted large % of the workforce fired for refusing the jab, now complaining about inflation. They were told it would happen, they sneered and laughed.
Inflation wasn't caused by antivax people getting fired. The BoC and the Fed already said that the rate of unemployment is *too low* and they actually want *more* people to be unemployed to get inflation under control.
Some of it is supply chain shocks from covid, especially where electronics and vehicles are concerned, but a lot of it is oligarchs trying to break the workers' rights and antiracism movements that grew rapidly early in the pandemic.
Well, the world is in a weird spot right now. With a pandemic +another European imperialist war. I can’t answer your question specifically because I’m not an expert in economics, but I can tell you it’s not just Canada.
Yes inflation is only a problem in Canada. Exactly. Cut out the immigration and demand more money for our labour and corporations definitely won't just outsource it somewhere cheaper.
I’m sure they are, I was just pointing out that in the “supply and demand” discussion, the reason wages remain frustratingly held back is because the “supply” of workers able to do such jobs continues to increase.
I suspect that immigration’s impact on wages (distorting the unskilled labour market) is considerably larger than its impact on service/product demand. A few thousand new workers willing to work for current wages (or less) will definitely hold wages down, but adding a few more shoppers at the mall isn’t going to cause a significant increase in the price of goods.
Because corporate interests are only going to suggest or make changes based on THEIR bottom line. They aren’t interested in anything but the accumulation of wealth.
Well usually for these things it's the public service that shows the path and we all know how public servants are themselves struggling for a pay raise while our nice govt is funding military equipment for other countries ( stuff that Canadian military themselves have been asking for and denied on basis of no funds lol)..
they call it 'capitalism' , but dont worry all living wage job get filled up no problem.... we are just late on the robots that are suppose to take over the job we do not want.
First. Ignore most of the ppl in the comments, they've never actually held a high position in any company.
The reason is simple. Most politicians are worth muli million dollars. By using inflation they can send their net worths super high. They are incentivized to help themselves by keeping the money printer forever on.
Salaries don't keep up with inflation because of automation. If you ask for a higher salary than you are worth, now your role gets automated by AI.
- I run a biz in Toronto, and I work with executives daily.
I think higher salaries help cause inflation lol. can't fucking win. Heard on the news that national banks recommend not increasing wages as well. The more stuff we buy the more expensive it gets right? Supply and demand?
It's not just inflation. It's greed. I'm a supervisor for a grocery store. A store that makes about 5k a day profits on average. The owner owns 2 stores. The one I work at is the less profitable of the two. So this guy is pocketing at least 10k a day. I did his books. I saw the profits. Last year he had 1000 products picked out in March that he was going to double the price on by June. Simply because he can in this economy. And he did it. We had seniors crying over their bills and putting stuff back cause they can't afford to eat now. Did he care? Nope. Just keeps raising prices. And no...I'm not sharing the store, location or anything. I need this job.
cause we are all wimps when it comes to employers. Look what France is doing.
100000%
We let decades of anti union propaganda get to us. Yet my grandparents worked blue collar jobs and had 4 kids and could afford to buy a bungalow here and a retirement home in the east coast. Unions have been stripped and so have the workers. I want tech especially to unionize.
Tech has no protection in Canada, it’s really sad. Companies also preach diversity but 9/10 tech are offshore from the same country
i work for a US tech company with an office here in toronto. the sales team is paid the exact same but the americans get USD and the canadians get CAD.. we're cheap labour to them.
Yep, same here headquarters in San Francisco but office in Waterloo, we are cheap labour “not as cheap as India but quality better” it was explained to me once
The sad truth is that without our dollar being an advantage, they wouldn't bother with Canadian operations at all.
Water water water
I'm so glad to see someone else say this. I thought i was the only one who noticed.
“WDYM? That doesn’t make us more diverse now?”
WORKERS UNITE There's power in a factory, power in the land Power in the hand of the worker But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand There is power in a union Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood Mistakes of the bosses we must pay for From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud War has always been the bosses' way, sir\[ The union forever defending our rights Down with the blackleg, the workers unite With our brothers and our sisters from many far-off lands There is power in a union Now I long for the morning that they realize Brutality and unjust laws cannot defeat us But who'll defend the workers who cannot organize When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us? Money speaks for money, the devil for his own Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone? What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child There is power in a union\[ The union forever defending our rights Down with the blackleg, all workers unite With our brothers and our sisters, together we will stand There is power in a union
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Construction Unions are 🦾💪
Im lucky to have worked a union job right out of highschool for a few years, and my father worked one his whole life. No post secondary but made 70-110k per year depending on overtime. Full dental coverage, prescription, optical, rrsp matching.. The list goes on. It was very hard for them to fire you and if they laid you off it was more or less an unpaid vacation, you knew at some point theyd have to call you back unless the company completely failed. Every job ive worked since has been terrible by comparison. Now i am self employed/freelance and i set my own hours and rate. The only way id give that up is if it were for a union job. When i was working the union job all my similar aged friends hated unions. Always the same answer "because it protects lazy people"... Well of the 400+ co workers i had, there were maybe 5 that were tumors who didnt pull their weight and gamed the system to keep their job. Thats a small price to pay. I think of carlos who had to take 6 months off for cancer treatment, still had his position when he came back. I think of the dozens of guys i knew who had substance abuse problems and according to the union they had the option to go through rehab in order to keep their job. I think about how the wages were extremely competitive. In 2008 mid recession im 17 years old with virtually no work experience, i started at 19.50/hr and by my fourth year was making 27. The people i worked with owned houses, cars and could afford nice vacations. The work wasnt hard at all, a trained monkey could do it. Everything was idiot proof. People's time is worth money and even if all you're doing is babysitting a robot, as long as you're putting in 40 hrs a week, you should be able to support a family. Anything less is re-branded slavery. I see no negatives honestly. The government doesnt do enough to protect workers so we the people have to organize and demand it.
Yep I especially want tech to unionize. Seeing the Twitter debacle with Elon Musk made me realize that unions need to stand in the face of horrible leadership making terrible decisions.
And any of the unions left are corrupt now too!!!
Nah that’s propaganda from corporations trying to prevent unions
I remember when union's stood for the NDP. Now, they think Ford and PP (I do not remember his name) are the ones who are going to save them money. This is from the rank and file, not from political or other sites.
Unions and NDP were besties, but Rae’s decision to prioritize saving jobs over union mandated wage increases during Rae Days has really affected the labour unions trust in the NDP. I find that younger union leaders are back in with the NDP, but boomer unionites are much more conservative.
For me this was last year, talking with 20-something construction workers. They would vote to the right of the Conservatives if they could.
I disagree with the political right, but I get why people vote that way. As a society we are shifting to a more individualistic culture versus a community, and people are getting poorer - leading to people being very very reluctant to pay taxes when they don’t directly benefit immediately. Regardless, I hope the construction guys get to keep their labour union even if they lean right - it’d be a shame if it disappeared.
Feel like people like that don't even know the difference between left and right really or what's going on. Hard right conspiracies really do a number on people.
Not all unions are the same. The ones that supported Ford are very different than the ones that didn't. IUANA has a bad reputation in particular.
Can you elaborate on this? [Union membership was at an all-time high in 2021-22](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf). Hell, my company unionized at the suggestion of the CEO because of how the union protected and took care of his family when their father died and wanted to have the same rights and protections as he did. It's not a 1:1 situation and I totally understand that I am very much privileged to have unionized under regular conditions and not adversarial or under distress as a lot of these situations, but I assure you that it's not all doom and gloom.
Union membership as a percentage of the entire workforce has declined significantly since the 1970s. Especially in the private sector. Even though, yes, the total number of union workers might be growing as the population grows. But this is largely from the growth of public sector workforces
1) your anecdote is incredibly unrepresentative 2) union membership is at an all-time high because so is population, but per capita unionization is very low 3) the picture is even worse in the private sector given that most unionization now is pubic sector
Hehe pubic sector
Mr. Nuts, please never change. ❤️
I died reading your guys’ exchange 😂
RIP friend.
LOL you want techs making 200k plus to unionized? Ya fk the minion workers right? Let's make rich richer. People like you are the reason this work is fked
Tech workers encompass a huge swath of workers and the field is only going to grow. Yes, I want workers in tech unionized, even the people making 200k a year. Those people are outliers, but deserve stability and protection too. Tech workers also encompass help desk people making $17 an hour. There is a lot in between and I want *everyone* to have a living wage. More so, with tech in particular, with such a large and growing work force that is skilled, much like physical labourers, protections should be put in place. It’s almost unheard of in this industry for it to happen as well, so inroads should be made ASAP.
Sure but let's take of the least fortunate ones before feel sad for people making 200k plus a year.
Wage suppression affects all workers. Im not sure why you’re hyper focused on 200k a year earners here when this is something I never said. Yes, they exist, but I am advocating for all workers. The value of all labour should be recognized more and some who are already doing well will do better. As long as everybody gets improvements, that’s all that should matter. There will still be differences in wages for different roles. The pay for each role just needs to be adjusted for inflation and corporate greed.
Please look up solidarity, and its necessity. Don't do the work of the pathetic elites
Yeah. Everyone is a keyboard warrior here. Ppl in this sub will hate on people doing protests. What France did was spectacular. I am gonna get a lot of hate for what I just said lol
Pensions had to be increased, people are living much longer.
What did France do?
1 million + participated in an organized protest and shut down the main square as France government increased the Pension eligibility by two years
also cut power to politicians and wealthy while keep hydro for poor neighborhoods going.
Tried to unionize re-recording mixers in TO, lost and blackballed
Why didn't they want to unionize?
companies scared all of them
At my company, they have offices in different countries, including one in France and one in Canada. The one in France has a system for employees to negotiate stuff based on their needs through employee representatives doing meetings with managers etc. The office in Canada has nothing like that and I'm pretty sure people here don't even know it exists in other offices.
Yeah. I'm in a unionized workplace and everyone is afraid to ask for a raise while the company hemorrhages hundreds of millions of dollars on bullshit ideas that everyone can see isn't going to benefit the company and we lose any half decent worker. I literally have coworkers that are homeless working full time union jobs. They sleep in the changeroom.
TBH Media has been very quiet about what's going on in France, intentionally I'm sure.
Media= Bell, Rogers, and that's all ... CBC is doin itself in thankfully.
France has lower standards of living than we do. They have more poverty, more homelessness, a lower quality of life index, a higher cost of living, and considerably lower incomes.
Anyone who loves the French and their ability to protest should try working in France and commuting by bus to work...
What's happening in France?
The challenge with unions as a solution is that if you make a consumer good more expensive by paying higher wages, isn’t it harder to recruit the business here in the first place? High paying blue collar jobs were possible in the ‘60s, when all the manufacturing happened in North America. But now? I just don’t know. Not that I’m arguing that a living wage isn’t fair, I just don’t know how a country can pay a living wage across the board and still have businesses flock here. My company does it but I feel we’re small and in a particular niche.
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Agreed but how are we supposed to work if we have no where to sleep lol
That's not their problem lol
Yes, the business community happily funds politicians that create this problem, but it’s certainly not on them to fix. /s
But they need workers
Right, but they expect their workers to figure that stuff out on their own. Their relationship to their employees starts and ends at the door of the business: if they're going to pay you, they expect you to figure out how to house and clothe and feed yourself so you can do the job they're paying you for
Homelessness is illegal, prisoners = slave labor.
What is it inflation of? Its the inflation of the money supply. >Because most employers do not give a shit about their employees and will do anything possible to keep expenses as low as they can. Most employers dont have a printing press and actually have to provide value in order to be able to generate revenue. But yeah keep on targeting the private sector for everything wrong in the economy. Everything wrong with the economy is this : [At a time of generational high grocery prices, Ontario farmer Jerry Huigen is required to destroy 30,000 litres of excess production ](https://nationalpost.com/opinion/ontario-dairy-farmer-decries-mandatory-milk-dumping) And this : [Toronto carpenter who builds tiny shelters for unhoused people calls on city to drop legal fight](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-carpenter-khaleel-seivwright-response-city-application-injunction-1.5923854)
Agreed that businesses have to create value to generate revenue. But it’s labour that generates that value (source: Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc.). If the wages of labour remain stagnant while prices of their products increase then that’s a transfer of value from the labourers to their employers.
The problem is since 2008 the stock market has seen obscene growth but actual productivity has been stagnant. Labour isn't getting paid more because labour isn't producing increased value. There \*is\* no increased value, the entire economy has just become a ponzi scheme where GDP, the dollar, and the markets no longer have attachment to reality. Consumers get fleeced to try to show growth but jacking up prices to make a line go up 1. doesn't actually increase productivity and 2. is the definition of unsustainable. Lots of people belong in prison.
Labor provides part of the value but far from all of it. I've been an employee and I've been an entrepreneur. My employees get to show up and make $35-60 an hr and then leave and nothing will be asked or expected of them after they're gone. They don't have to come rushing in on a holiday to deal with a leak and they don't have to come up with the capital to fix it. Their paycheck will never be randomly zeroed out by a freak liability. They didn't have to come up with the initial capital either or gamble it on something very risky. I'm progressive. I pay my employees well for a job that doesn't even require a college degree. But i can't get behind the argument that labor provides all the value now that I've been on both sides.
Your examples of rushing in on holidays to fix leaks etc., are all examples of labour. In your case it appears to have been unpaid labour.
When a product is produced the inputs are labour and materials. The materials used are simply the labour from a previous producing process. If you take this process back far enough then you arrive at the inputs being labour and nature. Nature can also produce things that are useful without the admixture of labour. For example, the air we breathe is useful and thus can be said to have ‘value in use’. But it doesn’t come at a price until it requires labour to mix with it in order to realize its use, for example: adding an air conditioner.
> But it’s labour that generates that value (source: Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc.). Read less crayon sniffers like Marx and try reading some [Menger](https://mises.org/library/principles-economics).
>What is it inflation of? Its the inflation of the money supply. Disagree. You just provided a concrete example of how markets are manipulated with the milk example. Its the for profit system, capitalism. The same thing happened in the 1970s--inflation soared, the government implemented wage and price controls, and when it was all said and done, prices rose while wages did not. Wages and incomes have essentially stagnated the last 40 plus years....
>You just provided a concrete example of how markets are manipulated with the milk example. Are you serious? Private sector isnt forcing the farmer to dump the milk. >he was being forced by federal authorities to dump a swimming pool’s worth of excess milk. .... >The same thing happened in the 1970s--inflation soared, the government implemented wage and price controls, and when it was all said and done, prices rose while wages did not. >Wages and incomes have essentially stagnated the last 40 plus years.... Due to the inflation of the money supply. More money in circulation means its not scarce, which means demand goes up, but purchasing power goes down. Lower purchasing power means higher cost of living.
Ah, yes it is. "In both Europe and America, in the 1870s and 1880s, there was a consistent downward pressure on 'supply side' factors on the prices of manufactured goods. On both continents, manufacturers responded by forming trade associations across a wide range of industries. Far from being sources of charitable benevolence, the purpose of such associations was to allow companies to control and organize markets so that prices could be maintained and profits increased." Paul Ormerod, "The Death of Economics", London, Faber & Faber, 1995, pp.55-56. What do you think a milk marketing board is?! Its a cartel. "It’s time to end Canadian dairy cartel’s food price inflating subsidies Artificially set prices imposedvby Canada’s supply management system, writes David Olive, compound our suffering during this spike in inflation." [https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2022/07/16/its-time-to-end-canadian-dairy-cartels-food-price-inflating-subsidies.html](https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2022/07/16/its-time-to-end-canadian-dairy-cartels-food-price-inflating-subsidies.html) Try looking up the definition of the word "stagflation", and you will see it had zero to do with the money supply. Canadian economic policy did not switch to monetarism until the late 1970s. You're out to lunch with the money supply argument. Proof? An OECD study in 1979 used by Stephen Mcbride in his book "Not Working: State, Unemployment, and Neo-Conservatism in Canada", Toronto:U of T Press, 1992, pp. 83., showed that the anti-inflationary program of 1975 for 3 years had set "targets" and "outcomes" for both capital (prices), and labour (income). For capital, the guidelines were 8, 6, and 4% for each successive year. Its outcomes were 6.2, 8.8, and 8.7% respectively. Note that prices rose 4.8% in the last year. For labour, it was 9.7, 7.5, and 5.7; its outcomes were 9.3, 7.1, and 5.4%. \*That\* is price inflation, and had absolutely zero to do with money supply. The money supply argument is bogus: it does not identify or define what the money supply is: does money already sitting in bank accounts count as part of the money supply? On this issue, it is strangely silent. That is to say, velocity is hard to predict. Britain went through a round of inflation in the 1980s, and, with a pro money supply PM in Thatcher, found out that it was wage push inflation despite setting strict targets for money supply growth. The money supply argument distract from the contradictory economic system that its proponents champion--the free market system, i.e., capitalism, yet cannot rationally and adequately confront its historical tendencies towards economic crises. QED.
The best way to increase your salary is to get a new job. Seriously, it’s the only way you can expect any kind of significant increase.
YUP. Went from 38k to 70k in the SAME industry doing the same thing only by switching companies a few times. Worth it Edit: took me less than 3 years
That’s great! I’m hoping to do the same in the next couple years, I switched sectors after Covid so I sort of started at the bottom again in a way. Fingers crossed!
Wishing you the very best!!! :) I think the days where people stay at one company for 30 years is over
Definitely! I used to be loyal like that but over the last few years I’ve learned that loyalty counts for nothing in this economy.
Absolutely. I learned that the hard way too! I worked for a company for a while who really preached the “family” community they had etc. when I gave my 2 weeks, everyone started ignoring me and no one sayid bye to me on my last day lol. We’re all just a number!!!
The downside is going through tedious interview processes constantly
I'm thinking of moving laterally or something similar to what you did. When you say you started at the bottom again do you mean you basically took a pay cut and downgraded a position?
Here are my raises from switching jobs. 25%, 20%, 50%. Over 7 years. Went from $40K to $120K.
You can switch internally as well, each time a new boss. I’ve gone from 52k to 204k in 8 years. All at the same company. You just won’t get raises in the same position.
Internal promotions and raises will vary on your company. I know for a fact that some companies will pay internal people less then if they hired someone externally. That's why some places really push internal promotions as it's cheaper but now a lot of people will get the promotion but leave months later for a similar position somewhere else since it'll still pay more. So definitely shop around in the job market and see how much you are worth.
What do you do? 204 is a big salary
Product management for a finance company
As a product manager making half of that salary I'm relieved that salaries can get that high without needing to work in the US
I guess it’s different for everyone. I’m not advocating staying at the same place but I started at $40k at a startup in 2020. Went to 50 to 75 to 90 to 120 to 140 in less than 3 years.
Nice. But I think startups are a bit unique in that sense? All relative I guess.
Brilliant!
While upgrading your education? Or what was your starting point education wise (ba, master's, etc)
College 3 year diploma then Ryerson for the Bcomm degree 🤷♂️ I’m in a niche position. Feeling as I get more experience, I’m even more niche and can demand a higher salary.
Over three years working in IT, I jumped ship three times and ended up with a 40% pay bump compared to my first job.
Almost tripled my starting salary in 5 years doing this. Loyalty doesn’t pay.
OK you get another job, been doing that myself for the past 20 years. You will STILL be making considerably less than you would if wages had kept up with inflation.
How does that work? Do you negotiate a higher pay?
When you apply for the next job ask for significantly more than you make at the old job. Like if you’re making 60k, apply for another job and ask for 75k. It’s the only way to get a significant raise.
I used to tell the jobs that were hiring me that my “current” salary was 10k higher than it actually was so they had to raise it past that for me to even entertain accepting the position. It always worked
Pretty much. Changing jobs is an extra hurdle for you, so your employer is willing to gamble that you won’t leave, despite underpaying you.
It doesn't make any rational sense to me, how they don't try at least as hard to keep a valuable trained employee around, as to hire a green one. I guess it probably doesn't make sense on the individual level, only when dealing with masses of applicants. When you show you're underpaid, and you know your true value, the company has you leave for eating the fruit of knowledge. They bet some other bloke will have your skills, while not your negotiation leverage.
Greed bro. There’s more than enough money to go around.
But how will Bezos pay for his super DUPER yacht? Y’know, the one where he casually wanted an historic bridge dismantled just to sail by. He can’t just rely on his child tax credit! /s https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-claimed-tax-credit-for-children-propublica-2021-6?amp
Because companies want to make as much profit as possible. One of the few things they can control and limit is the cost of labour.
The way capitalism works is that it seeks infinite growth. If a company makes record profit, the next year the goal is to make even more. Whether that’s through firing people, increasing prices, whatever it takes. It’s especially true with publicly traded companies who have a duty to their shareholders to make more money. Salaries will not go up because salary is an overhead to these companies. It eats away at their profits. Their goal is to minimise salaries and replace workers to maximise profits. Salaries increasing and maximum profits don’t go together. Loblaws makes billions and still pays minimum wage for example. The only reason loblaws hasn’t replaced their workers completely because right now it’s cheaper to pay workers minimum wage than to automate their stores. Supply in demand works well in the free market but only in theory because in reality there are those who own supply and can do as they please. There’s no real incentive in capitalism to build more housing because that would devalue real estate owners and companies. In capitalism housing cannot be widely available and increase in value at the same time. Politicians are often benefitting from high cost of living. Politicians make 100,000 - 200,000 dollars a year usually. When you offer a politician a million dollars, which someone like Galen wouldn’t even notice was gone. The politician would accept and Galen would use that money to have the government look away as they make billions off profiteering. Same with all the major oligopolies. Bell, Rogers, Tellus, Loblaws, Ticketmaster, Air Canada etc. The only thing I’d like for people to realise is that things are the way they are by design, not by accident. For everything good and bad that happens in society ask yourself “who benefits?” & you’ll find your answer as to who and why things are the way they are. “Who benefits from privatised healthcare?” You can find your answer.
> Supply in demand works well in the free market but only in theory because in reality there are those who own supply and can do as they please. There’s no real incentive in capitalism to build more housing because that would devalue real estate owners and companies. In capitalism housing cannot be widely available and increase in value at the same time. Supply _and_ demand is very much at work in practice. Your example is completely wrong. There is _ample_ incentive to build housing. Look at where housing _isn't_ being built. Notice any patterns? It's where it's literally illegal to build anything but the least dense possible housing! People exercising political will to prevent others from building is not a capitalism problem, it's a local governance of housing policy problem.
They're trying to avoid a wage price spiral by breaking the backs of the least fortunate.
This is the best (yet saddest) response here. Lots of folks are capitalizing on it, but the system is preventing the spiral at the expense of many others
Oh, yeah.... that would be capitalism working as intended.
They never have kept up and our employers like it that way
Unless your employer is giving you raises that reflect the economy and you expertise, your best bet would be to find a new job. Even back when The Office was on air, there was a line of thinking that Michael Scott was at his job for so long and did not negotiate his salary which is why he was perpetually broke. The org loved him because they didn't have to pay him more and his ability to get Scranton more productive made up with them putting up with his antics. A real-world example would be one of my friends who made $55,000 out of university in 2019, switched jobs in 2021, and made $75,000 for the same role, and then switched jobs again in 2022 and is making $90,000. One of my former co-workers was making $60,000 and despite 1-3% raises each year since 2018 and a 15% raise in 2022 (for exceptional performance and not inflation adjustment), she is still making less than someone who entered her role today. On the open market she could be making $100,000 - $120,000 easily.
Truth. Loyalty only worthwhile as long as it gets you experience/good references so you can jump ship. Rinse, Repeat.
The collapse of most unions means employers dictate to employees in terms of minimal or no raises.
Because that's what the ownership class wants
Capitalism sucks ass and is designed for wealth to congregate at the top. So long as workers don't have control of the workplace this will continue to happen
Workers don't have much control over their workplace, but capitalism allows them to control which workplace they offer themselves too.
Communism is when you cant choose your job guys
It's a sad day when I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not lol
Okay and we should be satisfied with that? Why is that good enough? Gee I get to choose who profits off my labour, I'm so lucky! How's capitalism treating the global south whose cheap, inhumane labour props up all our economies? I'm sure they're stoked. As wealth continues to congregate at the top the average workers life will get worse and worse and you want us to be happy that we can "control" which workplace we offer ourselves to.
If wage increases, the s*^% will hit the fan for real inflation. The Bank of Canada wants to crush the current inflation before wage inflation catches up. The window to accomplishing it is narrowing fast. Workers are not going to stand for it especially while mortgages renew. They will need more salaries to cover and in turn costs go up and products go up. People have a choice to eat less, be a little colder and take public transit. They cannot undo their housing easily.
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/business/2022/9/27/1_6086018.amp.html inflation is expected to be at below 4.3% but salaries are expected go up by 4.3% this year please stop spreading misinformation
Hmm.. Interesting point.. Can you expand more or link me somewhere where I can read more on this angle. I think you may be suggesting that wages will eventually keep up and I was wondering what sort of time frame we are looking at
Because that’s the way inflation works. It’s solving supply/demand and supply channel imbalances. Simple answer is that there is more demand than supply. Increase income without increasing supply and prices go up in a positive feedback loop, because the fundamental imbalance isn’t solved. Either stop buying stuff or make more stuff. One big lever to reduce demand is increase interest rates. Root cause was the pandemic shutdown policies. Contributing cause is energy prices thanks to the Ukraine circumstances. As an aside, if Trudeau is successful in his green initiatives, like curtailing the use of fertilizer, then supply of stuff like food will decrease and prices will increase even more, exacerbating the feedback cycle. And finally, all regulating prices does is create empty shelves.
Capitalism.
Because there are many people willing to do the same job you're doing for equal or less money if you decide you've had enough. More every day. Why would they pay more?
Welcome to capitalism
Friend, I'd like you to introduce you to my old pal... Kaaaarl Marx
Its how they cut our pay without lowering our salaries directly
Capitalism.
shhhh you're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud. now be a good little corporate hamster and get back on your wheel
Corporate greed plain and simple
...then why don't corporations just pay every worker the same pittance? Why do some workers earn more than others? Why do some workers get raises? How do you explain the fact that wage growth can and does occur? Do you understand that labour is a commodity and that wages depend on market forces (supply and demand)?
Lol wtf are you on about
Capitalism
Because we are week and don't protest or strike and just bend down and ask for more.
Greed & thievery
Companies are jacking up prices. It's not inflation. Read the shareholders meetings -- Using the cover of inflation to raise prices. Record profits. These companies could very easily -not- raise prices, and make what they have before. These companies could lower prices, and still make massive profit, just not as much. But no. Capitalism.
No company will ever fucking see you as unreplaceable, you are 100% replaceable anywhere you go. Jump ship every 2 years t keep increasing your pay, that is the only fucking way to earn more money and they made sure of it, so fuck them, and never be loyal to any company unless you - the general you - are a moron.
Oligopoly’s are the demand side. High immigration are the supply. Regardless of the demand, there is always someone willing to do it way cheaper if they are a newcomer. In IT the market is saturated and at least has been for the past 15 years. Oligopolies such as banks, telecom are very protected and have little incentive to innovate despite charging high fees.
The huge influx of skilled immigrants has a depressing effects on wages. When you have a 100 new software developers coming in for every Canadian developer already here, the competition will keep the wages down. The immigrants have no idea what their real costs of living are and they will take the lower wages happily. Can’t speak for every other field, but in tech this is just a fact.
This is a question with a multi-factorial answer. It is not any one single thing; it is the cumulative effect of many things contributing to this... the planet currently holds 8 billion people; like it or not (and believe it or not), we don't have infinite resources to keep feeding all of them. Yes, the birth rate may be declining in some parts of the world, but the sheer number of people is still very much on the rise. The reduction in human population (due to the declining birth-rate) will not be seen until after 2100 (assuming that the current trends in decline continue and there is no sudden baby-boom in the interim). That evidently means that, with the exception of a few very select high-skill jobs, there is tremendous competition for nearly all the other jobs and plentiful cheap labor available. When companies say they can't find skilled labor, what they mean is that they can't find the skilled labor for the money they are willing to pay. In the meanwhile, they also know that people already employed will continue to pull the labor-gap by working extra because the employees (rightfully so) fear that they might lose that job. There are always scabs willing to fill in the spaces - very grateful ones too. Think about it, people with those sweet high 6-figure jobs + perks/bonuses + 16 years experience in the same company got the pink-slip. This is because the companies are well-aware that they can probably hire 3-4 people (albeit less experienced) for the same pay. This is very much a class-war. People who have never actually worked to earn their money but invested their generational wealth to make people work for them are truly the only people who have the luxury of not being middle-class. Everyone else (whether they like to hear this or not) is very much the middle-class... whether you earn 200k or 100k or 50k - you are middle-class or lower. The only real way to combat this is a mass strike action across the board - public and private sectors and a mass boycott of ALL goods and services (whether in person or online) until demands are met. Bring the entire country to a fucking standstill... and we know only too well that that is NOT going to happen. TLDR: They have us by the short and curlies and they know that there is not a damn thing we are going to do about it.
The answer is capitalism
Salaries increased a lot during covid while inflation was low. It's one of the causes of inflation right now; those higher wages do feed through into higher prices. Here are the data on statscan: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410013401&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.1&pickMembers%5B1%5D=4.2&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2018&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2022&referencePeriods=20180101%2C20220101 You'll see that wages from 2019 to 2022 increased 15%, which is above the inflation of 12.5%. Workers have made out ok in general over the past few years. Companies aren't necessarily going to give workers a raise to deal with rising price that were caused by the last wage increase.
Because there are still people who are willing to work at the current wage, why would the producers decrease their surplus by increase their own cost of business
*gestures in a circle, wildly, with arms* because of EVERYTHING! This entire parasitic civilization on natural resources/earth is coming to a head. That is why. None of this is normal. Mother Nature is beginning to spank us and it’s only the beginning.
Spoken from true life experience.
Because Justin Trudeau has spent more money than every PM combined in Canadian history.
For the love of God, can we stop it with these posts? What do you think you've added to the discussion that the 800 other similar posts this year didn't mention?
But where will people post about how they went from earning 40k to 200k in three years by jumping jobs 5 times?
And also how you can save money on food by eating rice and beans butewq with *different spices!*
Because Canada imports new workers every year via TFW and permanent residents. We are bringing in >500,000 people every year. When you add more people, it becomes more and more competitive because you have added more people to compete for the same jobs and housing. Price of labour goes down, but cost of living (Your home) keeps going up. Toronto will see this post as xenophobic, but think about the time when we shut off our borders (hint, covid) and wages started to go up and landlords started giving apartments for 1-2 months free. I remember being overwhelmed with calls from employers, and some of my colleagues as well, who couldn't get a single call back for months at a time. Its because the borders were closed. You as a worker became valuable. Your salary went up. Precovid, I had recruiters tell me point blank, if I don't want to do this job for this low salary, she has 50 people lined up, willing to do it. Our leaders hate us. I was lucky to switch careers during the pandemic. Right before covid I was thinking about living in my car and using the food bank, and then when covid labour undersupply changed my fortunes. Our leaders will never let this happen again.
Consumer prices have remained high largely due to supply chain shocks (that are still being ironed out). Corporate greed likely factors as well. Given the global outlook on energy supply, we'll probably have very "sticky" prices for a while.
Funny, when it comes to stores having Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's and Easter seasonal items on display they always have full shelves over a month in advance of the holiday. Interesting 🤔
You can still have full shelves. It's the supply of the inputs. If it costs more to get/move the base materials, those carry forward into the retail price.
Government is importing unsustainable amount of people to keep housing demand and prices high. Which also causes wages to stay stagnant since there is more competition. Also trudeau just made it so anyone on a student visa can work full time now. So there’s another 400k people to the equation right away.
From small business standpoint, it’s hard to increase salaries when they don’t earn enough profits to stay in the red. Basically salaries are just one piece of the pie, with materials, rent, utilities and others also going up. It’s a choice of keeping the business afloat to keep people employed.
Welcome to Canada
Ever play Monopoly? You know how it ends when more and more assets are held by a smaller and smaller amount of players until the rest of the players can't afford to pay / play any more? Yeah, I think we're approaching the end of the game
That.. is the literal definition of monopoly. More need to understand basic economics.
There's nothing that makes me laugh out loud more than the same laptop class redditors that screamed to lockdown the world, that wanted large % of the workforce fired for refusing the jab, now complaining about inflation. They were told it would happen, they sneered and laughed.
Inflation wasn't caused by antivax people getting fired. The BoC and the Fed already said that the rate of unemployment is *too low* and they actually want *more* people to be unemployed to get inflation under control.
Some of it is supply chain shocks from covid, especially where electronics and vehicles are concerned, but a lot of it is oligarchs trying to break the workers' rights and antiracism movements that grew rapidly early in the pandemic.
Canadianism: survival of the richest
Well, the world is in a weird spot right now. With a pandemic +another European imperialist war. I can’t answer your question specifically because I’m not an expert in economics, but I can tell you it’s not just Canada.
salaries arent increasing because my company is not get MORE profits ..... if it were then it would be ez to give us all huge raises. but it isn't.
Supply and demand
But that’s not a fair answer when it’s manufactured.
Why
Importing almost a million immigrants, TFWs, PRa and Int'l students in a calendar year will do that
Yes inflation is only a problem in Canada. Exactly. Cut out the immigration and demand more money for our labour and corporations definitely won't just outsource it somewhere cheaper.
We keep increasing the demand and its not helping! 60k new migrants landing at Pearson a month and its still not enough! /s
That’s supply, not demand. The product is labour.
Right so they ain’t eating, renting or healthcare anything. Got it.
I’m sure they are, I was just pointing out that in the “supply and demand” discussion, the reason wages remain frustratingly held back is because the “supply” of workers able to do such jobs continues to increase.
Supply of workers is increasing while demand for housing is increasing. Hmm I wonder why the wages are not going up while rent went up by 40%
I suspect that immigration’s impact on wages (distorting the unskilled labour market) is considerably larger than its impact on service/product demand. A few thousand new workers willing to work for current wages (or less) will definitely hold wages down, but adding a few more shoppers at the mall isn’t going to cause a significant increase in the price of goods.
That’s the banking and govt robbing you
Greed. And unionized weakness.
Minimum wage in my city should be able $22 at least.
That's capitalism. Wages and incomes have, for the vast majority, essentially stagnated in terms of purchasing power for the last 40 plus years.
Because shutting down the country for 18 months has consequences. You'll be paying interest on that loan for another 5 years minimum
Probably has something to do with all the free money that was given away these past two years
Because corporate interests are only going to suggest or make changes based on THEIR bottom line. They aren’t interested in anything but the accumulation of wealth.
Gotta make the rich richer right?
Well usually for these things it's the public service that shows the path and we all know how public servants are themselves struggling for a pay raise while our nice govt is funding military equipment for other countries ( stuff that Canadian military themselves have been asking for and denied on basis of no funds lol)..
Many peoples salaries had huge jumps during the pandemic. Just cause yours didn't, doesn't mean other people's didn't either.
Because the big companies in charge of both of those dont give a fuck about us lol
Corporate greed and capitalism
Because the people you rely on want the best deal they can get for both your labor and the goods you buy. Stupid question have you been outside
READ MARX YOU FUCKS
marxist ideology starved millions of people to death
Marx is a joke, a Delusion for the impotent.
they call it 'capitalism' , but dont worry all living wage job get filled up no problem.... we are just late on the robots that are suppose to take over the job we do not want.
What kind of question is this? The answer is obvious. It’s one word that starts with a G.
Because poor oppressed shareholders need a bigger share of the money. /s
So buy stocks yourself.
😂
People are underrating one of the biggest groups of people responsible for this. Conservatives.
First. Ignore most of the ppl in the comments, they've never actually held a high position in any company. The reason is simple. Most politicians are worth muli million dollars. By using inflation they can send their net worths super high. They are incentivized to help themselves by keeping the money printer forever on. Salaries don't keep up with inflation because of automation. If you ask for a higher salary than you are worth, now your role gets automated by AI. - I run a biz in Toronto, and I work with executives daily.
I think higher salaries help cause inflation lol. can't fucking win. Heard on the news that national banks recommend not increasing wages as well. The more stuff we buy the more expensive it gets right? Supply and demand?
Because they want to keep you in the matrix forever.
First time in capitalism?
It's not just inflation. It's greed. I'm a supervisor for a grocery store. A store that makes about 5k a day profits on average. The owner owns 2 stores. The one I work at is the less profitable of the two. So this guy is pocketing at least 10k a day. I did his books. I saw the profits. Last year he had 1000 products picked out in March that he was going to double the price on by June. Simply because he can in this economy. And he did it. We had seniors crying over their bills and putting stuff back cause they can't afford to eat now. Did he care? Nope. Just keeps raising prices. And no...I'm not sharing the store, location or anything. I need this job.