348
Sony and Bandai Namco abolish employee bonuses in favor of raising average salaries
(automaton-media.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Companies can make a lot of money + pay shareholders without ever declaring profits. Look at Amazon for a case of weird accounting.
More generally, I also disagree with this idea because the incentives to become an employer would be decreased and ultimately it's the business owners who are taking risks.
What if instead of zero profits, all employees are paid in part via some amount of ownership stake in any company?
My issue with the "we take all the risk, tho!" argument is that I'm never even allowed to take the risk, too. For example, my current company is small, compensation has grown disappointing after we were acquired by VC, and there is no pathway for me to begin purchasing any kind of ownership stake. We're just the labor, despite all of us having been here longer than the new owner, in many cases having been here to build the thing the new owners bought.
So it must be pretty damn attractive, actually, for those at the top to continually offer that to one another, while withholding it from anyone below executive leadership. I'm pretty tired of hearing it as a justification when those "taking all the risk" end up doing so goddamn well, and the rest of us are locked out of it in the first place. It's just abusive language we've all internalized.
Edit to add: ya know, it was probably easier to swallow and originated in the prior eras, where a steady paycheck was a safe and stable way to go through life. These days being an underpaid wage slave is far riskier than being any kind of investor. I don't think "all the risk" is even meaningful or remotely accurate anymore.
I don't understand why you can't set up your own business if you want to take the risk yourself.
Like going to the bank and asking for a loan to start a new business would be the textbook example of taking on risk.
That's a super naive understanding of how it works to "setup a business", outside of I guess a sole-proprietor tiny little situation.
And regardless - let me ask you, why must it be all or nothing? Under your scenario, I either take all of the risk myself by founding the business, or I am strictly paid in dollars by someone who did, and nothing in between - but why? What's the argument that this is a good way to do things? Am I not taking some risk by buying into the company I work for? Why is that only an option for the very top of the company? Because "risk" is a misnomer that focuses on the wrong part, and actually it's freaking great to have a true stake in your place of employment?
I'm not arguing that it's impossible to start a business, or to work and scrape and get lucky and transition into the ownership class in some small capacity. I'm saying having only a few people have true skin in the game for any business is frickin stupid, a bad way to do things, likely to produce half-hearted efforts from employees, and guaranteed to produce the extreme wealth inequality we see today.
Edit: bit more detail on my preferred approach
I was referring to a sole proprieter situation. Like I'm a web dev and I could start a PLC, then I could work on a contract basis with whomever I wanted to. At that point I am assuming risk in terms of choosing the correct clients to get involved with and receiving increased financial renumeration.
You're not really engaging with my points or questions so I'm gonna move on. I understand how the current situation works quite well, having been involved in many businesses in many different roles throughout my life. Most of us agree the way things work today is awful. I was here to explore fruitful changes to make to the status quo. Not to be told how one can, in fact, seek risk through the joys of sole proprietorship.
Cheers, have a good weekend.
Ok happy to agree to disagree. Have a nice weekend too!