Unfortunately, many businesses engage in business practices that are
not considerate of employees and communities. One of the most
offensive of these bad business practices are paying employees low
wages. While there may be many reasons that a company may decide
to pay minimum pay, one of the leading factors is maximizing profits.
Many companies, Apple for instance, take the increased profits and
redistribute it to shareholders instead of putting that money back
into its employees. Decisions like this can benefit the company but
does not benefit the employee.
This can lead to some potential negative repercussions on employees
and the local community. Employees can suffer from stress and anger
due to not being able to cover basic expenses. It also puts the local
community at a disadvantage when consumers cannot afford to buy
items that are not considered necessary. When consumers are not
able to support the local community businesses, they will be forced
to eventually close. This can be devastating to the community as a
whole. It can also lead to bad publicity for a company if employees
are able to bring attention to the problem. Recently, we have seen
workers in low paying positions take a stand and boycott for
increased wages and better working conditions such as the recent
food service workers boycotts. A quote about it from a recent article
states that, " McDonald’s workers in 15 states are also demanding
union representation. They will be going on strike on May 19 before
the annual shareholder meeting to demand a $15 hourly wage and
union representation for cooks and cashiers. In 2020, McDonald’s
earned almost $5 billion in profits and workers are demanding that
they get their share. " (Alfonseca, 2021) Issues like this do not fare
well for most companies and often leads to a compromise.
If a more companies paid their employees a better wage it could
benefit not only the local economy, but it could benefit the national
economy as well. Being able to comfortably afford basic expenses
and also have disposable income has also stimulated our economy. If
we were all able to live comfortably, we could all be better
consumers and companies could also see better profits. It is in the
best interest not only economically, but ethically to pay employees
better wages.
Alfonseca, K. (2021, May 11). Restaurant workers protest poor working
conditions and low wages at McDonald's, Chipotle, and more amid
coronavirus pandemic. ABC News. Retrieved January 11, 2022,
from https://abcnews.go.com/US/restaurant-workers-protest-poor-
working-conditions-low-wages/story?
id=77599754#:~:text=McDonald%27s%20employees%20protest
%20outside%20their%20workplace%20on%20April,wage%20and
%20union%20representation%20for%20cooks%20and%20cashiers.
