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 state 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.
Currently in the United States there are laws that mandate what
benefits if any need to be provided for employees. While they don’t
have to provide health benefits to their employees if there are under
50 employees, if they have more than 50, companies who don’t offer
them are fined by the IRS. Even with these laws in regard to what if
any benefits a company has to offer their employees, currently there
aren’t any laws mandating that employers have to give their
employees sick time; this can create a negative and unhealthy work
environment. Benefits as well as paid sick days are all helpful when it
comes to retaining and attracting workers. c
So why would a company not offer these benefits that are used to
attract and retain offers. Most often it comes down to cost, especially
in terms of sick pay. While the benefits to offering paid day off for
illness include a healthier work environment for all, but also less stress
in the long run for the employee. Studies have shown that “Two days
of unpaid sick time are roughly the equivalent of a month’s worth of
gas, making it difficult to get to work” (Gould & Schieder, 2017). This
amount of struggle for the employee goes up for every day they are
unable to work due to illness. Missing as many as 7 days of work,
could mean wondering how you are going to keep a roof over your
head because they may not have enough to pay a rent or mortgage.
While paying workers to stay home when they are ill, seems like a
huge loss financially to a company, there are financial benefits to be
gained in the long run. When a company does not offer paid sick time,
but another business in the vicinity does, this could be costly in
training new employees. By offering these sick days, companies can
save in the long run “Paid sick days reduce turnover, which leads to
reduced costs incurred from advertising, interviewing and training
new hires” (National Partnership for Women & Families, 2020).
It seems silly not to offer paid sick days and benefits to employees.
Cost savings in the long run, and corporate culture would improve
dramatically. This was proven by Tony Hsieh with his company
Zappos. Though his board of directors thought how he treated his
employees was a mere “social experiment” (Hsieh, 2020), it proved to
be vital to the organization’s success and growth. To determine how
successful a business can be, matters such as employee benefits
greatly improve the triple bottom line.
Employee training is considered a crucial part of any business.
Without the proper training or even any training at all, some
businesses could fail due to poor employee performance. With so
much being invested in employee training, you might be surprised to learn
that nearly 90% of new skills are lost and forgotten within a year (Why
Employee Training Fails, 2019). So why do we invest so much money
and time into something that could potentially fail? No organization is
immune to training challenges. And of course, no two organizations will
struggle with the same set of challenges — the hurdles any L&D team faces
change as the size of the business increases and as its growth accelerates
(Why Employee Training Fails, 2019). There are many different factors
out there that can cause a business to have limited training or even
have some of their training fail.
Here are the top 7 reason’s that training can fail for a business. There
is limited time and competing priorities, lack of interest, limited budget
and training resources, information overload, lack of planning and
poor timing, neglecting what happens after training, and relying on
technology to do the work for you. Of course, not all of these reasons
can cause failure and all of them do have ways to be corrected to
avoid failing. While there is no silver bullet for getting employees more
engaged in training, strategically marketing your training programs to
employees and getting support from managers across the business will go
a long way. Employees need to see how the training benefits them, so it
doesn’t get pushed to the bottom of their priority list (Why Employee
Training Fails, 2019). To me that seems to be one of the key things to
get employees engaged in training. Also making training more flexible
to employees. Limiting how much information is given to an employee
during training can also ease tension of possible information overload.
But most importantly, following up after training. Design follow-up
activities and testing that reinforce learned skills after the training ends.
Also be sure to make training materials available to employees through a
central knowledge base so they can reference training they may have
forgotten when they are ready to apply it (Why Employee Training Fails,
2019).
Sometimes it’s the small things that can make or break a business.
Training can be both small and big for a company, depending on their
size. Making sure employees have enough of training and proper
training leads to a well-oiled machine. This in turn will benefit not only
the company, but the employees, customers, and community.
For this discussion I am choosing the effects of minimal employee benefits,
little paid time off or sick time availability.
General factors that could contribute to an organization choosing to implement
these practices could include a company wanting to save money by not paying
or sick or vacation time or providing minimal coverage. Another reason could
be lack of trust that employees would abuse the policies.
Negative repercussions of this practice could be high turn-over, not attracting
good talent to your company, employees not feeling valued, cared for, or cared
about. The company could get a reputation for not treating its employees well
which could not only impact the employees, but customers could decide not to
do business with a company that doesn’t take care of their employees.
By changing this practice and providing adequate time off for vacation, sick
time or personal leave gives employees a sense of security and a feeling that the
company cares about them personally. Employees that feel valued often are
more productive and motivated to do a good job and make sure the job is done
well not just done. People will often instinctually take care of who or what
takes care of them. They would attract employees who have better skills and
will stay with and grow with the company. Also, if customers know that a
business treats its employees well, they may be more apt to do business with
that company.
The topic I decided to discuss is why employee pay is low. Not
everyone in America gets a small paycheck, but the difference
between how much lower-end workers make compared to higher-end
workers is staggering. Some of the major reasons for lower-end
workers making so little is “supply and demand, scalability, and power
differential.” (Ingraham, 2020). America is all about paying more for
advanced specialized work. This leaves essential workers with jobs
that take little skill, to struggle financially. “The enormous discretion
American bosses have to dictate take-it-or-leave-it terms to
dependent workers is the core reason our ‘essential’ workforce is in
such dire straits.” (Ingraham, 2020).
All of these and more can lead to some negative repercussions for the
parties involved. For example, it can lead to lower morale for
employees, higher turnover rate, lower-quality workers hired for the
business, and the community can be worsened. “Low wages are
associated with increased stress, low self-esteem, and a greater
tendency to engage in unhealthy behaviors like smoking. The health
effects of low wages become a vicious cycle, in which poor health
hinders employment and income growth.” (Yarrow, 2018). Businesses
are willing to deal with these negative repercussions because they
would rather pursue higher profits than make their employees happier
with higher wages.
However, there are some positive repercussions for businesses that
incorporate a people-friendly practice. For example, they boost
morale for employees, give employees more reasonable pay, bring in
higher quality employees, lower turnover rate, and give a brighter
outlook on the community. “A minimum wage increase can improve
the productivity of a given firm’s workforce because higher wages
reduce turnover. In fact, there is strong empirical evidence that higher
minimum wages lead to more stable and experienced workforces.”
(Helper, 2021). In conclusion, there are different positive and negative
repercussions that businesses have to consider when deciding what
wages they should pay their employees. Lower wages entail lower
morale for employees and potentially higher profit for the company,
but higher wages entail higher morale for employees and potentially
lower profit for the company.
Helper, S. (2021, April 1). Businesses can thrive with a higher minimum
wage, and government can help. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved
from https://www.epi.org/blog/businesses-can-thrive-with-a-higher-
minimum-wage-and-government-can-help/
Ingraham, C. (2020, April 6). Analysis | why many 'essential' workers get
paid so little, according to experts. The Washington Post. Retrieved
from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/06/why-
do-so-many-essential-workers-get-paid-so-little-heres-what-
economists-have-say/
Yarrow, A. (2018, July 20). How low wages hurt families and perpetuate
poverty. Coalition on Human Needs. Retrieved from
https://www.chn.org/voices/how-low-wages-hurt-families-and-
perpetuate-poverty/
Why Employee Training Fails and How to Prevent it in your
organization. (July 24, 2019). https://www.panopto.com/blog/why-
employee-training-fails/
Gould, E., & Schieder, J. (2017, June 28). Work sick or lose pay? The high
cost of being sick when you don’t get paid sick days. Economic Policy
Institute. Retrieved January 13, 2022, from
https://www.epi.org/publication/work-sick-or-lose-pay-the-high-
cost-of-being-sick-when-you-dont-get-paid-sick-days/
Hsieh, T. (2020). Why I sold Zappos. In People, planet, and profit.
Soomo Learning. https://www.webtexts.com (Reprinted from “Why I
sold Zappos,” 2010, Inc.)
Johnson, J. (n.d.). Employee Benefits 101: What to Offer and How to
Decide. U.S. Chambers of Commerce. Retrieved January 13, 2022,
from https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/human-
resources/choosing-employee-benefits
Paid Sick Days Are Good for Business. National Partnership for Women
& Families. (2020, October 20). Retrieved January 13, 2022, from
https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-
work/resources/economic-justice/paid-sick-days/paid-sick-days-
good-for-business-and-workers.pdf
Soomo Learning. (2020). People, planet, and profit.
https://www.webtexts.com
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%20cas
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