The Compatibility Of Profits And Livable Compensation

There is only way a company or employer can trample on someone that they cannot be subjected to outside of a job: compensation.  Slander, deception, racism, sexism, ageism, sexual assault, physical cruelty, and neglect can all be practiced outside of a workplace context, but only in the context of a job of some sort is someone paid for effort (or alleged effort).  While many people might not realize that compensation in its various forms is the only way a company can mistreat someone that cannot be found outside of the workplace, it is not difficult to realize the truth that work is about exchanging labor for pay.  There is no other default reason to work and to have someone professionally endeavor on one's behalf without paying the adequately is irrationality and oppression.

Businesses do not cripple their ability to amass profit simply because they pay their employees more than the smallest amount they can legally or pragmatically get away with.  Yes, there might be some situations where they do not make as much profit, as a higher amount of their revenue is directed towards employee compensation, but worker motivation, workplace appeal, and perhaps even positive reputation can be better secured through this, all of which at least does not hinder a company and in fact makes it easier for people to want to work there or do business with the organization.  Employees who are not overwhelmed by financial despair and the many other kinds of problems that can stem from this (medical, emotional, and social problems, for instance) are of course more likely to want to perform well, recommend their company to workers and consumers, and not have any need or desire to fight with their company management.

All of this, of course, removes unnecessary obstacles to corporate profits that would be deserved if the working environment was not set up to treat employees well.  Oppressive companies would not have quite as many moral, legal, or general social problems to deal with if they did not trample on employees or consumers.  Pragmatic successes and conveniences are meaningless and even evil if they come about by immoral means, not that people driven by greed care about reason and morality--or not enough to stop yielding to the stupidity, arrogance, and pointlessness of greed.  While pragmatism that is contrary to morality is irrational and evil, many people are irrationalists and will only believe or do whatever is subjectively appealing or persuasive in the moment.

Irregardless, if it is morally obligatory to pay workers livable wages or better, but never anything less than this, then it does not matter if a company will no longer be profitable or as successful as it could be if more revenue was kept from employees.  What is morally good and required is not always the same as what is easy or convenient, but it would be morally required all the same.  It is just that there is nothing about paying employees well that automatically excludes profits, even massive profits, because there is no contradiction on a conceptual or pragmatic level to pursuing both.  Companies need profit to be worth the investment; employees need livable wages or salaries to be treated justly by employers.  Both need something from the other, and both could treat the other with hypocrisy, selfishness, and malice.

There is less an employee can do, however, to prevent himself or herself from being underpaid or exploited in other ways than an employer can do about a vile employee.  Some who have or crave power might even just want the illusion of actually being over a person as if they were a deity whose whims are the measure of justice.  Indeed, so many workplace norms would disappear if companies were not managed in such a way as to be about satisfying the egos of fools with power as much or more as they are about profit.  In fact, egoism is sometimes at odds with the goal of making profits as it is, for egoistic satisfaction or delusion can so easily drive away employees, blind someone to the flaws of a business style, or convince someone to embrace lies.  Even though profits and treating employees well, with just compensation being a major component of this, selfishness can sabotage the effectiveness of a company in grasping both.