“That’s unacceptable.”
One of the sideways parts of my brain—parts that are always going off laterally when I’m trying to think linearly—notes how frequently I’ve said that sentence in the past few months.
I’m mid-conversation with a young woman at a retail store. She’s disenchanted with the labour demanded of her, and when I ask if the measly 10 per cent staff discount the billion-dollar conglomerate she works for inspires her to shop at that store, she laughs.
“I can’t,” she says. Simply, but not sadly. She’s accustomed to this: exploitation in return for a pittance, and none of the perks that her managers and their parents grew up with.
I tell her that Shoppers Drug Mart staff get a 30 per cent store discount, and she’s shocked. We both realize how little she would need to feel appreciated at her job. But she doesn’t see her power because she’s been lied to about who earns the profit. The line grows behind me and she calls to a retreating manager that she needs help at the cash.
I do the only thing I know how to do in situations like this: I make eye contact, I tell her it shouldn’t be this way, and I don’t waste her time.
It’s unacceptable.
Income disparity is growing in ways that are literally setting off alarm bells all over the planet. My own management at the women’s shelter uses the phrase “churnover” to describe the difficulty in hiring and retaining new staff. We are burning out just as the planet is burning up. We’re in trouble, friends.
It’s actually kind of stupid for corporations to not offer higher employee discounts—the idea has always been to make sure that your staff, who are contained within your walls for up to a third of their hours in existence, take the money you (under)pay them and spend it on the products they spend all day ringing up.
When the discounts are low, employees see no reason to spend their money in that store, especially if they feel unappreciated or abused. As this young woman noted, “It doesn’t even cover tax.” Where are the perks?
All over town I see perky little signs in the store windows. “Join our team!” Short descriptions of what will be expected of you and testimonials from Definitely Real Employees describing how much they love the job they want you to apply for. But what are the perks? Is being part of a team enough?
Well, I’m back reading comments on Facebook, I’m sorry to say. And every time a job posting comes up, there are people asking how much it pays. I love to see this. It is a tool of the money-hoarding classes to discourage us plebs from discussing how much money we make—and how much money they make off us. This small rebellion is actually quite revolutionary. Working-class people are saying, ‘I will not be silent about the financial harms done to me and my community.’ I see them, I feel them, and it’s not acceptable.
We are opening up the conversation about income, and it isn’t pretty. But it’s necessary—we all need to know what’s at stake.
People are done talking about minimum wage. We’re not even that convinced about a living wage anymore. We are waking each other up to the undeniable fact that we only get one life on this beautiful, beleaguered planet, and that there is enough money and water and housing and food and love to make sure each and every one of us can have a life in which we thrive. So if we are stuck talking about money, now let’s demand a thriving wage.
In Canada, scarcity is fake. There is enough to go around. But some people aren’t sharing, and that’s not okay. Nobody earns a billion dollars—that money is made off the back of the workforce. Which makes it theft. And it is not acceptable.
So when you see a little sign subtly pleading you to “Join Our Team!”, ask them, what are the perks? What will they do for you? How much will they pay you? What about benefits? What about equity and fairness and safety? What about your wellbeing? What’s in it for you?
I think we’ve all been waiting for this moment. A time in which the people have the power. Think about almost any department in any box store right now—there are keystone people holding the entire place together. It might even be you. That’s power. You may need that job, but your boss needs you more. I want to see them negotiate. I want to see epic offers. I want to see co-operatives and unions and incentives and creative ways to make sure people love their work. I want to see work, work for us.
Because the time of wringing every ounce of labour out the workforce until there’s nothing left is ending. It’s our turn now.
The tables are turning, and it’s time they are set with enough food for everyone who sits down to eat.
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Kathleen May is a writer, speaker, and activist. Her column, She Speaks, has appeared in the Huntsville Doppler since 2018. Her work in our community includes co-founding the long-running Huntsville Women’s Group, volunteering with Muskoka Parry Sound Sexual Assault Services, and her role as a front-line counsellor at the women’s shelter. Kathleen is a 2018 Woman of Distinction for Social Activism and Community Development. She was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize, short-listed for the 2019 CBC Nonfiction Prize, and received the Best Author award for her 2018 submission at the Muskoka Novel Marathon, a fundraiser for literacy services. When she isn’t writing, she’s designing a tiny house which she intends to be the impetus for a sustainable women’s land co-operative in Muskoka.
I suppose I am of an age and can remember as LaNor Lovegrove does, when a days work was deserving of a days pay. Nothing more and nothing less, though sometimes there was an ‘attaboy’ thrown in. My parents and grandparents worked to make a living, not so much a profit; possibly saving a little extra to augment their pension in retirement.
My generation searched for a job that paid well, might allow us to save a bit and would supply a pension once we retired. If we achieved that, we felt we had been successful. If you didn’t supply that days work, employers would show you ‘the sign over the door’, which said EMPLOYEES ONLY.
In the 60’s, when I went looking for employment, those types of jobs were plentiful. I took a job with Trans Canada Airlines. I was to start training as a purser but called and cancelled when I found a job with Northern Electric that I could start 3 days earlier. But it was still expected that I would do the work and to the best of my ability.
Some of todays businesses show little loyalty toward the people who work for them and none for their customers, encouraging those customers to work for free (do your own check-out). They hope to do away with employee and are asking us to help.
There are those in possession of obscene amounts of wealth; Bezos (US), Musk (SA), Mordashov (RUS), Ma (CH) and others. You wonder at the necessity of such vast wealth; in the end it will afford them no deeper a hole nor bigger a box than those who laboured for them.
Where the pendulum swings from here is anyones guess.
Bob Dylan wrote that times were changing, and they still are, but it should be understood that both sides have to give, to get.
Kathleen, such a well written article. I cannot say it better than Gordon has written and appreciate the tap analogy.
Thanks for sharing your great insights!!!
We have a major problem here and I sure don’t have the answer but what I do know is if employers start paying a lot more with benefits and all that stuff. They will have to raise prices on whatever good or services they are selling. This will inturn put up the cost of living groceries will cost more the trip to the restaurant will cost more. Most businesses have a lot of money invested in their business and should be able to get an honest return or what is the use of them taking the chance or doing all the work that is required to run a business this is the part no one sees except the ones doing the work. Just the paperwork that the Govt requires now would shock most people if they new about it. Like I said I have no idea what the solution is workers need more money but if they get it everything is going to cost more so do they gain anything.
Marvellous piece, Kathleen!
We have a wealth imbalance, there’s no doubt about that. And while it may be difficult for “mom and pop” businesses to thrust their employees towards an income bracket that can provide them with as comfortable means as possible, it’s also pretty difficult to understand why Amazon warehouse workers have to grind out a living while their CEO is enjoying billion dollar jaunts into space with former Star Trek captains.
Anyone willing to put in a 40-hour workweek should be able to afford a small house, a car, dinner at a restaurant a couple of days a month, and even have a little left over to deposit into a savings account. When that 40 hours of work per week is only enough to barely make ends meet (with the added assistance of a food bank visit) we have a massive problem…
… and that problem might be coming to a peak. Minimum wage is modern slavery. A lot of people are at the point where it’s beginning to feel easier to surrender to the wolves rather than fight the neverending battle of keeping the wolves at bay.
The “trickle down” is barely a drip at this point. When people begin to decide it’s not worth working for the drip, maybe it’s time those at the top opened the faucets.
Here’s a thought.
The Galen Weston family owns and indirectly runs Loblaws. We’ve got a Loblaws in Huntsville that is staffed with locals. What sort of salary and benefits do they get? Sick leave? Pensions? I think that maybe they are pretty good for around here but I’m not sure.
The Westin family are the third wealthiest in Canada. They are valued at US$8.7 billion, and that is CDN$10.9 billion net worth.
If you had CDN$10.9 billion and you invested it at 5% you’d make CDN$540 million annually which is around $10,000,000 every week. Maybe they could take even better care of their staff and do better themselves. I bet Canadians would like to see that and more of us would shop there. Win win win.
Just saying.
I see your point and totally agree that everyone should be able to receive a liveable wage for a forty hour work week. Yes, to be encouraged and appreciated by your employer.
But, there are two sides to this story as there are to most. A good days pay is only owed for a good days work. I have been around for over eighty two years and been on the work force, off and on, for about seventy of those years. I’ve done everything from being a food server restaurants and fast food places, office worker, bank teller, a bookkeeper for a small business and enjoyed retail sales among other things.
I have seen the work force change through these years and heard my kids say what it’s like to work with some of the workers of today. There has been a huge change in the employers and the employees. Neither in my opinion for the better.
When I think back I remember some of our employers saying things to us like, “I just heard you talking to that customer. You handled that situation well” or “keep up the good work”. But, we deserved it. If we thought by staying later after hours we could get a small job finished, we would. No overtime then where I worked. We never missed a day because we had the sniffles or were out late partying the night before. If the boss asked us to get them a coffee we didn’t say, “that’s not what I was hired for”, we gladly went and got it. Hard, honest work was a given. Of course this wasn’t all employers or all employees. But, was inclined to be the “norm”.
As I said at the beginning there are two sides to every story. As I see it today, both sides need to make a lot of changes. Respect, each for the other is what’s needed. Not likely to happen is it. The one side will be too determined to blame the other side.
All I can say is If you want to be on the other side then start your own business and then see just how much each employee costs that no one sees. That being said there are a lot of big box stores as well as other businesses that try to keep their employees in as low a income bracket as they possibly can. But a lot pay as well as they can and still make a profit. If there is no profit there is no business and no jobs simple as that, There is always two sides to every story.
Sorry Kathleen, but I feel that people have ALWAYS HAD THE POWER, and the first place to display it is within ourselves, not sitting around complaining and doing nothing but revving up the masses instead of helping them to find specific routes to take to rectify the situation. Take a close look at yourselves and see where you really want to be in any work force, then see how to qualify by simply checking out the route that some people took to get there, or the required effort to join them. Seems impossible? It isn’t….there are all kinds of financial aids available, even within the company for whom you now work. Look up courses that are available to help you advance, and sign up for them, again, often with help from your existing job sources. If they are not available to you from within, do it on your own! It will look great on your resume when you have completed them, and some company will recognize your efforts and potential, and snatch you up. Too often it is easier to moan and do nothing, or listen to those who fire you up, then sit back and watch from the sidelines. Have faith in yourself, not others, and follow your own path to the success YOU want at your speed! A lot of wealthy people started at the bottom, followed their own ideals, worked their way up, lived their dream and offered it to others within their companies…THIS IS NOT THEFT…IT IS INSTEAD, OPPORTUNITY! GO FOR IT.