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Comment by cocacola1 | Hacker News Reader

> Not all solutions require monetary compensation. Employers often overlook what employees find rewarding. This is where a culture of curiosity becomes invaluable—simply asking employees what motivates and empowers them can reveal unexpected insights. Acts like acknowledging sacrifices, allowing flexibility for parenting emergencies, or offering an afternoon off after a rough day can build goodwill and strengthen the employer-employee relationship.

This reminds me of that recent SNL skit where Nate Bargatze plays George Washington and when Keenan Thompson asks him about the slaves, he changes the topic hastily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk

What employees want is money. All that extra stuff is nice, in addition to more money for their work.

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> All that extra stuff is nice, in addition to more money for their work

Given the choice, plenty of people choose fewer hours for less money. Money is part of it. But people will gladly work for a better company in exchange for less money and no be getting screwed for it.

> Given the choice, plenty of people choose fewer hours for less money.

Provided you are making enough in the first place.

Many people are just living paycheque-to-paycheque, even with good budgeting and no frivolous expenditures, and a lower-paying job for less stress just isn’t possible. In that case, more money is the answer.

Plus, if wages had kept up with productivity, most people currently earning $50k/yr would really be making over $150k/yr for the exact same work and with all the exact same costs and expenses of life.

Where did all this extra money go? Look up. Waaaay up, to the very top.

Yup, current abysmally-low wages are the only reason why billionaires even exist.

> Provided you are making enough in the first place

Fair enough.

> most people currently earning $50k/yr would really be making over $150k/yr for the exact same work

I’m sceptical. You’d automate a lot of jobs before that.

> current abysmally-low wages are the only reason why billionaires even exist

Trivially falsifiable, or tautological enough to be unfalsifiable. Villains are convenient. But fictional villains don’t animate against you. We can fix income inequality a great deal without declaring war on one class or another.

> I’m sceptical. You’d automate a lot of jobs before that.

That could happen. All automation is made by labor. Then the capitalists who by definition own the means of production can fire people since they own the automation that labor created. And why wouldn’t they? It’s in their own rational self-interest.

There’s the seed for class war right there.

Maybe you are a billionaire or not paying attention to trends for the average person. Not sure, but Billionaire's are at war with the population, so why shouldn’t the population fight back? By the way, the population fighting back will do the billionaire’s a favor as the current distribution of assets is at unprecedented levels. The backlash is inevitable and let’s hope things turn around quickly before AI advances potentially rip off the cover.

> Trivially falsifiable, or tautological enough to be unfalsifiable. Villains are convenient. But fictional villains don’t animate against you. We can fix income inequality a great deal without declaring war on one class or another.

Tell me you know nothing about economics, capitalism, or financial accounting without saying you know absolutely nothing about economics, capitalism, or financial accounting.

A while ago I quit a job where I made significantly more money to take a different job where I have significantly less stress. It may be true that people only work jobs in exchange for money, but there's a point at which you realize you have enough, and want more time, more freedom, less weight on your shoulders instead.

Being compensated fairly is important. But so is empathy from management. So is being flexible when I have stuff going in my life or need a mental health day.

It all adds up.

I think it boils down to quality of life. If you’re payed bank but feel abused you won’t be happy. If every day feels like a weekend with the buds but you can’t put food on the table you won’t be happy.

People want and need: autonomy, purpose, mastery. Many (direct) managers can advocate for a raise but have no direct authority to grant it. All managers can provide employees with quality of life improvements that cost nothing without any approval at all.

My job doesn't have set hours. No amount of money can compensate for that flexibility.

this implies that for a job without set hours you would take a pay cut to minimum wage to keep that flexibility.

In short, I believe you will find that past a certain, probably very high amount, no amount of money can compensate

It's a balancing act and, once people (hopefully) get to a high salary level many are willing to trade-off money against a lot of things. Maybe not if they're starting out or just scraping by.

Yeah,

  * remote work
  * no specific expectations of hours (beyond, normally, "a full day's work")
  * capable leadership that doesn't throw people under a bus
  * work that is non-exploitative and provides real value in the world

Are worth more than top pay, to me.

Edit: *THAT SAID* in most industries that aren't tech, higher pay probably means a lot more than that because they're ridiculously underpaid, in general.

It can, actually - because with enough money, you get to decide your own hours anyway.

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