Headline writers are the worst. The actual article isn’t too bad. It acknowledges pay is important and it needs to be a liveable salary.

These very feelings allow companies to stand out, even if they can’t outpay all of their competitors. Of course, livable wages are critical for all individuals, but once reasonable compensation is established, emotional salary can outweigh base salary when it comes to engaging and retaining top talent. When paired with fair pay, a strong emotional salary can lead to higher job satisfaction, catalyzing a more committed employee base.

Which is kind of like a duh. If you hate your boss, think your company is ruining the world and the hours suck, then they’d have to pay a lot to retain you if you can get a job somewhere else. Whereas if you’re besties with your coworkers, your boss regularly shows his appreciation for you, and your company is alright, and you aren’t hurting for money then you’re less likely to even be looking at what other companies are offering.

There’s a way to say this that isn’t so gross: good working conditions are valuable. Quality of life is valuable. Work-life-balance is valuable. Mental and physical health is valuable. Not having raging shitbags in management is valuable.

The problem is that you can’t focus on secondary factors until the primary factor is taken care of. And the primary factor is that people need a living wage. Rent is expensive. Food is expensive. God help you if you need to pay for childcare.

If you’re already paying your employees a fair living wage, then yes, you should absolutely think about how you can improve working conditions.

As an example, if my company gave me the option to switch to a 4-day workweek for the same pay, or stay at a 5-day workweek for a 25% raise, I’m honestly not sure which one I’d prefer. But we all know that’s never going to happen; instead the choice would be to take a 20% pay cut or maintain the status quo. I wouldn’t take that deal because I’m not making enough money to live on 20% less.

If emotional salary is another word for higher nurse:patient ratio I’m actually all for it and would treasure being able to slow down and both conserve more energy for myself and have more time to actually feel like I’m taking care of people instead of shoving pills in people’s faces and running on to the next one. That’s also a functional raise in that I’d be doing less overall work for the same pay.

But realistically that is also an increased expenditure for my boss same as paying me more and they’re actually talking about more tea carts and pizza parties.

Was just talking to my coworker last night about how ppl be sayin’ dumb shit like “ratios aren’t the only thing that affect quality of care its more complex than that!” It’s 90% of the problem. Stop acting like that other shit matters even half as much and admit that 90% of the problem has a super simple fix that you just don’t want to pay for.

Same with housing and the mental health crisis. “Well it’s more complex than that people actually also need-” shut up. Just shut the fuck up. If any other problems in the world had super simple 90% fixes and then you only have to worry about the remaining 10% complex part we would be jumping on that shit.

But telling jeff bezos to pay his fair fucking share and putting it towards housing people is just straight heresy in the church of capitalism.

I think in some cases this is really true. There are enough people switching workplaces because their current workplace sucks. If you have enough money but you hate being forced into office, have to drive every day for 1.5h and getting little to no benefits its absolutely worth to switch to another workplace even if you get slightly less money.

We work for different companies but I’m my best friend’s(from college) technical lead on a project. I told him he was special and great then I congratulated him on his raise. Then I sent him a picture of this 🤣.

I like where I work. I like my coworkers, I like my managers, I like the corporate “culture” and the flexible working conditions that permit a reasonable work-life balance.

Those are things I like.

I need to pay my mortgage, and buy food, and have health insurance, and pay my bills.

Those are things I need.

You cannot replace the latter with the former. My needs must be met, and my expenses only go up every year. If I can be paid more elsewhere, it is irresponsible of me to stay somewhere that does not provide sufficient value for my time. I am always looking for a new job.

But there is some truth to the concept. Once a certain threshold is met, I look for the perks of a healthy employer relationship. And if the emotional salary is very low, I’m going to start considering alternatives even if I don’t get a pay raise.

Once upon a time business owners would build houses for their staff, I wonder how far off we are from that again?

It won’t necessarily be a good thing

Fuck you, pay me.

Well then, I’ll be sure to do some really emotional work.

I would actually throat punch someone who offered to pay me a higher “emotional salary” in lieu of more money.

Why would anyone want money in exchange for labor, when they can just have butterflies, rainbows, and hugs?

• insert video of Jigglypuff beating the shit out of Clefairy here

Emotional salary is something we give ourselves through organizing. ✊

“It’s like a pizza party - but without the pizza costs!”

Forget the paycheck, employees really want ̶a̶ ̶r̶a̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶e̶m̶o̶t̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶s̶a̶l̶e̶r̶y̶ to own the means of production and getting paid the true value of their labor