AI transcript
0:00:02 Support for Prop 3 comes from Viore.
0:00:04 Oh my God, true story.
0:00:08 I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what?
0:00:09 Viore shorts.
0:00:12 Viore’s high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile
0:00:14 and stand the test of time.
0:00:17 They sent me some to try out and here I am.
0:00:20 For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off
0:00:21 your first purchase.
0:00:24 Plus, you have free shipping on any US orders
0:00:26 over $75 in free returns.
0:00:27 Get yourself some of the most comfortable
0:00:30 and versatile clothing on the planet.
0:00:31 Viore.com slash Prop G.
0:00:35 That’s V-U-O-R-I dot com slash Prop G.
0:00:37 Exclusions apply.
0:00:40 Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
0:00:46 Are you forgetting about that chip in your windshield?
0:00:47 It’s time to fix it.
0:00:49 Come to Speedy Glass before it turns into a crack.
0:00:51 Our experts will repair your windshield
0:00:52 in less than an hour.
0:00:54 And it’s free if you’re insured.
0:00:56 Book your appointment today at speedyglass.ca.
0:00:58 Details and conditions at speedyglass.ca.
0:01:00 Now streaming.
0:01:03 What do you know about the Happy Face killer?
0:01:04 He’s my father.
0:01:06 It’s so good to see you, Missy.
0:01:09 Experience the thrilling new series.
0:01:10 He said he killed another woman.
0:01:12 Inspired by a true life story.
0:01:15 If I don’t deal with him, he will never leave us alone.
0:01:18 You don’t see how the words sing to him.
0:01:20 Annalee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star.
0:01:22 I am not responsible for what my dad did.
0:01:25 Just going how you hoped.
0:01:29 Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
0:01:34 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:38 A key question for all business leaders and owners.
0:01:42 Are you paying your people a living wage?
0:01:48 Project 2028 Wages, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:02 Democrats need to be the party of ideas, not indignation.
0:02:09 Our Project 2028 series addresses critical issues facing America through a No Mercy, No Malice lens.
0:02:13 Today, we shift from housing to wages.
0:02:30 Before he was sworn in as Treasury Secretary in January, hedge fund manager Scott Besant warned that failing to extend $4 trillion in tax cuts would trigger an economic calamity.
0:02:38 This is true if calamity means a reduction in the wealth of the richest Americans and large corporations.
0:02:40 What bullshit.
0:02:52 The real calamity is the poverty and inequality that’s set to worsen as the Trump administration advances policies that will disproportionately benefit a small number of people.
0:02:55 See above, the richest Americans.
0:03:04 The illusion of complexity is weaponized by the incumbents to mask a simple truth.
0:03:17 The clearest, blue-line path to a decrease in obesity, depression, incarceration, gun deaths, divorce, diabetes, homelessness, and crime is, wait for it,
0:03:22 to put more money in the pockets of lower- and middle-income citizens.
0:03:27 And the easiest way to do this is to hike the minimum wage.
0:03:40 Raising the pay floor to $25 an hour would ensure that Americans can afford to have children, if they want, feed their families, and pay for housing and health care.
0:03:45 In 2009, the minimum wage was $7.25.
0:03:56 Since then, the cost of a Big Mac, the average rent, and the NASDAQ have risen 60%, 70%, and 800% respectively.
0:04:04 Meanwhile, the minimum wage has rocketed from $7.25 to $7.25.
0:04:15 Even though many states and cities have raised their minimum wage, one in four U.S. workers still makes less than $17 an hour.
0:04:24 With the government failing to act and many companies content to sequester record profits at the expense of the working class,
0:04:28 leaders of successful American businesses should step up.
0:04:42 The system is broken when 18 million U.S. households are struggling to secure enough food,
0:04:51 and 12 million renter households are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half their earnings on housing and utilities.
0:04:55 In theory, wages are dictated by the market.
0:05:01 But the market is inherently imbalanced, and employers are the ones who have the upper hand.
0:05:09 The government has the power to level the playing field by setting the floor on compensation at a living wage,
0:05:15 what a full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to cover the cost of their family’s basic needs.
0:05:18 This should be table stakes.
0:05:29 In a society where one company, NVIDIA, adds $277 billion in market capitalization within five minutes of its earnings release,
0:05:33 and one in five households with children is food insecure,
0:05:43 we have decided that America is an operating system to optimize the output of the bottom 99% for the benefit of the top 1%.
0:05:46 Enough already.
0:05:50 But a living wage means much more than that.
0:05:58 Vulnerable workers are less likely to defer medical care, suffer from depression and anxiety, or commit suicide.
0:06:05 Less likely to burden emergency rooms, lose their job due to illness, or get saddled with crippling debt.
0:06:14 We know increasing family income dramatically improves childhood development, producing better educated and healthier adults.
0:06:28 It’s also a race and gender-blind means of redressing inequality in pay and increasing opportunities for women and ethnic minorities who are overrepresented in low-wage jobs.
0:06:37 This is affirmative action as it was meant to be, focusing on people who need it most versus their identity.
0:06:50 In Los Angeles, a single adult without children needs an hourly wage of $27.81 to cover basic costs, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.
0:06:59 Two working parents with two children must each earn $32.69 an hour.
0:07:05 L.A. is expensive, but the living wage in many parts of the country isn’t significantly lower.
0:07:16 In Kansas City, the living wage for a single adult is $22.75, or $27.55 for two working parents with two kids.
0:07:27 In Mississippi, the poorest state in America, you’d need to make an hourly wage of $20.75, or $22.43, respectively.
0:07:41 In his confirmation hearing, Besant said he sees the minimum wage debate as, quote, more of a statewide and regional issue, unquote.
0:07:51 Elected leaders are big on states’ rights as a weapon of mass distraction when it suits their agenda, and indeed, many states have stepped into the void.
0:08:03 By 2027, 19 states and Washington, D.C., covering almost half of the U.S. workforce, will likely have a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour.
0:08:10 But this is a critical federal issue, one that Democrats should continue to spotlight.
0:08:16 The meager minimum wage has a knock-on effect, keeping pay lower for millions of people.
0:08:20 The numbers paint a depressing picture.
0:08:26 Although relatively few people receive the federal minimum, many are struggling to stay afloat.
0:08:31 Almost 6 in 10 jobs pay less than $25 an hour.
0:08:42 There isn’t a single state, metro area, or county in the U.S. where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom rental.
0:08:50 You always hear the same bullshit narrative from opponents of increasing the minimum wage.
0:08:59 They argue it will hamper the competitiveness of businesses and lead to closures and job losses, hurting the workers it’s meant to help.
0:09:03 If employers have to pay workers more, they’ll hire fewer of them.
0:09:06 These are scare tactics.
0:09:12 Research shows raising the minimum wage would have little to no impact on employment.
0:09:19 In fact, it can have a stimulative effect as workers spend their additional earnings.
0:09:26 When paid well, workers are more productive, and they’re less likely to leave, reducing costs for employers.
0:09:30 Some businesses fold, and they should.
0:09:34 They are the weakest performers and, quite frankly, shouldn’t be in business.
0:09:39 The lost employment is mostly absorbed by stronger firms.
0:09:44 Another way businesses adapt to higher wages is by raising prices.
0:09:48 But economists find it leads to scant price hikes.
0:10:02 One analysis of restaurant food pricing between 1978 and 2015 showed prices rose by just 0.36% for every 10% increase in the minimum wage.
0:10:12 There’s rarely a free lunch, and some companies, like McDonald’s, Walmart, would register a significant decrease in profits and share price.
0:10:14 It would be worth it.
0:10:24 For much of the 20th century, unions played a critical role in trying to equalize the balance of power and obtain higher wages for workers.
0:10:31 However, unions have struggled to overcome corruption, adapt to innovation, and maintain relevance.
0:10:41 The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union fell to about 10% in 2023, from about a third in the 1950s.
0:10:52 Although 70% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, only 28% say they have quite a lot or a great deal of confidence in them.
0:11:01 The states that need unions the most are hostile to them, and the overwhelming majority of Western nations with unions have shed membership.
0:11:22 The U.S. economy can support a far larger share of wealth going to lower-income workers.
0:11:35 Between 1938, when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first minimum wage into law, and 1968, the federal minimum wage was regularly increased to account for inflation and productivity.
0:11:49 A 2020 study found that if the U.S. had continued to increase the minimum hourly wage in line with inflation and productivity growth, it would have reached $21.50 an hour.
0:11:53 Today, it would be close to $25.
0:11:57 More than tripling the minimum wage wouldn’t be easy.
0:11:59 The shift would need to occur in phases.
0:12:05 Some sectors and regions can make reasonable arguments in favor of exemptions.
0:12:13 The living wage is also not the same in all regions, so some exceptions would make sense, though we’re an increasingly national economy.
0:12:20 The prevalence of chain stores and online platforms with standardized pricing are closing regional gaps.
0:12:33 We need a system where successful CEOs and founders who demonstrate real talent earn enormous pay, and workers, at the other end of the spectrum, earn a decent living.
0:12:35 That’s often not the case.
0:12:39 Income inequality has gone berserk.
0:12:54 From 1978 to 2023, compensation for top CEOs exploded 1,085%, compared with a 24% rise in the typical workers’ pay.
0:13:07 The median pay package for an S&P 500 company leader climbed to more than $16 million in 2023, almost 200 times the median workers’ wages.
0:13:24 Sue Nabi, CEO of beauty products company Kodi, earned an eye-popping $149 million in 2023, while the median worker at the company earned $39,643.
0:13:37 Those employees would need to work for 3,769 years to earn what Nabi received in one, according to an analysis last year by the New York Times.
0:14:01 Lowe’s, meanwhile, spent $42.6 billion, buying back its own shares between 2019 and 2023, enough to have given each of the company’s 285,000 employees an annual $29,865 bonus for five years, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
0:14:15 While CEO Marvin Ellison received $18.8 million in 2023, the retailer’s median annual worker pay was just $32,626.
0:14:23 Successful, independent businesses can’t lead the revolution, but should support it.
0:14:33 Not only can many companies increase their labor costs, they should, even if it takes a modest bite out of the earnings of the ownership class.
0:14:39 This makes financial and economic sense, while generating reputational benefits, too.
0:14:50 Think about companies that carry the fair trade stamp, guaranteeing farmers and workers receive a minimum price plus a premium payment to invest in improving their quality of life.
0:14:52 Companies are starting to get it.
0:14:53 Companies are starting to get it.
0:15:01 Bank of America has been raising its U.S. minimum hourly wage and pledges to hit $25 this year.
0:15:07 CEO Brian Moynihan expects to get payback in the form of lower turnover.
0:15:15 Globally, L’Oreal, Schneider Electric, and Unilever are among corporations that have committed to provide living wages.
0:15:24 Democrats shouldn’t lose sight of the extent to which this issue resonates with vast swaths of the American public.
0:15:32 Polling shows the long-debated idea of raising the minimum wage is popular with Republicans and Democrats alike.
0:15:44 For Kamala Harris, waiting until two weeks before the election to make a case for boosting the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, felt $10 short and several years late.
0:15:55 Since 2000, corporate after-tax profits have surged roughly six-fold, while wages have only inched higher.
0:16:00 An economy that values work below the cost of living is broken.
0:16:08 An economy that does so while delivering massive profits to wealthy owners is a moral failure.
0:16:11 Inequality is a choice.
0:16:20 We have the power to give all Americans an opportunity to earn a wage that allows them to live a life of dignity.
0:16:23 What happens next is up to us.
0:16:30 CEOs and entrepreneurs should be bold.
0:16:42 Today, I’m making a commitment to pay my Prof. G contractors and employees at least $50 an hour or $100,000 a year in total compensation, respectively.
0:16:48 And I’m challenging other CEOs and entrepreneurs to join me.
0:17:06 A shit ton, minus half a million dollars each year, the cost for Prof. G Media to become a maximum wage firm, is fine.
0:17:11 It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s smart business.
0:17:14 If I sound like I’m virtue signaling, trust your instincts.
0:17:15 And that’s okay.
0:17:25 One of the biggest unlocks in my life has been recognizing that being a man means adding surplus value.
0:17:28 Creating more tax revenue than I absorb.
0:17:30 Listening to more complaints than I make.
0:17:32 Noticing people’s lives.
0:17:36 Providing more net care and love.
0:17:40 I have run firms my whole life.
0:17:46 And I’ve always aimed to provide the minimum compensation required such that employees won’t leave.
0:17:47 No more.
0:17:50 By the way, this is how nearly all companies work.
0:17:52 Optimizing for profits.
0:17:57 This is a result of the incentive system in a capitalist society.
0:18:01 As it increases the enterprise value, profits, of the firm.
0:18:04 And the likelihood the business survives.
0:18:10 Our entire society now prays at the altar of shareholder value.
0:18:13 Prioritizing them over every other stakeholder.
0:18:15 Dramatically.
0:18:21 If you are blessed with a company that’s doing well, why wouldn’t you pay more than you need to?
0:18:27 Do you love your kids, community, and country just enough that they don’t abandon you?
0:18:40 One of the most rewarding things about running a firm is it mimics some of the maternal or paternal feelings of reward you get from protecting and providing for your offspring.
0:18:47 I’ve worked hard, I’m talented, and I made the genius decision to be born in America.
0:18:52 The result is I’ve got a firm that’s exceptionally profitable.
0:18:57 One of the many rewards of that is I get to pay people more than I need to.
0:18:59 It feels great.
0:19:04 Life is so rich.
0:00:04 Oh my God, true story.
0:00:08 I am wearing, totally coincidentally, guess what?
0:00:09 Viore shorts.
0:00:12 Viore’s high quality gym clothes are made to be versatile
0:00:14 and stand the test of time.
0:00:17 They sent me some to try out and here I am.
0:00:20 For our listeners, Viore is offering 20% off
0:00:21 your first purchase.
0:00:24 Plus, you have free shipping on any US orders
0:00:26 over $75 in free returns.
0:00:27 Get yourself some of the most comfortable
0:00:30 and versatile clothing on the planet.
0:00:31 Viore.com slash Prop G.
0:00:35 That’s V-U-O-R-I dot com slash Prop G.
0:00:37 Exclusions apply.
0:00:40 Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
0:00:46 Are you forgetting about that chip in your windshield?
0:00:47 It’s time to fix it.
0:00:49 Come to Speedy Glass before it turns into a crack.
0:00:51 Our experts will repair your windshield
0:00:52 in less than an hour.
0:00:54 And it’s free if you’re insured.
0:00:56 Book your appointment today at speedyglass.ca.
0:00:58 Details and conditions at speedyglass.ca.
0:01:00 Now streaming.
0:01:03 What do you know about the Happy Face killer?
0:01:04 He’s my father.
0:01:06 It’s so good to see you, Missy.
0:01:09 Experience the thrilling new series.
0:01:10 He said he killed another woman.
0:01:12 Inspired by a true life story.
0:01:15 If I don’t deal with him, he will never leave us alone.
0:01:18 You don’t see how the words sing to him.
0:01:20 Annalee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star.
0:01:22 I am not responsible for what my dad did.
0:01:25 Just going how you hoped.
0:01:29 Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+.
0:01:34 I’m Scott Galloway, and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:38 A key question for all business leaders and owners.
0:01:42 Are you paying your people a living wage?
0:01:48 Project 2028 Wages, as read by George Hahn.
0:02:02 Democrats need to be the party of ideas, not indignation.
0:02:09 Our Project 2028 series addresses critical issues facing America through a No Mercy, No Malice lens.
0:02:13 Today, we shift from housing to wages.
0:02:30 Before he was sworn in as Treasury Secretary in January, hedge fund manager Scott Besant warned that failing to extend $4 trillion in tax cuts would trigger an economic calamity.
0:02:38 This is true if calamity means a reduction in the wealth of the richest Americans and large corporations.
0:02:40 What bullshit.
0:02:52 The real calamity is the poverty and inequality that’s set to worsen as the Trump administration advances policies that will disproportionately benefit a small number of people.
0:02:55 See above, the richest Americans.
0:03:04 The illusion of complexity is weaponized by the incumbents to mask a simple truth.
0:03:17 The clearest, blue-line path to a decrease in obesity, depression, incarceration, gun deaths, divorce, diabetes, homelessness, and crime is, wait for it,
0:03:22 to put more money in the pockets of lower- and middle-income citizens.
0:03:27 And the easiest way to do this is to hike the minimum wage.
0:03:40 Raising the pay floor to $25 an hour would ensure that Americans can afford to have children, if they want, feed their families, and pay for housing and health care.
0:03:45 In 2009, the minimum wage was $7.25.
0:03:56 Since then, the cost of a Big Mac, the average rent, and the NASDAQ have risen 60%, 70%, and 800% respectively.
0:04:04 Meanwhile, the minimum wage has rocketed from $7.25 to $7.25.
0:04:15 Even though many states and cities have raised their minimum wage, one in four U.S. workers still makes less than $17 an hour.
0:04:24 With the government failing to act and many companies content to sequester record profits at the expense of the working class,
0:04:28 leaders of successful American businesses should step up.
0:04:42 The system is broken when 18 million U.S. households are struggling to secure enough food,
0:04:51 and 12 million renter households are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half their earnings on housing and utilities.
0:04:55 In theory, wages are dictated by the market.
0:05:01 But the market is inherently imbalanced, and employers are the ones who have the upper hand.
0:05:09 The government has the power to level the playing field by setting the floor on compensation at a living wage,
0:05:15 what a full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to cover the cost of their family’s basic needs.
0:05:18 This should be table stakes.
0:05:29 In a society where one company, NVIDIA, adds $277 billion in market capitalization within five minutes of its earnings release,
0:05:33 and one in five households with children is food insecure,
0:05:43 we have decided that America is an operating system to optimize the output of the bottom 99% for the benefit of the top 1%.
0:05:46 Enough already.
0:05:50 But a living wage means much more than that.
0:05:58 Vulnerable workers are less likely to defer medical care, suffer from depression and anxiety, or commit suicide.
0:06:05 Less likely to burden emergency rooms, lose their job due to illness, or get saddled with crippling debt.
0:06:14 We know increasing family income dramatically improves childhood development, producing better educated and healthier adults.
0:06:28 It’s also a race and gender-blind means of redressing inequality in pay and increasing opportunities for women and ethnic minorities who are overrepresented in low-wage jobs.
0:06:37 This is affirmative action as it was meant to be, focusing on people who need it most versus their identity.
0:06:50 In Los Angeles, a single adult without children needs an hourly wage of $27.81 to cover basic costs, according to MIT’s living wage calculator.
0:06:59 Two working parents with two children must each earn $32.69 an hour.
0:07:05 L.A. is expensive, but the living wage in many parts of the country isn’t significantly lower.
0:07:16 In Kansas City, the living wage for a single adult is $22.75, or $27.55 for two working parents with two kids.
0:07:27 In Mississippi, the poorest state in America, you’d need to make an hourly wage of $20.75, or $22.43, respectively.
0:07:41 In his confirmation hearing, Besant said he sees the minimum wage debate as, quote, more of a statewide and regional issue, unquote.
0:07:51 Elected leaders are big on states’ rights as a weapon of mass distraction when it suits their agenda, and indeed, many states have stepped into the void.
0:08:03 By 2027, 19 states and Washington, D.C., covering almost half of the U.S. workforce, will likely have a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour.
0:08:10 But this is a critical federal issue, one that Democrats should continue to spotlight.
0:08:16 The meager minimum wage has a knock-on effect, keeping pay lower for millions of people.
0:08:20 The numbers paint a depressing picture.
0:08:26 Although relatively few people receive the federal minimum, many are struggling to stay afloat.
0:08:31 Almost 6 in 10 jobs pay less than $25 an hour.
0:08:42 There isn’t a single state, metro area, or county in the U.S. where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom rental.
0:08:50 You always hear the same bullshit narrative from opponents of increasing the minimum wage.
0:08:59 They argue it will hamper the competitiveness of businesses and lead to closures and job losses, hurting the workers it’s meant to help.
0:09:03 If employers have to pay workers more, they’ll hire fewer of them.
0:09:06 These are scare tactics.
0:09:12 Research shows raising the minimum wage would have little to no impact on employment.
0:09:19 In fact, it can have a stimulative effect as workers spend their additional earnings.
0:09:26 When paid well, workers are more productive, and they’re less likely to leave, reducing costs for employers.
0:09:30 Some businesses fold, and they should.
0:09:34 They are the weakest performers and, quite frankly, shouldn’t be in business.
0:09:39 The lost employment is mostly absorbed by stronger firms.
0:09:44 Another way businesses adapt to higher wages is by raising prices.
0:09:48 But economists find it leads to scant price hikes.
0:10:02 One analysis of restaurant food pricing between 1978 and 2015 showed prices rose by just 0.36% for every 10% increase in the minimum wage.
0:10:12 There’s rarely a free lunch, and some companies, like McDonald’s, Walmart, would register a significant decrease in profits and share price.
0:10:14 It would be worth it.
0:10:24 For much of the 20th century, unions played a critical role in trying to equalize the balance of power and obtain higher wages for workers.
0:10:31 However, unions have struggled to overcome corruption, adapt to innovation, and maintain relevance.
0:10:41 The share of U.S. workers who belong to a union fell to about 10% in 2023, from about a third in the 1950s.
0:10:52 Although 70% of Americans say they approve of labor unions, only 28% say they have quite a lot or a great deal of confidence in them.
0:11:01 The states that need unions the most are hostile to them, and the overwhelming majority of Western nations with unions have shed membership.
0:11:22 The U.S. economy can support a far larger share of wealth going to lower-income workers.
0:11:35 Between 1938, when Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first minimum wage into law, and 1968, the federal minimum wage was regularly increased to account for inflation and productivity.
0:11:49 A 2020 study found that if the U.S. had continued to increase the minimum hourly wage in line with inflation and productivity growth, it would have reached $21.50 an hour.
0:11:53 Today, it would be close to $25.
0:11:57 More than tripling the minimum wage wouldn’t be easy.
0:11:59 The shift would need to occur in phases.
0:12:05 Some sectors and regions can make reasonable arguments in favor of exemptions.
0:12:13 The living wage is also not the same in all regions, so some exceptions would make sense, though we’re an increasingly national economy.
0:12:20 The prevalence of chain stores and online platforms with standardized pricing are closing regional gaps.
0:12:33 We need a system where successful CEOs and founders who demonstrate real talent earn enormous pay, and workers, at the other end of the spectrum, earn a decent living.
0:12:35 That’s often not the case.
0:12:39 Income inequality has gone berserk.
0:12:54 From 1978 to 2023, compensation for top CEOs exploded 1,085%, compared with a 24% rise in the typical workers’ pay.
0:13:07 The median pay package for an S&P 500 company leader climbed to more than $16 million in 2023, almost 200 times the median workers’ wages.
0:13:24 Sue Nabi, CEO of beauty products company Kodi, earned an eye-popping $149 million in 2023, while the median worker at the company earned $39,643.
0:13:37 Those employees would need to work for 3,769 years to earn what Nabi received in one, according to an analysis last year by the New York Times.
0:14:01 Lowe’s, meanwhile, spent $42.6 billion, buying back its own shares between 2019 and 2023, enough to have given each of the company’s 285,000 employees an annual $29,865 bonus for five years, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
0:14:15 While CEO Marvin Ellison received $18.8 million in 2023, the retailer’s median annual worker pay was just $32,626.
0:14:23 Successful, independent businesses can’t lead the revolution, but should support it.
0:14:33 Not only can many companies increase their labor costs, they should, even if it takes a modest bite out of the earnings of the ownership class.
0:14:39 This makes financial and economic sense, while generating reputational benefits, too.
0:14:50 Think about companies that carry the fair trade stamp, guaranteeing farmers and workers receive a minimum price plus a premium payment to invest in improving their quality of life.
0:14:52 Companies are starting to get it.
0:14:53 Companies are starting to get it.
0:15:01 Bank of America has been raising its U.S. minimum hourly wage and pledges to hit $25 this year.
0:15:07 CEO Brian Moynihan expects to get payback in the form of lower turnover.
0:15:15 Globally, L’Oreal, Schneider Electric, and Unilever are among corporations that have committed to provide living wages.
0:15:24 Democrats shouldn’t lose sight of the extent to which this issue resonates with vast swaths of the American public.
0:15:32 Polling shows the long-debated idea of raising the minimum wage is popular with Republicans and Democrats alike.
0:15:44 For Kamala Harris, waiting until two weeks before the election to make a case for boosting the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, felt $10 short and several years late.
0:15:55 Since 2000, corporate after-tax profits have surged roughly six-fold, while wages have only inched higher.
0:16:00 An economy that values work below the cost of living is broken.
0:16:08 An economy that does so while delivering massive profits to wealthy owners is a moral failure.
0:16:11 Inequality is a choice.
0:16:20 We have the power to give all Americans an opportunity to earn a wage that allows them to live a life of dignity.
0:16:23 What happens next is up to us.
0:16:30 CEOs and entrepreneurs should be bold.
0:16:42 Today, I’m making a commitment to pay my Prof. G contractors and employees at least $50 an hour or $100,000 a year in total compensation, respectively.
0:16:48 And I’m challenging other CEOs and entrepreneurs to join me.
0:17:06 A shit ton, minus half a million dollars each year, the cost for Prof. G Media to become a maximum wage firm, is fine.
0:17:11 It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s smart business.
0:17:14 If I sound like I’m virtue signaling, trust your instincts.
0:17:15 And that’s okay.
0:17:25 One of the biggest unlocks in my life has been recognizing that being a man means adding surplus value.
0:17:28 Creating more tax revenue than I absorb.
0:17:30 Listening to more complaints than I make.
0:17:32 Noticing people’s lives.
0:17:36 Providing more net care and love.
0:17:40 I have run firms my whole life.
0:17:46 And I’ve always aimed to provide the minimum compensation required such that employees won’t leave.
0:17:47 No more.
0:17:50 By the way, this is how nearly all companies work.
0:17:52 Optimizing for profits.
0:17:57 This is a result of the incentive system in a capitalist society.
0:18:01 As it increases the enterprise value, profits, of the firm.
0:18:04 And the likelihood the business survives.
0:18:10 Our entire society now prays at the altar of shareholder value.
0:18:13 Prioritizing them over every other stakeholder.
0:18:15 Dramatically.
0:18:21 If you are blessed with a company that’s doing well, why wouldn’t you pay more than you need to?
0:18:27 Do you love your kids, community, and country just enough that they don’t abandon you?
0:18:40 One of the most rewarding things about running a firm is it mimics some of the maternal or paternal feelings of reward you get from protecting and providing for your offspring.
0:18:47 I’ve worked hard, I’m talented, and I made the genius decision to be born in America.
0:18:52 The result is I’ve got a firm that’s exceptionally profitable.
0:18:57 One of the many rewards of that is I get to pay people more than I need to.
0:18:59 It feels great.
0:19:04 Life is so rich.
As read by George Hahn.
Project 2028: Wages
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