Paying people for their work

I was very stubborn at someone today re: the principle that they deserved to be paid for their work.

I’ve been seeing a lot of reluctance to this idea, including from government workers who are expected to donate their own time and resources to their employer, effectively subsidizing their own jobs.

It blows my mind that “payment for labour” is a radical position under capitalism. Or maybe it’s technically an accepted position but “labour” has been defined to exclude basic human facts and also all sorts of effort.

People are so used to being extracted from as part of the “bargain” of a job, which often begins with the usually unpaid, often absurd gauntlet that is the hiring process. I think this creates an expectation and a culture of employees doing unpaid labour, particularly when and where everything feels precarious.

We make exceptions, because we care. We devote extra hours and bankroll work supplies. Sometimes we perform significant emotional labour for clients or coworkers or even management. We sacrifice our “free” time to be a team player or a workhorse. We are expected to smile infinitely, even where work doesn’t pay enough to live, even where our health is suffering.

I doubt I can succeed at convincing governments and corporations to care about their workers and customers more than their money. But I can insist on personally living the radical principle that people deserve to be paid for their work.

I’m sorry that this makes people uncomfortable.