• Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Switching jobs can’t counter market power, whenever employers have it, which is probably the vast majority of cases. Unions can.

    • Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      People too lazy to find a higher paying job when they’re being underpaid are also likely too lazy to actually organize.

      Unions don’t appear out of thin air. They require a ton of grassroots effort.

      And I have never not gotten at least a 15% pay increase by switching jobs. It’s the most effective way to increase your pay today, even with unions.

      • Zorque@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        And when you’re not in a high demand field its a thousand times harder.

        If you don’t have the right skills, or the right sociability, its nowhere near as easy to just hop around to whatever job gets you enough to live off of.

      • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        You wanna tell that to my software developer friend who literally cannot find work right now? He worked for facebook and spotify and got laid off.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        You might right about the first part. You’re wrong about the second. If you’re not in a high-demand field, you have no negotiating power to get that 15% increase since there’s another person who would work for less. Jumping jobs yields pay raises only in some fields in some markets, likely in the upper ends of the labor pay scale.