Why good jobs are good for business (with Zeynep Ton)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2023

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Low pay is obviously terrible for workers, but a growing body of research proves that it’s bad for businesses, too. Smaller paychecks lead to higher turnover, decreased productivity, and poor sales. Will low-wage employers in the grocery, retail, and restaurant industries ever understand that their employees are their most important asset? Zeynep Ton hopes so. She’s written a book explaining how labor investments can pay for themselves, and she joins us today to explain why better-paying jobs are good for everyone in the long run. Zeynep Ton is a Professor of the Practice in the Operations Management group at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, where she works with companies to improve their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors alike. Twitter: @zeynepton Good Jobs are Good Business https://time.com/6285516/good-jobs-good-business The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work https://store.hbr.org/product/the-case-for-good-jobs-how-great-companies-bring-dignity-pay-and-meaning-to-everyone-s-work/10579 Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's an obvious argument that if you treat people well, it's good for them.
0:05.0	We make the argument that when you treat people well, when you pay them more, it's actually
0:08.4	good for the economy.
0:09.4	A good pay doesn't guarantee a good job and will turn over, but will pay guarantees
0:16.0	high turnover.
0:17.0	If there's actually a competitive advantage to corporations creating good jobs by that,
0:23.9	we may not just treating your workers well, but paying them well.
0:33.0	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics,
0:38.1	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:49.0	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:52.1	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:00.7	Goldie, today on the pod, we get to talk to a really super interesting woman named Zane
1:06.4	Upton.
1:08.0	She has been beating the drum on a subject that I care a lot about, and have always cared
1:13.9	a lot about, you know, the business reasoning for treating people well.
1:18.8	And you know, I really believe that the business world sort of is bifurcated between two kinds
1:24.0	of operations.
1:25.0	This is an oversimplification, but on the one hand, there are the low-road employers run
1:32.3	by jerks and sociopaths who treat people like chattel and who try to pay as little as they
1:40.1	can possibly pay.
1:42.1	And the people we've called parasites, yes, all those folks.
1:47.1	And on the other hand, there are people who believe that their people are their biggest
	...

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