Sustainable salaries

Sustainable salaries

17.3 Sustained salaries

Some people believe that to fight poverty, everyone should earn the same comfortable salary. Recently this so-called ‘Universal Salary’ came back in the news again, as Spain wants to use it to fight the poverty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. I disagree with this idea. I strongly believe that no healthy person should receive something for nothing.

When Calvin Benton started his psychotherapy company Spill, he also had the idea of paying everyone the same amount of money. He thought it would bring harmony to the team. Instead, he was forced to abandon the scheme within a year because of the rancour it created and pay people according to their seniority and expertise.
“We realised that we had to pay attention to market forces,” says Calvin. “Sometimes, traditional practices are there for a reason.”
Another example I encountered personally during my travels in Cuba. Here it was clear that the people who worked for governmental tourist businesses with a set minimum salary were way less motivated to provide a good service than those who managed their own business.

Hedonic adaption
The lack of motivation among people who earn the same salary no matter how hard they work can be explained through evolution. It is called the Hedonic adaptation, or treadmill and means that evolutionary we humans are always looking for ways to improve our lifestyle and be happier. And this is how it should be, at least from an evolutionary perspective, according to psychologists like Martin Seligman. Among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content with what they had may have been left in the dust. Unhappy with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated. Likely, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all. Like those people who smoked too much marijuana and are perfectly happy lying on the sofa doing nothing. Or even beggars who receive money for doing nothing.

Sustainable salaries
To bring more equality in our economy and still encourage people to perform better, might be the use of a scale system for salaries combined with a social network. What if international law could establish that CEOs, stockholders, managers, etc., do not earn more than a set percentage of their employee’s salaries? Say for example that the lowest-paid employee in a company gains a monthly salary of 2000 USD a month. Now each higher responsibility level in the company isn’t allowed to earn more than 10% extra. So the first-floor manager earns 2200 US$, the second building manager 2400 US$, the third 2600 US$, the fourth 2800 US$, and the fifth layer of responsibility is the CEO with a salary of 3000 US$ a month. If the CEO of the company wants to earn 3600 US$ a month, this will mean a 20% increase in salary. The lowest-paid employee in the company will then also have to receive a 20% increase and receives a 2400 US$ salary a month. If the company is very big, you could lower the percentage to 5%, as long as the increase and decrease of salaries always stay connected. This mutual benefit and responsibility strengthens the structure of a business.

Cover picture thanks to Nattanan on Pixabay.

Sustainability Blog The power of movement https://www.tourismvsclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Movement-inspires.mp4The power of movement inspires The title of this short positive video about the First of January is actually “Movement Inspires”. It’s a great inspiring video about the importance of movement, movement from exercise and traveling, but also movement of the spirit and the soul. Read more
Sustainability Blog Wooden satellites Sustainable wooden satellites Japanese company Sumitomo Forestry and Kyoto University have joined forces to reduce climate change caused by space junk.Satellites are increasingly being used for communication, television, navigation and weather forecasting. There are currently nearly 6,000 satellites circling Earth, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Read more
Sustainability Blog Space Travel 18. Space traveling to explore new areas and development On July 20, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set feet on the moon. What few people know is that they left a silicon chip with 73 goodwill messages Read more
Sustainability Blog Doughnut Economy 17.5 The Doughnut EconomyA sustainable economy is a win, win for everyone. Therefore since April 2020 the city of Amsterdam is planning to introduce the so-called Economical Doughnut model into the management of its city. This diagram was developed by Oxford economist Kate Raworth and looks like Read more
Sustainability Blog Dangerous online platforms 14.6 The danger of bookings websites When bookings websites started in the 90s they provided a great tool for especially the lesser-known, not so well organized, and new businesses. Hotels without a (good) website, with a slow responding rate to reservations, or even not very good Read more
Sustainability Blog Izhcayluma 14.5 Izhcayluma Eco LodgeMany new (fancy) Eco Lodges aim on high end tourism, which makes them vulnerable to fluctuations and often put them out of price range for national tourism. Instead the rustic Izhcayluma Eco Lodge in Vilcabamba, Ecuador has come close to implementing many of the Read more
Sustainability Blog Sustainable projects 14.4 Sustainable tourist projects A search online will provide you with hundreds of projects that call themselves sustainable. To know which projects are really sustainable will take proper research and will depend on which conditions you set before calling a project sustainable. Several international sustainability organizations together, Read more
Sustainability Blog Benefits from traveling 12.10 People who travel receive many benefits When a busy daily routine at work, or at home starts to control your life, it can become stressful. Stress causes both physical and psychological problems. So to prevent stress and boost your immune system it is important to Read more
Sustainability Blog Lifecycle of tourism 8.11 The lifecycle of tourism Already in 1980 Prof. Richard W. Butler wrote about a possible negative tourism cycle. In his own words he wrote:Visitors will come to an area in small numbers initially, restricted by lack of access, facilities, and local knowledge. As facilities are Read more

Copyright © 2020 Tourism vs Climate Change Powered by Fairtravel4u