Pay the People discusses arguments in favor of paying workers a living wage from a CEO perspective and how paying people well makes better business sense in the long haul. The book starts with John Driscoll’s personal story when he shares his organization, Care Centrix, as a case study for increasing the minimum salaries of his lowest-tiered workers to a living wage as he sets up the first chapter exploring the federal minimum wage. If you are a regular worker like most of us or an avid reader of Harvard Business Review and the like, you will enjoy this book because it’s nice to hear from a CEO who has good morals! If you are an activist, this book will supply you with a lot of ammo (data) in favor of raising the federal minimum wage. If you are a senior executive and you pick this book up, people will want to work for you!

The book begins with an exploration and an excellent business case for why the federal minimum wage needs to be increased including tipped wages, which the author dives into more later in the book. From John Driscoll's senior management experience, we learn a secret: Driscoll has too often seen from his experience that businesses that use payroll as a cost-cutting measure while not looking more than one year, or even one quarter, into the future must look beyond seeing payroll as only expenses and consider fair pay as an investment.

This book has a lot of great data points and introduces case studies that benefit cases for pay equity, from a Denny’s in California benefiting from customers increasing their spending after a minimum wage increase to the CEO of Men’s Wearhouse tying his personal brand’s reputation to a product to a comparative case study of Amazon and Walmart in workforce development. This book also gives clues of a handful of government or lobbying agencies where you are more likely to find corruption. Ch. 3 Debunking Myths lists solid arguments to corporations' favorite justifications for low pay written clearly.

While I found the majority of the data invaluable for worker’s rights, I will admit that in true economist fashion, I didn’t agree with every data point. On pg. 6, there is a claim that:
“Someone making $15,000 per year isn't eating out, or checking out new models at their local car dealership, or buying a new iPhone from Apple or new shoes from Nike. As far as those businesses are concerned, that person doesn't exist. They are essentially not much of a consumer, and at that income bracket, they will never be.”

While I understand the sentiment, I hard disagree. And this is where, from my own research, the data can start to get weird when looking at consumer spending and motivations. Anyone making any amount of money can buy whatever they want. Someone who makes $1,000 a month may still buy nice things, and they are still consumers. I think this point needs to be correct. (Whether you expand upon this point to go into credit card debt, YOLO economy, poor financial education, and social media influences, is up to you). Still, this is only one error that I hope the publisher will correct in time for launch. I very much appreciate the robust Notes for further reading. 5 Stars!

I am sending two suggested corrections to the publisher separately, one is on the data point above and the second is on a chapter title change to sound more inclusive and I wouldn't want it to take away from the research you've done.

Throughout reading the book, I wondered who is this book written for? Can I see a CEO from a company that I’ve worked at picking up this book? I hope so.

Please see my book review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6962358970
I also gave this book a mention on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/julialipscomb_pay-the-people-the-new-press-activity-7259537932246478848-GONX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Thank you, The New Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

this was a good book with so much good information! I think it brings up a ton of very good points, and it helped me open my eyes a bit more. Love it!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

Thank you, The New Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished Pay The People!: Why Fair Pay Is Good for Business and Great for America, by John Driscoll, Morris Peal, The Patriotic Millionaires.

This book will be released to the public on December 3, 2024.

This book makes an excellent case for why the minimum wage, needs to be increased. And as the book explains, as the minimum wage goes up, so does the rest of employee pay. The book rebuts the major myths of raising it, such as it will force businesses to close, the minimum wage only matters for teenagers, raising it will lead to shifts and job reductions and the free market will solve the problem, it will increase inflation. The book also discusses other important topics such as wage theft and the wealthy’s control of the government.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

I had previously given Pearl’s book, Tax The Rich!, an A+ in 2021.

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I finished reading this on October 21, 2024.