A cursory glance at news headlines over the last couple of years will tell you that many industries are engaged in various negotiations with their labor force. Major corporations like Starbucks (SBUX) -), UPS (UPS) -), American Airlines (AAL) -), and more have received media attention thanks to workers unionizing. Meanwhile, nearly all production has been halted throughout Hollywood as writers and actors have been on strike since early May 2023.
Every investor and finance pundit has a theory or observation about recent employment trends. And some of their hot takes are controversial, to say the least, but one millionaire, made famous for telling millennials to lay off the avocado toast if they want to afford a house, stands atop the hot take heap.
Related: Potential UAW strike could heighten Tesla's competitive advantage
Australian millionaire Tim Gurner spoke on unemployment rates at the recent Financial Review Property Summit. According to Gurner, “we need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around.”
Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become "arrogant" since COVID and "We've got to kill that attitude." https://t.co/lcX3CCxGuj pic.twitter.com/f9HK2YZRRE
— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) September 12, 2023
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Gurner said that the unemployment rate needs to rise to a whopping 40 to 50 percent. “When there’s been a systematic change [in which] employees feel that the employer is extremely lucky to have them as opposed to the other way around – it’s a dynamic that has to change. We’ve got to kill that attitude. He also said a rise in unemployment would lead to “less arrogance in the employment market.”
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in to remind those viewing Gurner’s comments that “major CEOs have skyrocketed their own pay so much that the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay is now at some of the highest levels ever recorded.”
And the data backs up her assertion. In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that CEO pay has increased by 1,322% since 1978. The rate of employee pay increases is comparatively much lower – just 18%
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