There are many things about the workplace that we just accept, especially in the hospitality and service industries, without ever stopping to think why it is wrong. Many workers face practical issues such as low wages and lack of sick leave, parental leave and health insurance, just to name a few. In addition to this, there is something inherently unethical about a system in which the many are expected to abide by the rules of the few, with no say at all in the rules, how they are enforced or who gets to make them. In comparative politics, such a scenario would be known as tyranny or a dictatorship. But today, we just know it as the workplace.

The discrepancy in expectations for employees and employers is well-known and usually accepted without a second thought. The Shift Project claims that “among 30,000 employees at 120 of the largest retail and [food service] firms in the United States … two-thirds have less than two weeks’ notice [when receiving schedules], and half of those get less than a week’s notice.” Meanwhile, most businesses require two weeks’ notice for time-off requests. Employers constantly complain about employees committing time theft and can even fire them for it, but if an employer commits wage theft, they are very rarely penalized for it.

Additionally, employees are expected to put 100 percent effort into their job, being asked to come into work when they’re sick or having personal issues and getting in trouble for slacking off, even if that slacking off is just leaning against the counter. While working at a fine dining waterfront restaurant, my former boss would sit in the lounge area in front of the bar and watch golf whenever business was slow. But if bartenders so much as glanced at the TV during work, they would be in trouble. We are expected to work in fast-paced environments, juggle multiple tasks at once and do it all with a smile. Yet employers are not forced to pay employees for all the work that we do. Since 1979, productivity has grown by 61.8 percent, but typical earnings have only grown by 17.5 percent. While workers are generating more revenue for their employer per hour, they are not the ones reaping those benefits. Instead, they are going into the profit margins of the highest-paid employees. Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour is not enough. We need to reckon with the inherently harmful and exploitative dynamic between employer and employee in which the employer is incentivized to pay the employee as little as they can possibly get away with, and the employee has no mechanism of checking the employer’s power.

During my aforementioned job at the restaurant, we were also required to work every single holiday, including Labor Day. On a day that was meant to honor us, we were made to serve people who could afford to pay for a meal that averaged $50 a person. Meanwhile, stress was higher on those days, and there was more work to do. While we were bringing in more money to the business and working on a holiday, we still made $13 an hour because the profits that the company earned did not trickle down to us. The wealthy owners of the business who didn’t have to clean the bathrooms, mop the floors, serve food, seat guests and stand in a hot kitchen cooking made more money on holidays than on a regular business day — and the rest of us had nothing to show for it.

If someone doesn’t like where they work, it seems like they can just work somewhere else. But it isn’t that simple. They would need to leave behind their source of income with no guarantee of finding another one. And when they do find another job, it is most likely going to be no different than the one they left because the harmful relationship between employer and employee is often still there. As long as restaurants, hotels, bars, et cetera exist, there will need to be receptionists, waitstaff, hosts, cleaners, shift managers, cashiers and baristas. Whoever does these jobs deserves to be treated like a human being — not a commodity — and paid what they are worth, both in wages and in benefits.

The solution is based on the very simple principle of democracy and collective action. If we expect the leaders of society to answer the needs of the people and expect people to have the right to vote out leaders that they don’t like, why should we expect any less of the place where we spend over a third of our working adult lives? A limited number of laws exist to protect employees, but there are few mechanisms for employees to enforce these laws. Given the power discrepancy between employees and employers, it is unconscionable to expect employers to follow the law all on their own. One method of pressuring employers into following the law is by forming a union, but only 2.2 percent of employees in the leisure and hospitality sector are members of one as of 2020. Apart from the material benefits that being unionized can offer, such as higher wages, sick time and safer working conditions, a unionized workforce represents equity between the employer and employees. A union gives employees the ability to stand up against verbal assaults from customers and overreaches of power from bosses.

An alternative to the union model of work is the workers’ cooperative, or workers’ co-op, where all employees share ownership of the company. Employees have a direct say in decision-making or electing managers democratically to make decisions on their behalf. They share profits, giving workers a greater connection to their work, as well as a greater interest in the company’s performance. Due to this, workers’ co-ops perform better than traditionally run businesses. The retail chain Eroski has stores that follow a traditional business model as well as worker-owned stores. According to The Atlantic, “the worker-run Eroski stores grew ‘sales significantly faster’” because those conducting the day-to-day activities have a large stake in the firm. The U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives states that there are around 300 co-ops nationwide, and they employ over 3,500 people.

As the economy comes back and businesses continue to reopen, the struggle to find employees continues. Offering higher wages, sign-on bonuses and limited benefits hasn’t seemed to work much because most employees understand that what they are being offered may not be worth working a ruthless job. Instead of offering pizza parties, employee appreciation days, one-time bonuses and employee discounts to keep workers pacified, employers should allow their employees to form a union or convert themselves into a workers’ co-op to end employers’ exploitative and harmful practices.

Deana Ridenhour is a sophomore double-majoring in history and philosophy, politics and law.