Many, many businesses have very small profit margins. Many others have 10s of thousands of employees. “Just get more efficient”; “just take it out of profits” is blindly simplistic.
You also have to remember the facts of scope and scale. If I as an employer give my one (1) full-time employee even a dollar an hour raise, that’s a cost to me of $40 a week. Where is my business to get that additional $40 / week? Now figure it out for more substantial raise amounts and greater numbers of employees. What seems like very minimal changes can be seen to very quickly compute out to very substantial expense. Where is that $$ to come from ?
Look, if you live in a viable democracy, but your side isn’t winning elections, and you’re uncomfortable with the political climate and culture, then leave — if you can — and want — and can find a place that will take you.
Many, many businesses have very small profit margins. Many others have 10s of thousands of employees. “Just get more efficient”; “just take it out of profits” is blindly simplistic.