the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Nov 21, 2022
Tesla shareholders are suing Elon Musk because of a 56-billion-dollar bonus that he was paid as a supposed reward for Tesla’s success. This bonus is a mind-boggling amount of money given to a single person. The Tesla shareholders claim that this should be their money, and that Musk scammed them.
But in reality, this money was produced by more than 100,000 Tesla employees, who are slated to manufacture 2 million cars in the year 2022. But they are not part of this lawsuit. The average hourly rate of Tesla Motor workers is $23.36, according to payscale.com. And their average yearly bonus comes to $9,000. By comparison, General Motors pays $28.29 an hour, with an $8,000 bonus.
Tesla’s wage and bonus are miserly, considering that the minimum living wage in the United States, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was $24.16 per hour in 2021, before taxes for a family of two working adults and two children.
Tesla justifies such low wages by claiming they need to compete against other car makers. Tesla claims that it cannot make a profit if they pay its workers higher. But, as this fight about this massive bonus indicates, Musk and Tesla’s shareholders got filthy rich because Tesla paid its workers meager wages. So, this lawsuit is a lawsuit among scammers.
Nobody, including Musk, can singlehandedly manufacture two million cars a year; even if that single person works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Only a vast workforce can achieve that. So, only this workforce deserves the fruit of its labor, including that huge bonus and Tesla’s profits.