Jel

That depends on whether you are ok being 'that guy' - you have to be quite a hardass to knowingly be shitty to an employee just because you have them over a barrel. Even then, the bottom line will ALWAYS be: is this deal worth it to *me* from the employers PoV. Nobody who is a success will every deviate from that. Their resources may be much larger, they may be able to employ a ton of other people to make that decision for them, but it always comes down to ROI... always.

Your other post - that's going off topic slightly - it's actually something separate, in that the employees are doing something else that you factor in, when deciding whether to keep them on or sack them. As you say, any employee can be shitty regardless of pay, so whatever that guy pays, even if it was half the wages, if at the end of the day the employess aren't turning up, that's a bad ROI and they have to go. That instance(s) you gave are related to ROI, but not to the actual pay he dishes out for the deal he wants. Tbh it sounds like he pays well, but hasn't set correct or clear boundaries... why would any employee feel like they could get away with partying and missing work because they are fucked the next day... that says more about poor employee choice/man management than what this thread has evolved into - how much is your time worth, and how much do you pay someone else to free up more of *your* higher-earnings time.

*disclaimer... as always, I don't write too well, and rather than take the time to make sure my points are easy to comprehend, I get lazy/bored and try to finish the post as quickly as possible... I get the little nuances of reasoning, I just don't take real time on a message board to state my differing opinions as eloquently as I could