Everyone Should Earn the Same
Published on Oct 26, 2025, filed under misc, advocacy. (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)
When I was a child, my mother explained communism to me. One thing I remember is a discussion about salaries and compensation. We both agreed that education, experience, and merit should influence how much a person earns. (If you’re based in Europe, you may have a similar story to share.)
For much of my life, which comfortably fits two 20-year-olds, I thought this way. However, over time I’ve begun to believe that, crude as it seems, it would be preferable (not “best”) if everyone earned the same. *
Here are some thoughts on this basic idea.
End of the Rainbow
The general motivation behind everyone earning the same is that it could reduce the extreme disparities we see today. There would be no exorbitant salaries—sometimes thousands of times higher than others—and no one would face earnings too small to live on. This system could curb greed, lower harmful competition, and alleviate financial precarity.
Equal earnings could create genuine equality across genders and other differences. While that wouldn’t solve all issues tied to wealth or our property-centered system, it could significantly boost fairness.
Removing money as a factor in career choices could actually help clarify people’s motivations and talents. Work could be pursued for passion or purpose rather than monetary reasons. This freedom might lead to greater fulfillment, more people thriving in roles suited to their abilities, and enhanced competence in many fields.
The idea could also de-emphasize comparisons based on experience or talent. While such qualities wouldn’t go unnoticed, individual contributions might be appreciated more holistically.
Equal earnings could act as a natural check on market excesses, helping to keep essential goods and services affordable. By reducing the possibilities for excessive profit margins, important goods and services might be more readily accessible, luxury goods and services less of a thing, all of it benefiting overall quality of life.
Hierarchy and status would persist but might shift toward being based on environmental and societal contributions rather than income. This could foster healthier dynamics and redefine success in ways that emphasize impact over wealth: What has someone contributed to the well-being of people or animals or environment?
Overall, everyone earning the same could take off a lot of pressure, enable people to better embrace and utilize their talents, and thereby encourage a greater perspective on living.
Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Despite the advantages, there clearly are many challenges to ever getting there. These include:
Regional differences: Strictly equal pay doesn’t account for variations in purchasing power across regions or nations.
Existing income and wealth: The sketch doesn’t cover disparities in accumulated wealth, which would perpetuate inequality even if incomes were equalized.
Crucially, implementation: Rolling out such a system would require a lot of support, determination, planning, and coordination at national and international levels.
Addressing these issues would likely require leveling the playing field by redistributing wealth before equalizing incomes. Approaches to this could range from drastic measures like expropriation to moderate ones like taxation or more gradual methods relying on time.
Expropriation may seem extreme, but it could be effective if executed thoughtfully, firmly, and also empathetically. High-wealth taxes might strike the best balance, while relying on time is likely to be too slow.
_ Accordingly, this is a—or another—starting point for discussion, rather than a definitive solution. It’s a complex topic, I’ve only scratched the surface, and I’m just one person playing with options. And, this is an individual writing this, not a joint consortium of the United Nations, World Economic Forum, and any other group of influence that only has the best interests of everyone in mind. Well.
* While I believe in the value of considering equal earnings, my thinking has changed even more over time. Since writing the first draft of this post, for example, my work and my view have shifted to property and its effects on us, which affects what I shared here. For a “low-hanging fruit,” however, this still looks useful, and just as this isn’t a U.N. or WEF site, I’m not Kant or Marx but Meiert, who’s sharing this on his personal website.
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)