Would Employees Be Willing to Take Lower Pay for More Loyalty at Work

New newsletter alert! This October, we’re launching First Trade, a markets-focused newsletter led by the great Joe Ciolli. Sign up here! (It’s ok. I won’t think you’re cheating on me.)

In today’s big story, we’re looking at why loyalty in the workplace feels few and far between. And what would you be willing to give up to fix it?

What’s on deck:

Markets: A Q&A with Goldman Sachs’ chief information officer.

Tech: Inside NYC’s anti-tech Luddite Renaissance movement.

Business: This is the severance package Starbucks offered to laid-off staff at the stores it’s closing.

But first, show me your allegiances

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

I pledge allegiance to the balance sheet

Give and take is the key to any good relationship. It also might be how corporate America can save itself.

Aki Ito, our resident workplace expert, is back to examine the degradation of the employee-employer relationship. Loyalty at work is at an all-time low as workers and companies feel like they no longer owe each other anything.

The result is a “Lord-of-the-Flies dystopia,” as Aki puts it, where people everywhere are miserable and out for themselves.

Some of you might happily embrace a mercenary-style labor market. Companies cutting ties at a moment’s notice, and workers constantly looking for the next best thing. (And some of you might already operate that way.)

It can be a beneficial environment for a select few. Top AI engineers and researchers, for example, can essentially name their price these days.

But for the rest of us, regaining a sense of normality wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Aki’s feature offers some thoughtful ideas on how to rebuild loyalty in the workplace.

She is not calling for a return to yesteryear, when people would spend their entire career with one company.

Maybe it’s a matter of being more transparent with employees or offering them a way toward professional and personal development.

“Loyalty doesn’t have to mean forever,” one source told Aki. “It just has to mean for real.”

Of course, those changes likely won’t come without costing businesses something. As companies try to streamline operations and improve efficiency, they might not be as willing to shell out.

So, in the spirit of give and take, what would employees be willing to give up for more loyalty from their employer? Would they take a lower salary knowing their employer will show more loyalty to them?

Loyalty and compensation aren’t mutually exclusive, but it’s easy to see the connection.

So, how much is loyalty worth to you? Let us know with this survey

3 things in markets

1. Fed chief Jerome Powell said stocks are “fairly highly valued,” and these charts back him up. Bank of America said 19 of the 20 valuation metrics it tracks show the market is historically expensive. Still, if earnings stay strong, that doesn’t mean high-priced stocks will come back to bite investors. Check out the charts for yourself.

2. Blackstone’s president maps out AI’s potential winners and losers. At a recent presentation to investors, Jon Gray explained why the company sees power as the key to the AI revolution. On the other end of the spectrum, the “Claude code effect” is displacing early programmers, Gray said.

3. Goldman Sachs’ tech boss sounds off on AI on Wall Street. Marco Argenti spoke to BI about how the tech is impacting the bank’s 12,000 engineers. That includes a workforce comprised of more senior technologists than juniors and potential improvements in work-life balance. Read the whole interview here.

3 things in tech

1. Inside an anti-tech rally, where Gen Z dressed as gnomes and smashed iPhones. BI’s Lauren Edmonds attended a rally in New York to learn what the Luddite movement was all about. “We have given ourselves the power to amuse ourselves to death,” one rallygoer said.

2. There’s little room for AI skeptics at Boston Consulting Group. Almost 90% of BCG’s employees use AI, and about half use it everyday. The firm leads in custom GPT development, and client services, and the tech is reshaping employees’ performance evaluations.

3. OpenAI’s new team points to a shift in the AI talent wars. The company’s new team, called “Applied Evals,” will help businesses refine complex processes using AI, like refund requests or migrating code. The industry has hired engineers to build and train AI models, but now employees are being hired to make these models useful.

3 things in business

1. The severance package Starbucks offered to laid-off staff at the stores it’s closing. The coffee giant said it would close about 1% of its stores across North America and announced that 900 non-retail employees would be laid off. BI viewed the severance package being offered.

2. Welcome to the Great Silencing. The Trump administration’s latest attacks on former FBI chief James Comey and comedian Jimmy Kimmel have companies keeping their mouths shut extra tight. Fearing backlash from the president, CEOs are even declining press or speaking opportunities over benign topics, PR pros told BI.

3. When did luxury apartments get so basic? In New York City, glassy high-rises with fancy amenities once seemed to be the territory of the ultra-wealthy. Now, older homes with fewer amenities are becoming a status symbol, while luxury apartments are getting more affordable.

In other news

What’s happening today

Supreme Court opening conference.Suspect in Charlie Kirk shooting appears in court.

Dan DeFrancesco, deputy executive editor and anchor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.