Business owner discovers he's paying his employees 113% more than the average business owner in his area: 'Similar firms are paying 35% less than last year.'

They're deflating wages either because they're greedy or because they fear the worst.

Is 2008 going to happen again? It feels like it's going to happen, but it just hasn't happened yet. For the past year, everyone's been talking about how bad the job market is, even though the stock market keeps rising. Everyone knows somebody who has been laid off, but there's been no word that we're actually officially in a recession. A lot of companies are operating as if 2008 is going to happen any second now, and so are a lot of people. 

Not all companies are going into panic mode quite yet. If the numbers show their business is as healthy as ever, the higher-ups might feel no reason to halt hiring or lay off employees. If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you too? But it can be difficult not to succumb to the rumors that the economy is going to completely collapse, AI is going to replace all of us, and we will be stuck in a permanent underclass from which we can never escape. If you're a risk-averse business owner who feels uncertain about the future of your company, you might just sell it off to private equity and let them do their bidding. But if you have faith in your employees and your business, now might not be the time to throw out the baby with the bathwater. If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you too?