I (28M) ended a girls (27F) career by pressing a button on my phone

It feels fucking great and I would do it again in a heartbeat.<br><br>My parents both had a hard time when they were younger, but as soon as I was old enough, they told me to get a good education so I can get a good job and not have to struggle like they did. I got my programming degree and after 6 years I landed a job at a firm that pays me enough to afford the things I want and need. I am not rich, but comfortable.<br><br>My sister has always been the complete opposite. She is hard working and all, but she wants a creative career. My parents are somewhat disappointed, after all they wanted her to be well off. But they aren't really pushing her to do anything else. When she was 16 she had a baby. The dad left her so she is raising him on her own. Still she went to college to get a degree in music. Now she is teaching at a local school, which means she doesn't make much, but she can be around her son when he is out of school.<br><br>I love my sister more than anything and I do my best to help her out. I babysit my nephew sometimes, when I have the chance. I also helped her set up her teacher website where she can sell her own lesson plans. That brings her in a few extra hundred bucks a month.<br><br>About a year ago a woman reached out to me on LinkedIn. She said she works for some company that specializes in creating and selling lesson plans for teachers and she saw the website I made my sister. She said they are always looking for more material, and if I was interested, she'd love to chat with me. Well, we chatted, I sent her the website, 2 months later she offered me a job. They'd pay me a bit over double what I made at my job and I could work from home. It was a hell of a sell because I am a dad of 2 and I have always felt so bad that I have to spend 8 hours a day away from them when they were young.<br><br>I asked if they'd be open to something else, maybe me working as an independent contractor, and they said yes. We agreed I'd get paid $250/hour. I asked to speak to her manager.<br><br>I asked her the same thing and then asked what they'd be paying my sister. She said she didn't know, probably $10-20/hour. Well, that's fucking crazy. I know my sister could use the money, but they should be paying her more than that. I told her no thanks.<br><br>About 4 months later a different woman contacts me for the same job. Weird, but ok. We do the same dance, I can maybe work remote, but I'm happy where I am. We talk about the contractor thing, I ask about the sister. She says $50/hour for me, $10/hour for my sister. Fuck off.<br><br>Another 4 months pass. I get an email on LinkedIn from a recruiter at the same company. I am not the most politically correct person. I told her to go fuck herself and if they wanted me they knew where to find me.<br><br>An hour later I get a call from an older guy. He said he's the CEO and heard I was pissed at him and his company. I said I am, but explained why. He was not happy. He explained that his company pays its employees a base salary of $45,000 and $30/hour for contractors. He said that the people I talked to were third party recruiters who get paid on commission for each hire and conversion. So the $250/hour was the base pay plus the commission the recruiters would pay themselves. He said they sell the lesson plans for around $10-15 and make a lot of money doing it. He said the plans are not that hard to make and anyone can make them, but they need a lot for their business model.<br><br>I told him that his company ripped the lesson plans from my sister. He said he'd look into it. I said I'm not stupid, I know how to use Google. It took me 5 minutes to find them. They stole everything she's ever posted. He apologized and asked me to come on board. I asked about his employees, he said they are all paid a base salary of $45,000/year. I asked if they could pay more. He said that would be hard. I asked if he could pay my sister more. He said sure.<br><br>I told him that I wanted him to pay all his employees 100,000/year, and that he should put out a press release saying so. I also told him that if he wanted me to work there, I wanted him to pay me $100/hour and I wanted my sister to make the same amount. He said that was fine.<br><br>The next day all the big news outlets reported that this company was going to pay all its employees $100,000/year. They were all impressed at how generous that was. My sister got a phone call from the CEO asking her to be a contractor and he'd pay her $100/hour. She said yes. She was so happy.<br><br>Then she found out that they stole her lesson plans and she was pissed. She sued them. Turns out that the lesson plans are worth a lot. The CEO said he'd sell the company for a billion bucks if he could. So my sister is very rich right now.<br><br>Quite a few people at that company lost their jobs. The CEO said that the people who stole from my sister are gone, as are the recruiters who tried to get me to work for a small fraction of what they'd pay everyone else. He said that with the bad apples gone and the new hires he's making he's going to not only pay everyone $100,000/year but he will only pay contractors $100/hour or more.<br><br>I still work at my original company. I like it there. They pay me well and the people are nice. My sister doesn't have to work anymore, which is great for her and my nephew. The CEO is happy and his company is thriving. I'm just happy I could help my sister.<br><br>Edit: 1 - My sister pays taxes on the money she made.<br><br>2 - Lesson plans are very valuable. Educations is a very big market and curriculum is much more valuable than most people think. The company is not "paperless" but the lesson plans are something they can sell to people who will probably only use them once or twice. They don't have to actually print out anything and can still make a lot of money.<br><br>3 - The CEO and other people who are paid by the company are still getting paid. They didn't just pay everyone more and take huge losses. They still make a lot of money. The company is not going to fail because the employees are being paid more. <br><br>You may not believe me, that's fine. It's too good to be true, I agree. But it is what it is.<br><br>Edit 2: As some people have commented, $100,000 is not a lot of money. The CEO said he'd pay everyone that much and he wants them to be comfortable. It may not be a lot where you live, but he's paying everyone the same amount as a symbol of what he wants his company to stand for. Plus he can always raise it if need be. At least he is trying.