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“...worker cooperatives–a business structure in which the employees own the company, and share decision-making power over salaries, schedules...”

Although not a co-op, I worked for a few years under such a system. It was at a state juvenile prison (we called it a “youth center”). It was decided that it would be progressive to eliminate all middle management and have the staff manage itself democratically. Our unit (cottage) consisted of a dozen “youth specialists” (guards), three teachers, and a “group leader” (counselor for the little criminals).

The guards thought it unfair that teachers (who made more money) got to work regular hours, so they made the schedule so that every couple of weeks we had to work weekends and pull a graveyard shift overnight as well as our regular teaching shifts. The guards, not being certified teachers, couldn’t take teaching duties, so we had teach after the all nighter.

In addition, our group did our official evaluations, so the guards got to evaluate our teaching abilities. Of course any negative reaction to all of this lowered your scores. The staff meetings resembled what you saw out of Red China back in the day, with people going out of their way to praise the group.

Worker’s democracy is wonderful, I tell ya.