This is exactly why I'm so goddamn happy I'm in a union, we fought off the fucking cunts and won. Secured significantly better conditions and guaranteed raises for several thousand people all in one go. It was a pretty narrow vote though, they literally hired a guy to generate internal propaganda about how good getting a pay cut was going to be...
Were they peddling the tax bracket bullshit? "If you make more than $X, then you have to pay an extra Y% in taxes [but I'm not going to mention that that's only on amounts over $X]."
In my country in the EU we don't use brackets anymore. It's just linear. In the current age of computers and magic it can be calculated with a simple press of a button.