71–80 of 138 posts
The article mentions that there won't be any pay cuts, and that might be true for the current employees but for new employees the companies will just adjust (read: cut) pay to 32hr weeks.
I am also struggling to see how they plan on keeping track of this "no pay cut".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When ACA was passed (Obamacare), it expanded healthcare benefits to millions of part-time workers based on a new definition of "full time" that meant >=30 hours. The result was simply that many employees had their weekly hours cut to less than 30 hours.
What are the numbers on that? Could one equally say that “the result was simply that many employees received healthcare benefits that they previously did not”?
What I do know is that these days you'd be very hard pressed to find a job that pays less than "what a skilled tradesman makes at their first job that's better than entry level" that doesn't also cap you at 30hr whereas that wasn't the case before. So now everyone who had a poorly paid job before now has two of them.
Accountants, administrative assistants, maintenance people, custodians, delivery drivers, CNAs, etc, etc, have had their hours cut to avoid paying benefits.
I too would be interested in numbers. If there is any improvement it seems to be confined to some industry I am completely unaware of.
What business is this of the California government? I am 71 and a large fraction of my work life has been 32 hour work weeks, negotiated with my employers (I usually got 80% salary and 100% vacation and benefits). It boggles my mind that this would be made a law though. Individuals and their employers should work out any deal that makes sense for both parties.
Let me know how that works out for 99.9% of the population.
Let the market decide, there's a labor shortage. It may not be a bad idea but to make it a law is crazy.
To make a wide reaching and vague law that doesn't fit every industry is crazy. Are Amazon warehouse workers or delivery drivers really as productive in 32 hours as they are in 40 hours? No...there is no way that is possible. This might work for some big cubicle farms...but not for manufacturing type industries.
Is this the only thing anyone is ever concerned about? How about employee general well-being? The fact that average worker wages have been absolutely stagnant while average worker productivity has soared since the 70's? Maybe it's time workers won something instead of just getting squeezed for more productivity.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many years ago. Knew a tech worker that had worked years of unpaid overtime for IBM. She said it was fine, because she was exempt. So I looked up the definition of exempt. She didn't meet the legal definition. Argued with her for hours over it. She refused to believe that she was being taken advantage of. In her mind all a company had to do was say you were exempt, and that was enough. Eventually I gave up. Following…
So what is the definition of an exempt worker? How do I know if I am not exempt and being used.
A good indicator is "do you have to fill out a timesheet". If you do, that means you're probably paid an hourly wage, and you should be paid overtime; if you don't, you're probably salaried and overtime-exempt. As usual, it's more complicated than that if you get into the weeds (e.g. in the news article linked in the comment you're replying to), and having a lawyer interpret your employment contract is probably the most authoritative way to figure that out if you feel your situation is unusual.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many years ago. Knew a tech worker that had worked years of unpaid overtime for IBM. She said it was fine, because she was exempt. So I looked up the definition of exempt. She didn't meet the legal definition. Argued with her for hours over it. She refused to believe that she was being taken advantage of. In her mind all a company had to do was say you were exempt, and that was enough. Eventually I gave up. Following…
So what is the definition of an exempt worker? How do I know if I am not exempt and being used.
What business is this of the California government? I am 71 and a large fraction of my work life has been 32 hour work weeks, negotiated with my employers (I usually got 80% salary and 100% vacation and benefits). It boggles my mind that this would be made a law though. Individuals and their employers should work out any deal that makes sense for both parties.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So what is the definition of an exempt worker? How do I know if I am not exempt and being used.
Edit: the downvotes would seem to mean my "often accurate" generalization here is not accurate often enough to be worth saying, which I'm willing to believe. No level of detail in a HN comment can substitute for hours of research and talking with a lawyer, of course! A good indicator is "do you have to fill out a timesheet". If you do, that means you're probably paid an hourly wage, and you should be paid overtime; i…
---
Overtime for an hourly exempt worker is 1.0x.
Overtime for a salary exempt worker is not defined.
Overtime for an hourly non-exempt worker is 1.5x.
Overtime for a salary non-exempt worker is poorly defined.
---
An hourly computer professional making over $27.63/hour is likely exempt. One working under that amount is non-exempt.
The specifics of how the FLSA applies to computer professionals is described in https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/17e-overtime-co...
How would this affect distributed companies? Would Californians receive special treatment?
Considering the companies they are talking about here, wouldn't it just be better to work towards a more goal driven work agreement? Show up, do what is required and then the time is yours? If you're being paid regardless then what does it matter if you're "on the bench" for a few hours or you leave early for the day? A lot, if we're talking about employee morale. Not much if someone is sitting at their desk trying t…
I would like to add more subjectively: as a company, I would also be afraid that contracts defining payment based on piece work result in an army of quasi-consultants. This might push the company towards: optimize your efforts against some agreed-upon metrics (see the previous point about goals), and go home. I suppose there is some benefit for a (software) company if its employees spend time at work "slacking" such that they might actually find useful things to do that none of their managers might ever notice.