Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers • Hacker News Board

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#31

Post by gadders » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

devmor wrote: post #13

gadders wrote: post #8

From the article: >> There are numerous forms of wage theft, from employers not compensating workers for time worked, violating minimum wage and overtime laws, misclassifying employees as independent contractors, not providing legally required meal breaks, confiscating worker tips, or illegally taking deductions from worker wages. Yeah, one of those isn't like the others. I know unions and the tax people hate it, but…

Whether you are happy to be a contractor or not, there is a legal definition of contractor vs employee and it is often misrepresented to the detriment of the eponymous contractor.

In the UK, it is often misrepresented to the benefit of the tax office.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#32

Post by spacecadet » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:34 PM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #21

spamizbad wrote: post #9

This phenomena is pretty widespread in the service industry and I would venture to say that a significant minority of businesses participate in some version of wage theft. For example, one of my jobs right out of high school was waiting tables at a local restaurant. If you were opening, the expectation from owners and management was you'd get in early to help open but would wait 15 minutes before service started befo…

Amazing pettiness from the owners for what is essentially $10 worth of labor (or less)

This sums up much of american rural small business... I started working at 12 and had many random jobs between 12-18 that were run by awful people.

Our family has a small farm, my parents didn't think we did enough of that and put me in a white van full of migrant workers at 12 years old (hey the 80s!) to go pick produce in a field all day... It was grueling work but I got a first hand account of migrant farm workers and the way they are treated.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#33

Post by NikolaNovak » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:34 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #8

From the article: >> There are numerous forms of wage theft, from employers not compensating workers for time worked, violating minimum wage and overtime laws, misclassifying employees as independent contractors, not providing legally required meal breaks, confiscating worker tips, or illegally taking deductions from worker wages. Yeah, one of those isn't like the others. I know unions and the tax people hate it, but…

Absolutely.

This however is empathically and clearly not about people who enjoy perks of independent contracting. I'm aware of no union or "tax people" in my circle who deny that reality.

This is about people who have NO perks of independent contracting and NO perks of being an employee.

I've had several friends in such situations - from sleezy sketchy places, to standard practice at bug research institutions.

(The down votes, fwiw, are probably not because people disagree with your political stance, lest you feel like a martyr, but from possibly intentional obtuse misrepresentation of article and issue).

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#34

Post by rightbyte » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:35 PM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #21

spamizbad wrote: post #9

This phenomena is pretty widespread in the service industry and I would venture to say that a significant minority of businesses participate in some version of wage theft. For example, one of my jobs right out of high school was waiting tables at a local restaurant. If you were opening, the expectation from owners and management was you'd get in early to help open but would wait 15 minutes before service started befo…

Amazing pettiness from the owners for what is essentially $10 worth of labor (or less)

I think some managers use petty potential conflicts to filter out people that are not naive, have a backbone or are not desperate enough to succumb.

A worker that does not put up with petty BS is surely less likely to put up with major BS (like wrongful termination when getting pregnant or whatever).

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#35

Post by Workaccount2 » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:36 PM UTC

wahnfrieden wrote: post #2

> A bartender in Orlando, Florida who requested to remain anonymous because they still work in the industry, said they started a new bartending job in May and pushed back when they found out their hourly wage was just a daily rate of $30, despite working eight-hour shifts. > “I reminded my manager that paying less than minimum wage was illegal, and added a link to a law firm’s page about it. He fired me,” the worker…

[flagged]

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#36

Post by draw_down » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:38 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#37

Post by mrangle » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

Slaving:

Not paying for work.

Internships: some may be legit, most are slave labor schemes with many being deeply institutionalized in systems such as healthcare and education.

Lower than minimum wage with an expectation that tips will make up the difference (just be done with tipping, pay at least minimum wage, and raise food prices).

Mistreatment

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#38

Post by MOARDONGZPLZ » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

spamizbad wrote: post #9

This phenomena is pretty widespread in the service industry and I would venture to say that a significant minority of businesses participate in some version of wage theft. For example, one of my jobs right out of high school was waiting tables at a local restaurant. If you were opening, the expectation from owners and management was you'd get in early to help open but would wait 15 minutes before service started befo…

I had a manual labor job when I was 16 that my parents wanted me to get to build some character. A night a week or so and one shift on the weekend. The need for labor was dependent on customer demand on a given day and weather and fluctuated greatly. Practice was so show up and wait around in the break room until it was busy enough that you were needed, and then people would be called in order of arrival. So some people would wait around hours to even find out if they might work that day.

I did it a couple times and found it so demoralizing I quit. Later I found out that practice is very illegal.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#39

Post by alkonaut » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:41 PM UTC

spamizbad wrote: post #9

This phenomena is pretty widespread in the service industry and I would venture to say that a significant minority of businesses participate in some version of wage theft. For example, one of my jobs right out of high school was waiting tables at a local restaurant. If you were opening, the expectation from owners and management was you'd get in early to help open but would wait 15 minutes before service started befo…

An anonymous tip and a few inspections of staff logs and payrolls would make it pretty easy to make this disappear. The problem is that these sort of things (what regulations exist, whether authorities prioritize enforcing them) seems to always be answered with "no, because it's a poor people problem".

It's unfair competition though, so it's really important that this doesn't happen. A restaurant that wants do to the right thing shouldn't have to worry about a few % worse competitiveness on wages because the asshat across the street has his staff work for free.

If something like this earned you a $10k fee the first time and a 5 year ban from running any kind of business in the state if you repeat it, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#40

Post by iforgotpassword » Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 2:41 PM UTC

dbingham wrote: post #26

One of the clearest illustrations of the deeply injust structural power imbalance at the heart of our economic system is wage theft. If your employer withholds $20 from your paycheck it's a civil violation of contract law. You have to go through an extremely onerous and convoluted process that very likely won't go anywhere. If, in response, you decide to pay yourself by taking $20 from the till, that's criminal theft…

That's because in one case you're stealing from an individual, and in the other from a business. The former group is usually not well organized, uneducated wrt the according laws, and too scared to go against the guy paying them. Their discontent with the establishment is usually unleashed in the most nonsensical ways, like we saw during covid. Anti-maskers/-vaxxers had a disproportionate amount of people from these kind of low-skilled exploited jobs.