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Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

theguardian.com

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Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#71

Post by yareal »

vdaea wrote: post #55
spacecadet wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[flagged]

That shouldn't be the bar. "Brutal but better than where you came from." Should still be unacceptable. Work should afford someone dignity and fair compensation, not simply be better than the worst conditions the worker has dealt with.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#72

Post by wahnfrieden »

pierat wrote: post #59
marcus0x62 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An anonymous tip and a few inspections of staff logs and payrolls would make it pretty easy to make this disappear. And culturally treating it like any other theft: a crime that should subject the thief, in a practical sense, to the risk of imprisonment.

In reality.... If you steal $100 worth of food from a store, they'll call the cops and arrest you. If the store steals wages from you in the tune of $1000+, its a.... CIVIL MATTER (waves hands).

Which incident receives media coverage as it happens?

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#73

Post by avgcorrection »

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…

> not only would they fire you but they'd call up all their industry buddies and you'd basically be on every other restaurants no-hire list.

So like a much-dreaded union for employers except it’s underhanded and illegal.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#74

Post by Cthulhu_ »

sneak wrote: post #61
antisthenes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

$10/week/employee adds up over decades.

But is it worth the resentment from said employees? Having to deal with the revolving door of naive new staff that needs to be trained, get up to speed, then leaves again when they realize they're being stiffed or they can do better? It just doesn't feel sustainable.

Not to mention the chance that you'll be found out by the authorities; I want to believe the punishment for wage theft is much more than the savings. Of course, that depends on how many people report it and how much evidence can be retrieved I suppose.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#75

Post by nonrandomstring »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #38
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 peo…

You think the construction industry is illegal. Wait till you hear about academia!! :)

This is the life today for zero-hours, at-will employment in the university sector. As a visiting professor I've had universities ask me to deliver a semester course a year in advance, and call the week before to say they're not running it. At the very minimum a 12 week course takes 40 hours of preparation even if you're just refreshing the notes and practicals from last time.

I've had Russell group universities not pay me for two years. They've flat out "lost" my invoices, three times! Two major league universities tried to stiff me out of over £2000 and had to be threatened with legal action. One London uni asked me to prepare a DSP course, then instead of hiring me to deliver it plagiarised my slides, took my name off them and got a junior lecturer to deliver the course instead. The last university I worked at were so careless with my payments that my accountant advised me to "extricate immediately" because there so many "anomalies" she couldn't keep track of them all.

Universities are absolute f*king gangsters.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#76

Post by sneak »

sixothree wrote: post #22
elzbardico wrote: post #3

The standard civil courts pipeline sucks as a mechanism for labor rights protection. You'll need expedited courts and a speedier process to dissuade this kind of thing. It needs to be as straightforward as child support law.

It should be as easy as going to the police.

In America, going to the police isn’t that easy. They will issue you a police report number for your insurance claim, but they are under zero obligation to investigate or prevent any crime.

They’ve been quiet quitting across the country since the George Floyd protests and they are working less than ever. Police interventions have been going down, crime has been going up, but staffing and funding has been mostly flat. They’re just not doing their jobs because they know if they hold out, funding will increase.

Also sometimes they just kill you.

Even if I were a victim of a major crime I wouldn’t contact the police in the USA unless I needed a police report number for my insurance claim. They’re probably not going to do anything and they might make things a million times worse.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#77

Post by avgcorrection »

alkonaut wrote: post #39
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…

> 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.

The true crime is as always the impact on businesses.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#78

Post by wahnfrieden »

vdaea wrote: post #55
spacecadet wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

[flagged]

> Since the implementation of the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy in 2019 and Title 42 in 2020, asylum seekers sent to Mexico have experienced kidnapping, rape, extortion, and other abuses by organized crime and Mexican officials.

> When the United States sends migrants to Mexico, criminal cartels are enriched by kidnapping them and then extorting money from their US-based family members to secure their release.

Just to comment on what your "good option" means for many. Maybe you meant the option is good for the US and employers, rather than for the migrant worker

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#79

Post by cool_dude85 »

Chris2048 wrote: post #58
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…

> not only would they fire you If they did so could you not bring up the suspicious timing with the labour board?

Obviously every state is different, and all state labor departments do surely go after wage theft to some extent. But as an example, my state does not have a "department of labor" - too commie! Instead it's the Department of Economic Opportunity. So one might imagine how much effort they put into small-time wage disputes.
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