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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

#131

Post by phone8675309 »

lupire wrote: post #97
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…

The "industry buddies" but seems like a Boogeyman meant to scare people.

Are you willing to risk extended unemployment and potentially homelessness in order to call that bluff?

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#132

Post by danaris »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #4
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.

There's no voting solution to gaining that unfortunately

Well, not today.

But if this year you vote for candidates who are more favorable to labor than the other candidates, and then you continue making that (part of) your strategy over the course of several elections, you can start to shift things. Especially if you can get other people on board with the movement.

It's not like the current situation came about by chance or some cosmic inevitability: the right wing in America has been consistently showing up and voting in larger numbers for decades to get where we are.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#133

Post by charles_f »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #85
darth_avocado wrote: post #43

People thinking wage theft only affects lower wage workers, let me tell you how tech companies commit wage theft: 1. Having annual components to wages (RSUs, bonuses), making you work all year and firing you just before they have to pay you. 2. Having no overtime for salaried employees 3. Having employees work extra responsibilities that are not part of the job description by promising promotions and then not giving…

> Having no overtime for salaried employees This is just the definition of "salaried employee".

I'm salaried, my contract says that I owe them 37.5h a week.

Surely if I'm doing my work in much less and stop working, I'm stealing. When I'm waking up at 2am to handle an incident and still have to clock in the day after, "that's part of the job".

Favors only go one way

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#134

Post by manuelabeledo »

darth_avocado wrote: post #43

People thinking wage theft only affects lower wage workers, let me tell you how tech companies commit wage theft: 1. Having annual components to wages (RSUs, bonuses), making you work all year and firing you just before they have to pay you. 2. Having no overtime for salaried employees 3. Having employees work extra responsibilities that are not part of the job description by promising promotions and then not giving…

> Having no overtime for salaried employees

Or even worse, instating mandatory unpaid overtime.

I would love to see Pagerduty stats by job and position. I'm pretty sure the number of devs on 24/7 rotations is way higher than it should.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#136

Post by BobaFloutist »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #25
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 working in restaurants for years. They purposely go for high school kids because they know they don't know the law, and know that they will think walking out with $50 is awesome, even if they worked 6 hours.

And then they get mad that the teenagers they made a point of hiring are irresponsible, unreliable, and have limited experience working. You know, teenagers.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#137

Post by anon291 »

zdragnar wrote: post #5
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.

My wife took a former employer to small claims court. It was as straight forward as it gets.

Unfortunately, not enough people know about small claims court. I agree.. It's very easy. My dad had several cases in it when some contractors really messed up our house. Very quick resolution.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#138

Post by badcppdev »

vdaea wrote: post #84
wahnfrieden wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 co…

That's a shame but I don't see how that's the US responsibility. This seems like a call for imperialism more than anything else. Let Mexico govern themselves please.

It's a human responsibility to not steal from someone whatever the circumstances.

And a human responsibility to not exploit people running away from a violent dangerous environment.

If you only care about people with a certain piece of paper then it says something about your total lack of ethics and human compassion.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#139

Post by CityOfThrowaway »

lupire wrote: post #97
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…

The "industry buddies" but seems like a Boogeyman meant to scare people.

Yes, and in my experience the lore around both the vileness and power of the owner is fully invented by the staff.

In many cases it's just teenagers being dramatic and coming up with external reasons why they are dealing with suboptimal conditions and not asking the owner about it.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#140

Post by 1234letshaveatw »

lupire wrote: post #97
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…

The "industry buddies" but seems like a Boogeyman meant to scare people.

right, can you imagine some low level restaurant manager going over a list of potential hires that are still in high school with some managers from a couple of other restaurants? How many even bother to perform reference checks? It is a empty threat from a impotent person
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