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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

#251

Post by nonrandomstring »

londons_explore wrote: post #196
nonrandomstring wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 refre…

Universities, unlike building firms, have actual assets and are unlikely to claim bankruptcy. That means you could easily take the above issues to small claims court as long as you had them in writing (and remember, even a agreement to pay you via email usually suffices - no formal documents or signatures required)

You're not wrong, but my goodness... the effort, and the waiting. It's so sapping to have to work for your money like a regular person, and then work again and again just to get what's rightfully due to you.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#252

Post by rsynnott »

So, one thing that surprises me about this article is the lack of mention of the tax authorities. At least in this country, hell hath no fury like a tax authority which thinks it isn't getting all the payroll tax it's entitled to, and it's one of the easier types of evasion for them to go after. Why isn't the IRS chasing these employers?

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#253

Post by hobotime »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #223
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…

Right after I finished tech school, and I was waiting for my first technician job, I worked for a friend's home remodeling contractor company for a few weeks. I was the "helper," so, naturally, I got all the shit work. The wages were minimum wage. He kept jerking me around, paying fractions of what he owed me, then "forgetting" how much was left, etc. I probably ended up getting about a quarter or what I was owed. Th…

Laborers on the side are paid daily, unless a lot of trust has been built up.

The most they'll be screwed is one day's labor. They're in demand because they work very hard, and they'll quickly find work.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#254

Post by wahnfrieden »

danaris wrote: post #195
wahnfrieden wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would have happily voted for Hindenburg? Labor wins that we have today have come from coordinated labor movements across partisan lines, not from voting and waiting on service from politicians

I'm afraid I don't know offhand who Hindenburg is, nor even what country he was running in, but: In the US, due to the winner-take-all, first-past-the-post voting system, if Hindenburg was running against a candidate in the general election who was even one step worse than he was, then yes, I would have voted for him. Even if his platform included kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies. (Because, remember, in…

Hindenburg was voted as the ideologically safe choice in the opposite direction of hitler but he then in turn granted takeover powers to Hitler anyway some interesting period of history to learn more about/analyze

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#255

Post by mcv »

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 honestly think managers responsible for this sort of thing should go to prison for it. That would end these sort of practices really quick.

But somehow companies seem to have more rights than people.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#256

Post by MeImCounting »

Jensson wrote: post #215
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to demonstrate to someone why the legal system is designed for the wealthy and not the common people, I don't think you can do better than the entire subject of wage theft. Wage theft utterly eclipses every other form of larceny in the United States at least, and it is practically legal in every way apart from the letter of the law. Few companies ever see any consequences at all, and the few that do, it's…

> Wage theft utterly eclipses every other form of larceny in the United States at least If you define being late with payments as theft, then I'd bet that rent theft is way larger than wage theft. I don't see why you would say that it is theft when you are late with payments to a worker but not theft when you are late with payments to a company. If being late with payments isn't theft, then "wage theft" isn't theft,…

Tell me youve never worked in service industry without telling me youve never worked in the service industries.

This isnt "being late with payments" that is as you have correctly pointed out, not theft. "late" implies that eventually the wages are in fact paid. This is not what people are talking about when they are talking about wage theft.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#257

Post by mrguyorama »

nullindividual wrote: post #154
pierat wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the breathless reporting of "MAJOR CHAIN STORE SHUTS DOWN SINGLE BUSINESS DUE TO EXTREME THEFT", yeah. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/as-retailers-close-stores-... https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202264923/major-retailers-bl... https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/19/target-store-closures-theft-... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/target-closing-stores-2023-san-... https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/business/target-retail-t…

The Target store closings (in Seattle) were not due to violence/theft but rather a cost cutting measure; Target lied. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/19/target-store-closures-theft-...

The entire "Theft is driving up prices" narrative was bullshit. The national retail federation, the very group that is the lobbying voice of the retail industry, found that a majority of retail stores complained about theft, but if you look at the reported shrink numbers, they have been the same for 30 years. There has not been widespread increase in theft, by their own numbers.

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#258

Post by RHSeeger »

jpalawaga wrote: post #176
bena wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is tangential, but part of the reason why I dislike talking to servers about the tipped minimum wage. Because it seems they deliberately don't want to understand the full context of the law. Or fully the type of work they are in. What you are describing is typically called "side work". Basically work that is not directly related to waiting a table. Folding napkins, putting up chairs, moving tables, etc. Even in…

In the state of California, tips are a gratuity paid on top of minimum wage. This is also how it works in many other states, in Canada, and in many countries around the world. So you earn $16/hr for all time you’re at work, plus tips. Which is how it should be. You’re being employed. Those tips are for the employee, not a gratuity for the owner to offset their costs. “Tipped wages” are just another form of theft, bou…

> In the state of California, tips are a gratuity paid on top of minimum wage. This is also how it works in many other states, in Canada, and in many countries around the world.

> So you earn $16/hr for all time you’re at work, plus tips.

This is not true. According to California Waitress & Bartender Minimum Wage Laws California Tipped Minimum Wage Laws for 2023, 2024 [1],

> California labor law allows tipped employees to be paid a lower cash wage than the standard California minimum wage by their employers, with different allowed tip credits applying to different classes of employer.

That lower amount is $11 or $12 per hour, depending on the size of the company (vs the normal $16/hour rate for non-tipped employees).

The numbers are lower for most (all?) of the rest of the country.

[1] https://www.minimum-wage.org/california/tipped-employee-mini...

Re: Billions stolen in wage theft from US workers

#259

Post by castlecrasher2 »

Jensson wrote: post #215
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to demonstrate to someone why the legal system is designed for the wealthy and not the common people, I don't think you can do better than the entire subject of wage theft. Wage theft utterly eclipses every other form of larceny in the United States at least, and it is practically legal in every way apart from the letter of the law. Few companies ever see any consequences at all, and the few that do, it's…

> Wage theft utterly eclipses every other form of larceny in the United States at least If you define being late with payments as theft, then I'd bet that rent theft is way larger than wage theft. I don't see why you would say that it is theft when you are late with payments to a worker but not theft when you are late with payments to a company. If being late with payments isn't theft, then "wage theft" isn't theft,…

Agreed, and not sure why you're being downvoted for this.
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