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American life is improving for the lowest paid

economist.com

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Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#31

Post by scarface74 »

otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

I only have a few anecdotal data points of what well paid hourly work is like in the US. But, most well paid hourly jobs with benefits etc. have some combination of:

Holidays: Federal holidays where people are off and they still get paid as if they were working.

Vacation: Time off work that is paid that is accrued during the time you are working. When you submit your time, you can use your vacation hours.

Sick: Days that you are suppose to either be unable to work or have a dependent (or spouse) that you need to take care of. Depending on the company, they can require doctor’s notes.

Many companies lump sick and vacation as “paid time off”.

Companies usually have paid bereavement leave.

I’ve worked as a contractor occasionally with none of these types of time off, but fortunately, I am in a position to adjust my rate accordingly.

Even when I was in college and working retail we had some type of minimum holiday pay.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#32

Post by NE2z2T9qi »

Cannibusted wrote: post #29

The Android and iPhone made a few lives happier. Back in my day, not everyone had a powerful pocket computer that could do Facetime!

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not. But in all seriousness, the richness that has been added to my life by walking around with a Library of Alexandria in my pocket is immeasurable. People may jokes about the value of having 24/7 access to cat videos or whatever, but the reality is that over 3/4 of Americans have access to knowledge that people in any other century would have sold their souls for.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#33

Post by Someone1234 »

esotericn wrote: post #16
otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

I have never worked an hourly paid job in the UK that has paid holiday. I'm not sure they exist, it's sort of what hourly pay is - you get it when you work and not when you don't. Personally I'm not sure it's something that makes sense, it should just be factored in to the wage. Most hourly paid jobs I know of don't have regular hours, even - how much do you pay for a week's holiday when some weeks the employee works…

> I have never worked an hourly paid job in the UK that has paid holiday.

It has been a legal requirement since 1938, so hypothetical that is possible if you're in your mid 95 or older.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#34

Post by themagician »

aphextron wrote: post #7
otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

>I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Yes, and even that is a rarity for wage workers. >Is there any other form of paid off time? Nope. Most hourly workers are lucky to get a few unpaid sick days. Have an accident, or get sick and need to spend a couple weeks in the hospital? Now you're unemployed and bankrupt.

This is both true and mind boggling to me.

I employ 5-10 unskilled people at any given time. Mostly for assembly and packing. They get two weeks PTO, and at least a week of paid vacation throughout the year when we close for holidays, mostly more.

At the end of the day the total annual cost to provide this is well worth the drama it keeps out of the workplace.

Sick days? Take as many as you need. I don’t want sick people at the office.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#35

Post by jeromegv »

chungleong wrote: post #27
otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

Paid leaves aren't mandated by law. The norm is two weeks for salaried workers. Most people don't used them up anyway. There's no tradition of everyone going on vacation in the same month in the US. That makes people feel somewhat guilty leaving their jobs behind. Even while on vacation many end up working. Americans do switch jobs more frequently. People have more occasions to unwind between jobs (perhaps cashing ou…

While people might switch jobs more often, is that supported by data that they use this time to unwind? You end up without health insurance coverage during that gap so I can’t imagine tons of people going in that direction.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#36

Post by theoh »

DanBC wrote: post #30
theoh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does paid holiday mean, exactly, in a zero-hour contract? If there's no guaranteed minimum rate at which one is paid during any given period, it seems like there can be no way to assert that one is on "paid leave". I tried googling it and found this, which seems inconclusive: https://www.breathehr.com/blog/zero-hours-contracts-holiday-...

> Irregular hours > People working irregular hours (like shift workers or term-time workers) are entitled to paid time off for every hour they work. They need to calculate their leave entitlement for irregular hours. That takes you to this calculator: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

Do you see the point I'm making, though?

Edit: I'm not asking about the rate at which paid leave builds up, I'm asking about how the employee can ever be said to have used it up. Given that zero-hours contracts are a Bad Thing, I don't expect this to make any sense.

If I have accrued 24 hours of paid leave, and potentially work 6hrs a day, typically one day a week, do I need to pre-emptively use all of those 24 hours just to take leave for a block of 4 weekdays? It seems like I might have to, in the face of an unscrupulous employer.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#37

Post by scarface74 »

luckydata wrote: post #10
otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

I know it sounds crazy, it's because it is. Working in the US SUCKS for everyone.

Not everyone. Most salaried jobs have at least two weeks paid vacation and 10 paid holidays. This is also true for decently paid full time hourly workers.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#38

Post by Barrin92 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #6
otaviokz wrote: post #4

"What’s really rare, he adds, is his annual week of paid holiday" I may be getting it wrong as I don't live in US, but does it mean he only gets one week of holidays per year? Is there any other form of paid off time?

Usually, low-skill hourly wage service jobs in the US have no paid leave, at all. If you work N hours, you get paid for N hours. That’s why getting one week of paid leave annually was described as rare.

Jesus I didn't know that. I knew that the US had a debate about maternity leave, but I thought the US had paid annual leave. Here in Germany everyone gets 24 working days off, I don't think I'd survive a year without it.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#39

Post by ghaff »

jeromegv wrote: post #35
chungleong wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paid leaves aren't mandated by law. The norm is two weeks for salaried workers. Most people don't used them up anyway. There's no tradition of everyone going on vacation in the same month in the US. That makes people feel somewhat guilty leaving their jobs behind. Even while on vacation many end up working. Americans do switch jobs more frequently. People have more occasions to unwind between jobs (perhaps cashing ou…

While people might switch jobs more often, is that supported by data that they use this time to unwind? You end up without health insurance coverage during that gap so I can’t imagine tons of people going in that direction.

>You end up without health insurance coverage

There's COBRA although, of course, you don't have the employer portion paid for any longer.

I'm a bit skeptical that the typical person takes a lot of time off between jobs. If you've already got a position lined up, your new employer probably wants you to start as soon as possible. You can probably negotiate 2 or 3 weeks but, in most cases, I expect a real sabbatical would be tough.

And, if you don't have a job lined up, I probably wouldn't be confident enough to just take it easy for a couple months.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#40

Post by willio58 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #25
rmason wrote: post #8

If you want to read the entire article: https://outline.com/TegA4h

Why this over the Internet Archive [1]? Outline is a private site run by unknown people with unknown intentions. Its privacy policy [2] (a) names no actual person or responsible entity, (b) permits business transfers and (c) permits changes at Outline's sole discretion. The Internet Archive, on the other hand, is a nonprofit run by known, reputable people. (Setting aside the ethics of reading journalists' work withou…

Outline has a better interface.
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