Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American life is improving for the lowest paid

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 135 posts

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#51

Post by sockpuppet999 »

themagician wrote: post #34
aphextron wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 pe…

What happens to the PTO at the rollover date? Or if an employee accrues more PTO time than the employer will pay. I'm not being caustic here im just wondering what happens to those funds?

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#52

Post by leokennis »

sosborn wrote: post #41
luckydata wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Working in the US SUCKS for everyone. Simply not true. Every 12 months I get three weeks PTO and three weeks sick leave (which is also paid and not connected to my vacation time). PTO will soon jump to 4 weeks after another year of working at my job. I know it isn't this good for everyone, but to say that working in the US sucks for everyone is a ridiculous statement.

Of course “everyone” is never true. But for example in The Netherlands, 4.5 weeks of paid leave is the bare minimum (like even if you flip burgers you get at least that). If you’re e sick, you get paid leave for multiple months and after that, still 70% is paid. Your health endurance is not held hostage by your employer; for a small monthly fee (Every country has their own Stockholm Syndromes where they think they’ve got it made, while actually other places are doing a lot better. I think employment and benefits are one of these for the US.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#53

Post by seppin »

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.

This article is about low skilled workers. I've worked the same job in the US and the EU, I earned MORE than double in the US. Also lower taxes.

And holiday you can negotiate up front to get as many as you would in Europe.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#54

Post by [deleted] »

theoh wrote: post #36
DanBC wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[deleted]

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#55

Post by sharkweek »

eikenberry wrote: post #49
themagician wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pe…

And you'll attract and keep a better level of employee because you do this. IMO this is particularly important with unskilled labor as your pool of employees is so large with very little to differentiate quality people.

Costco does this and it has worked, at least it seems, really well for them.

Always maintained an above average hourly salary and benefits offering for retail staff. Their turnover is considerably lower than other big box retail (Walmart around 40%, Costco around 17%).

Not to mention the cost reduction of not having to retrain someone who is only going to quit/get fired in six months.

Source: https://hbr.org/2006/12/the-high-cost-of-low-wages

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#56

Post by stoppergoo »

NE2z2T9qi wrote: post #32
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.

Just think about how much effort and money it took in the past to acquire knowledge and even compute time. Microsoft word ? You can get that similar functionality for free now, as well as spreadsheets, encylopedias, etc.

Let alone cameras, videos. Cheap storage.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#57

Post by 0815test »

ethbro wrote: post #2

Headline: "American life is improving for the lowest paid; Come back capitalism, all is forgiven" Article: Low unemployment means anyone can find a job. "By last year, the poorest 10% were still earning only a miserly 4.1% more per hour than they did (in real wages) 40 years ago. Median hourly pay for America’s workers was up a little more, by 14%." "Low- and middle-income households remain anxious about volatile ear…

Low unemployment is a huge deal. We should keep in mind that the real wage of an unemployed worker is, well, zero. And a robust labor market means that employees are better positioned to move up the pay scale, to jobs with better productivity, wages and working conditions.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#58

Post by [deleted] »

sockpuppet999 wrote: post #51
themagician wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pe…

What happens to the PTO at the rollover date? Or if an employee accrues more PTO time than the employer will pay. I'm not being caustic here im just wondering what happens to those funds?

[deleted]

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#59

Post by ok_coo »

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?

This typically means 5 paid days off per year. The rest is maybe paid holiday that other people get like Christmas. All other days taken off are unpaid and subject to approval. This was what I got at my first office job in the US.

Re: American life is improving for the lowest paid

#60

Post by krustyburger »

ttul wrote: post #45
rmason wrote: post #8

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

How does Outline not get sued into the ground?

Maybe all the staff at the various pay-walled outlets use it to avoid having to subscribe to competitors?
Post reply on HN