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Employment in America
Aug. 20th, 2010 11:38 amThink about this for a second. I mean really THINK about this:
1) Your employer is NOT required to give you any notice, or any severance pay. Some do provide severance, but that is purely at their discretion and often accompanied with "sign or you don't get your money" waivers of corporate liability for your termination. So if you suspect you've been fired for an illegal reason, too bad, if you want to make your rent and car payments you'd better sign on the dotted line.
2) Employers in the U.S. are not required to provide ANY paid time off. No paid sick days, no paid vacation time, no paid maternity leave, no paid federal holidays. Many employers, even most, provide one or more of these things as a courtesy, but the number of employers offering none of them is rising as the unemployment rate rises and people become willing to take any job at all, even one that views its employees as chattel who don't deserve a paid day off once in a while.
3) Do you work for a company with fewer than 15 employees? Your company is allowed (in most states) to discriminate against employees on the basis of race, sex, national origin, pregnancy, et cetera. Title VII of the civil rights act, which prohibits such discrimination, exempts private businesses with fewer than 15 employees. In other words, if you employ only 14 total people, you can simply say "only white people allowed." By the way, that 15 number doesn't include independent contractors or partners, so you can have a fairly large employer that is still allowed to discriminate as long as most of the people working there are independent contractors. What's more, no one's agitating to change this.
4) If you receive tips as part of your normal employment, your direct wage is generally $2.13 per hour. Yes, $2.13 an hour. Hope your tips are real nice.
5) Many, MANY jobs are not required to pay any overtime wage regardless of how many hours you work. This doesn't just apply to executives and managers and creative types. Projectionists, carnies, cab drivers, and a host of other occupations are also exempted and require no overtime wage whatsoever.
6) Youth under age 20 in their first 90 days of employment are allowed to make $4.25 an hour.
7) Only 21 of 50 states require ANY meal or rest break time for adult employees (including both paid and unpaid breaks). Four more require breaks for minors but not adults. There is also no federal restriction on how long employers may keep employees at work or how many hours an employer can require of an employee per week. In other words, while most employers do not do this, it is 100% legal in many states to employ someone for a 16 hour shift with no breaks allowed.
In other words: if you're not from the U.S., however bad you thought U.S. labor protections were, they're worse. If you're an American and used to employers who voluntarily provide one or more non-required things, look at the trend in employer/employee relations over the last 10 years: more independent contractors and temps, fewer full time employees with benefits. If you don't think your company will ever stop giving breaks or vacation time, just wait -- after another few years of high unemployment, non-required perquisites will dry up even worse than they already have.
The worst part of this: if this gets replies, I guarantee a number of them will be from people hastening to tell us why these policies are perfectly okay and how the right of employers to exploit workers in any way is just fine, because employees "chose" to work in such a place. We'll hear that if employers were required to provide such things, they would all go out of business and employ fewer people. Nations offering substantially more protection to employees do not seem to have these problems, but that won't stop people from making the argument (or bringing up a single example of a country with good labor laws and high unemployment as PROOF POSITIVE that such a system is non-viable).
People have become so attached to their own oppression that they view it as a badge of honor. They will show up to fight for their employers' right to exploit them. And they will convince themselves that standing up for big companies instead of individual employees is patriotic. They will ask for a little sick leave as supplicants, grateful for the crumbs cast off by an employer who views them as numbers on a ledger.
It doesn't have to be this way. Non-Americans: what are employment laws like in your country? How much of what I've posted above strikes you as downright awful?"
1) Your employer is NOT required to give you any notice, or any severance pay. Some do provide severance, but that is purely at their discretion and often accompanied with "sign or you don't get your money" waivers of corporate liability for your termination. So if you suspect you've been fired for an illegal reason, too bad, if you want to make your rent and car payments you'd better sign on the dotted line.
2) Employers in the U.S. are not required to provide ANY paid time off. No paid sick days, no paid vacation time, no paid maternity leave, no paid federal holidays. Many employers, even most, provide one or more of these things as a courtesy, but the number of employers offering none of them is rising as the unemployment rate rises and people become willing to take any job at all, even one that views its employees as chattel who don't deserve a paid day off once in a while.
3) Do you work for a company with fewer than 15 employees? Your company is allowed (in most states) to discriminate against employees on the basis of race, sex, national origin, pregnancy, et cetera. Title VII of the civil rights act, which prohibits such discrimination, exempts private businesses with fewer than 15 employees. In other words, if you employ only 14 total people, you can simply say "only white people allowed." By the way, that 15 number doesn't include independent contractors or partners, so you can have a fairly large employer that is still allowed to discriminate as long as most of the people working there are independent contractors. What's more, no one's agitating to change this.
4) If you receive tips as part of your normal employment, your direct wage is generally $2.13 per hour. Yes, $2.13 an hour. Hope your tips are real nice.
5) Many, MANY jobs are not required to pay any overtime wage regardless of how many hours you work. This doesn't just apply to executives and managers and creative types. Projectionists, carnies, cab drivers, and a host of other occupations are also exempted and require no overtime wage whatsoever.
6) Youth under age 20 in their first 90 days of employment are allowed to make $4.25 an hour.
7) Only 21 of 50 states require ANY meal or rest break time for adult employees (including both paid and unpaid breaks). Four more require breaks for minors but not adults. There is also no federal restriction on how long employers may keep employees at work or how many hours an employer can require of an employee per week. In other words, while most employers do not do this, it is 100% legal in many states to employ someone for a 16 hour shift with no breaks allowed.
In other words: if you're not from the U.S., however bad you thought U.S. labor protections were, they're worse. If you're an American and used to employers who voluntarily provide one or more non-required things, look at the trend in employer/employee relations over the last 10 years: more independent contractors and temps, fewer full time employees with benefits. If you don't think your company will ever stop giving breaks or vacation time, just wait -- after another few years of high unemployment, non-required perquisites will dry up even worse than they already have.
The worst part of this: if this gets replies, I guarantee a number of them will be from people hastening to tell us why these policies are perfectly okay and how the right of employers to exploit workers in any way is just fine, because employees "chose" to work in such a place. We'll hear that if employers were required to provide such things, they would all go out of business and employ fewer people. Nations offering substantially more protection to employees do not seem to have these problems, but that won't stop people from making the argument (or bringing up a single example of a country with good labor laws and high unemployment as PROOF POSITIVE that such a system is non-viable).
People have become so attached to their own oppression that they view it as a badge of honor. They will show up to fight for their employers' right to exploit them. And they will convince themselves that standing up for big companies instead of individual employees is patriotic. They will ask for a little sick leave as supplicants, grateful for the crumbs cast off by an employer who views them as numbers on a ledger.
It doesn't have to be this way. Non-Americans: what are employment laws like in your country? How much of what I've posted above strikes you as downright awful?"
