Workers are Getting Screwed, Part MDCCXII
| Tue Sep. 1, 2009 8:05 PM PDT
In a new study, 68% of the workers who were interviewed had experienced at least one pay-related violation in the previous work week. You heard that right. In the previous week alone:
In surveying 4,387 workers in various low-wage industries, including apparel manufacturing, child care and discount retailing, the researchers found that the typical worker had lost $51 the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of $339. That translates into a 15 percent loss in pay.
The researchers said one of the most surprising findings was how successful low-wage employers were in pressuring workers not to file for workers’ compensation. Only 8 percent of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for compensation to pay for medical care and missed days at work stemming from those injuries.
“The conventional wisdom has been that to the extent there were violations, it was confined to a few rogue employers or to especially disadvantaged workers, like undocumented immigrants,” said Nik Theodore, an author of the study and a professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. “What our study shows is that this is a widespread phenomenon across the low-wage labor market in the United States.”
They were surprised by this? Seriously? Sure, I suppose 68% is higher than I would have guessed, but I sure wouldn't have guessed that this kind of thing was confined to a "few rogue employers" either. How many reports of mistreatment do we have to get before we finally figure out that labor violations are rampant in this country?
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Comments
Kevin! Did you read the pdf
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Sep. 1, 2009 10:04 PM PDT.
Kevin!
Did you read the pdf of the study?
Did you notice this is mainly publish by press release vs. publish by publication in peer reviewed journal?
Did you count the number of times they pat themselves on the back by exclaiming how landmark, innovative, and cutting edge their survey was? Do you often find good research that exclaims how landmark and cutting edge it is?
Can you describe their sampling methodology? Quick: was it a random sample?
Do you understand this was a survey and not an audit? Can you explain how they validated their survey was asking the right questions? Can you explain how they verified the results of their survey? Can you explain how after their landmark, cutting-edge, and innovative survey they post-facto adjusted the results?
IS NELP, the conductor of this survey, a research organization without some form of bias? And just what does NELP stand for?
Does 68% pass the smell test?
Jesus Christ Kevin, sometime, you're such a fucking stooge, no wonder conservatards laugh at liberal insistence they are reality based.
Is Anonymous a cheating, low
Submitted by tpx on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 7:28 AM PDT.
Is Anonymous a cheating, low wage employer who cannot pass the smell test?
Anonymous is a relatively
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 7:39 AM PDT.
Anonymous is a relatively high wage liberal engineer who actually does believe that liberals are reality based. But thinks we must be vigilant.
This "study" sounds like crap. Kevin's flat statement yesterday that the fire was caused by global warming sounds like crap.
Both sides can lie and spew propaganda and agenda based shit.
Being reality based is our competitive advantage. But we'll lose that advantage if we hype every piece of press release research that some dumbass wants us to push.
For some real horror
Submitted by Nancy Irving on Tue Sep. 1, 2009 11:57 PM PDT.
For some real horror stories, check out Eric Schlosser's book, "Fast Food Nation."
breaking it down
Submitted by WoofWoof on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 3:56 AM PDT.
I'm not so sure the low workman's comp numbers are due to employer pressure. When I was making minimum wage, it simply never occurred to me to file for workman's comp if a missed a day of work or went home early because my back hurt or something. Workman's comp always seemed like something that was there for long-term serious injuries.
As to the violations, that 68% seems to be including meal violations; people who worked through their lunch shift or worked a shorter lunch shift (something which I do even today) or even had a supervisor interrupt them on their lunch shift, which seems pretty trivial.
I don't want to downplay this because overtime violations are incredibly rampant in low-paid industries today and we really, really need better enforcement. But I also think the unneeded hyperbole of some press releases really doesn't help much.
low wage world
Submitted by rcm (not verified) on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 6:14 AM PDT.
It's a different world for low-wage earners. Even Willy Loman's wife said of him, "Attention must be paid to such a person," but it's not.
It's not just the cheating on pay, it's the mindset that allows workers to be used as cheaply as possible knowing they will have no recourse and no "connections" to do much of anything about it. It's knowing that your employees may well hold themselves in the same esteem as society around them does.
They've seen their employers get away with this stuff without consequences and seen people fired for speaking up. The pay is just one aspect of the total lack of basic respect for the workers.
Lousy bosses and companies exist at higher levels of income as well, but the higher you go, the more resources you have, the less likely you are to believe you "deserve" this treatment, the less likely you are to suffer at the "food, clothing, shelter" level of your existence.
I believe more people ought to read "Nickel and Dimed" to get insight into this REALITY. It's just not the same as having an unpleasant employer when you're at a higher wage level, although I know a lot of people just don't GET that.
Working people actually deserve to be paid a living wage. What a concept!
I'm guessing most types of
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 6:53 AM PDT.
I'm guessing most types of business can be made more profitable if they're managed by ruthless bastards. Water the whiskey? Go for it. Keep the the mail routing bar- code on the payment envelopes, or take it off? Take it off, of course, so the envelopes slow down in the mail system, thus generating huge late fee income. Honor the spirit of the pension plan, or take advantage of a loophole to loot retirees savings? Rig the time clock? Short change on workers comp?
The dishonest, cruel bastard route pays too well in America.
government and the courts are non-responsive, become wreckers
Submitted by tpx on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 10:23 AM PDT.
Low wage employees who have been screwed out of wages by their employers really have no legal authority to turn to for help. The government and the courts are non-responsive to the loss of their labor, leaving these employees on their own. Employees who have been screwed out of wages should become stealth wreckers of the companies that have made them victims. Outright destruction of property should be discouraged because employers will use governmental authority to prosecute employees who are seeking to compensate for stolen wages by deliberately wrecking property. They might even be prosecuted as terrorists. Like consumers, low wage employees have some power, but their power is passive. Median wage consumers should withhold their meager earnings from the market place, and low wage employees should slow down and reduce the urgency and quality of their work to withhold a portion of the labor their employers exploit. Low wage employees, at month or quarterly end, should let the managers rage about the urgency to meet the boss's revenue goals, while barely doing just enough to appear to be working hard.
book recommendation
Submitted by junebug on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 10:33 AM PDT.
Sabotage in the American Workplace: Anecdotes of Disaffection, Mischief, & Revenge. It's the perfect stocking stuffer for that someone special on Labor Day.
Dear Anonymous,
Submitted by Trippp on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 1:47 PM PDT.
Would you mind stating your age and field of Engineering? Not enough to identify yourself, but enough to give me a handle on where you are coming from?
I'm asking because for years I was also a moderate engineer who thought much of what I read was crap regarding the poor treatment of workers. Then IBM tried to con me out of my pension. Then IBM fired me because I had more than 30 years of service and they are moving all US jobs (besides sales and the 500 VPS) to India.
Now the jobs I get require I pay my travel expenses up front, and if I do not have exact paperwork I am not re-imbursed. Even in the case of perfect paperwork the reimbursement takes over a month, and in one specific case it has been almost two months and I'm still trying to get my reimbursement for flights, car, and motel for over $1200 dollars! They told me the check was in the mail and would arrive yesterday, and it still isn't here today. I've sent one more email asking where it is.
After reading some of the books mentioned here and from personal experience I have absolutely no problem believing that many companies and corporations treat their workers like crap.
Tripp, I didn't say that
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed Sep. 2, 2009 3:32 PM PDT.
Tripp,
I didn't say that workers were treated well. I said Kevin's study was bullshit that didn't pass the smell test. It was a survey of anecdotal stories. It wasn't a random sample. After talking to John about his experience, they asked John about which friends of his they should talk to, and then they went to John's friends.
If Jane said they didn't provide her proper payroll information, they never asked Jane to show what payroll information was provided. They never followed up with Jane on pay day to see what she had been given.
At the end of their survey, they didn't verify anything with the actual employers.
I can completely believe that employees are treated like shit. Kevin is completely full of shit to pass off this study as demonstrating anything, and if Kevin actually wanted to do progressives a favor, he would be pointing this out, not just rotely passing it along.
In fact, just yesterday, Kevin was bemoaning similar kinds of practices from other people:
"The fault, in other words, lies not in the media, but in ourselves. The mainstream media may have written ten times as much about the townhalls as they did about the actual substance of the healthcare proposals on the table, but the blogosphere only did a little better. Even here in wonkland, the outrage of the day is a much more tempting blog topic than reimbursement rates for Medicare."
Maybe Kevin, who wants us to trust him with Global Warming and Health Care and Vaccines and similar, should not be getting so outraged with the conclusions of this report, and should be outraged this report was foisted upon us.
Bad science will do nothing for the low wage worker or for progressive causes.
And I am in my fifth decade and in aerospace.
Hi Tripp! Umm, when I worked
Submitted by Bostoniangirl (not verified) on Thu Sep. 3, 2009 7:53 AM PDT.
Hi Tripp!
Umm, when I worked at Whole Foods, this was pretty common. One person got a small back injury on the job and was told by the Payroll and Benefits person (who was utterly clueless about benefits) that he had to go to the hospital--next door. The doctor didn't do all that much, but he did miss work, and he had a doctor's bill to pay. They wouldn't file for Workmen's Comp which is first-dollar coverage, whereas WF's health insurance is $1,000 (probably $1,100 or $1,200 now) not including deductible 80/20 plan.
I haven't read the study, but it sucks big time. Some of these people were immigrants, but they treated everyone badly.
A coworker of mine was pregnant, and her job required lifting--the boxes weren't that heavy, and with help it was possible if awkward. Our bosses took her in the back room and encouraged her to quit. Umm, she needed the health insurance and the disability benefits, i.e. their version of maternity leave.
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