Businesses will do what they can to make up for increases that they should be paying anyway. This is why there is so much government regulation. If businesses would CHILL and pay what people need, there would be no government intervening. This concept seems to be so hard to understand for businesses and for what reason? I have no idea.
Take your example.
"If business was slow, they would find something for the employee's to do."
It is actually up to the discretion of the business to do that and actually, everyone has to be working no matter what!
"When the wages went up, they would send people home."
There should be a guaranteed number of hours in place (of course, since it is part time, a business is not going to do that.)
"On top of that, they were paid on their lunch break."
That was a pretty nice incentive. Did they need to be? Nope. The ethics say to allow all employees to have a reasonable time away from work. It is allowed to be unpaid.
"When wages went up, they had to punch out their time card."
I see nothing wrong with this. Usually, the places I have worked for do is make us work 8 hours and a half and then subtract 30 minutes. We get to take our breaks and paid two 10-15 minute breaks.
There is a problem with regulation; however, if she was working part time, there definitely is no guarantee. Any way you look at it though, she was making a rightful wage. Was it $15/hr.?
reply
share
Sandman3 (1449)
7 years ago
No not $15. I think at that time it was $8.25/hr. Not sure about that. She was part time as were most of the people there. The thing is even with the wage hike all the part time help did not benefit one bit. Some even made less money. If they would do that stuff at $8.25/hr just think what they would do at $15/hr. They would think of some way to make the same profit. All at the expense of the workers and consumers.
reply
share
arvin g borkar (2854)
7 years ago
But it would make it much more clearer what the intention was and people would be fighting back. Basically, it is going to be an ongoing fight between workers and business and it keeps everything in check.
For instance, if we had not observed a minimum wage, we would have never known that it had been stagnating for this long. We also would not have known that the housing prices are through the roof and the cost of living has been going up without regards to a person, who works their tail off. These all came about because we saw the results or questioning the wage. To not raise it would mean we remain ignorant to it, we remain ignorant to businesses and their ethics. We, as workers, deserve better; although, it is more or less a choice between what side you are on.
reply
share
arvin g borkar (2854)
7 years ago
Oh here is another good one. We put a slam to businesses that paid workers a salary. I am sure you saw an article about this. Some businesses were working their employees to death and giving them a set salary say $15000 a year. It sounds great right? Do the math and it comes out to about minimum wage at 26 biweekly weeks of working 80 hours (of course, some businesses would work their employees way more than that!). Now all businesses have that threshold that they have to pay. This only came about because we observed and did something about it.
reply
share
Sandman3 (1449)
7 years ago
Going watch some TV and get some sleep but I wanted to say this first. You said this:
If businesses would CHILL and pay what people need
I agree somewhat. I have been using MacDonald's for an example. OK they could probably afford some pay hikes. But what about all these mom and pop stores that are doing all they can just to survive. They get a minimum wage of $15/hr many would have to shut down. That benefits no one.
reply
share
arvin g borkar (2854)
7 years ago
The government would probably have to loan something to them. It is not really clear what kind of incentive would be given.
Let's start with the corporations first and keep them in check.
reply
share