Hillbilly Report:: Solis Launches Drive to Combat Theft of Worker's Wages
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis had a simple, no-nonsense message for those employers that would seek to steal duly earned wages from their employees:
I have a message for those employers who break this nation's labor laws and prey on vulnerable workers: It ends today. I'm here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay-especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours.
She also had a message for workers who feel they are being victimized by their employers:
If someone is stealing your wages, you can and should call the Department of Labor....We can help, and we will help. If you work in this country, you are protected by our laws. And you can count on the U.S. Department of Labor to see to it that those protections work for you.
This effort is desperately needed. Under the previous administration a war was waged upon working America and many workers with complaints found nowhere to turn with the Labor Department run by Elaine Chao:
Last year, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the department's Wage and Hour office, under former Labor Secretary Chao, had failed miserably in enforcing minimum wage and overtime laws. The division's failure to act, says the report:
left thousands of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn.
A 2008 GAO report found that under the Bush administration, the number of wage and hour inspectors dropped from 942 to 732. At the same time, the number of investigations into employers' refusal to pay minimum wage, overtime-or even any wages at all-has dropped from 47,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2008, a 36 per cent drop.
This has caused Amy Traub of the Drum Major Institute and Andrew Freidman of Make the Road New York to conclude in today's Albany Times Union:
Enforcement of workplace laws is so inadequate, and penalties are so low, that corrupt businesses often come out ahead. Unscrupulous employers simply factor the risk of getting caught breaking the law into their cost of doing business. Responsible business owners are put at a competitive disadvantage by rival companies that cut costs by cheating their employees.
However, Solis has made it clear with this drive and other actions that there is clearly a new Sheriff in town in the Labor Department:
Since taking office, Solis has added 250 new inspectors to the wage and hour division, bringing the total to 949.
See Ms. Solis speaking the other day in Chicago on this issue:
It is far past time that our government stopped being an enemy to it's own workers. This is an encouraging step in the right direction and hopefully soon new measures including the Employee Free Choice Act will be enacted to end the war on working America and the middle-class.
Rightardia comment: Elections do have consequences. When the GOP wins the presidency, it looks the other way in the case of for labor and OSHA violations. US Wage and Hour Laws are weak to begin with. One GOP trick is to reduce the number of wage and hour and OSHA inspectors. By cutting the inspector force by 20 per cent, the number of wage and hour investigations dropped by 36 per cent while Secretary Chao, the wife of Mitch McConnell, was the labor secretary.
A standard trick of small business is to make a worker, who should be paid hourly and receive overtime, a manager. The corporation steals wages when the naive workers feels he or she should work off the clock because they are a manager. Unless an employee is actually supervising other workers, they are not managers. Managers frequently have budgets and are also given incentives such as bonuses.
If you aren't managing people, operating a budget or receiving special incentives for being a manager, you should be paid as an hourly worker and receive overtime. Be very wary of companies that classify workers as manager, but require them to fill out time cards. These companies probably know they are intentionally misclassifying an employee. They are trying to avoid lawsuits or wage and hour investigations after a worker quits.
If you are in the situation described above, document all of your overtime and complain to wage and hour after you leave you company. Your former employer may owe you several thousands dollars in back pay.
source: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/1365/solis-launches-drive-to-combat-theft-of-workers-wages
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/ken-mckay-resigns-rnc-chi_n_526104.html
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis had a simple, no-nonsense message for those employers that would seek to steal duly earned wages from their employees:
I have a message for those employers who break this nation's labor laws and prey on vulnerable workers: It ends today. I'm here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay-especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours.
She also had a message for workers who feel they are being victimized by their employers:
If someone is stealing your wages, you can and should call the Department of Labor....We can help, and we will help. If you work in this country, you are protected by our laws. And you can count on the U.S. Department of Labor to see to it that those protections work for you.
This effort is desperately needed. Under the previous administration a war was waged upon working America and many workers with complaints found nowhere to turn with the Labor Department run by Elaine Chao:
Last year, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the department's Wage and Hour office, under former Labor Secretary Chao, had failed miserably in enforcing minimum wage and overtime laws. The division's failure to act, says the report:
left thousands of actual victims of wage theft who sought federal government assistance with nowhere to turn.
A 2008 GAO report found that under the Bush administration, the number of wage and hour inspectors dropped from 942 to 732. At the same time, the number of investigations into employers' refusal to pay minimum wage, overtime-or even any wages at all-has dropped from 47,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2008, a 36 per cent drop.
This has caused Amy Traub of the Drum Major Institute and Andrew Freidman of Make the Road New York to conclude in today's Albany Times Union:
Enforcement of workplace laws is so inadequate, and penalties are so low, that corrupt businesses often come out ahead. Unscrupulous employers simply factor the risk of getting caught breaking the law into their cost of doing business. Responsible business owners are put at a competitive disadvantage by rival companies that cut costs by cheating their employees.
However, Solis has made it clear with this drive and other actions that there is clearly a new Sheriff in town in the Labor Department:
Since taking office, Solis has added 250 new inspectors to the wage and hour division, bringing the total to 949.
See Ms. Solis speaking the other day in Chicago on this issue:
It is far past time that our government stopped being an enemy to it's own workers. This is an encouraging step in the right direction and hopefully soon new measures including the Employee Free Choice Act will be enacted to end the war on working America and the middle-class.
Rightardia comment: Elections do have consequences. When the GOP wins the presidency, it looks the other way in the case of for labor and OSHA violations. US Wage and Hour Laws are weak to begin with. One GOP trick is to reduce the number of wage and hour and OSHA inspectors. By cutting the inspector force by 20 per cent, the number of wage and hour investigations dropped by 36 per cent while Secretary Chao, the wife of Mitch McConnell, was the labor secretary.
A standard trick of small business is to make a worker, who should be paid hourly and receive overtime, a manager. The corporation steals wages when the naive workers feels he or she should work off the clock because they are a manager. Unless an employee is actually supervising other workers, they are not managers. Managers frequently have budgets and are also given incentives such as bonuses.
If you aren't managing people, operating a budget or receiving special incentives for being a manager, you should be paid as an hourly worker and receive overtime. Be very wary of companies that classify workers as manager, but require them to fill out time cards. These companies probably know they are intentionally misclassifying an employee. They are trying to avoid lawsuits or wage and hour investigations after a worker quits.
If you are in the situation described above, document all of your overtime and complain to wage and hour after you leave you company. Your former employer may owe you several thousands dollars in back pay.
source: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/1365/solis-launches-drive-to-combat-theft-of-workers-wages
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/05/ken-mckay-resigns-rnc-chi_n_526104.html
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
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