RE: Why is it the employer's responsibility to provide a living wage?
May 15, 2014 at 11:54 pm
(This post was last modified: May 16, 2014 at 12:10 am by Heywood.)
(May 15, 2014 at 9:34 pm)Moros Synackaon Wrote: How is that so? Please. Elucidate.
It erodes an employees bargaining position in a couple of respects.
1. The employee cannot offer to work for less. Why would an employee want to do that? Well to get or keep a job. Suppose you are an ex-con, why should an employer hire you over a non-ex con? Cause you will work for less? Not anymore...the law took that option away from you. In my younger days, I hired low paying people....college students. Worked them 3 days a week, 12 hour shifts. They went to school the other 4 days. A law gets enacted saying I gotta pay overtime past 8 hours. I cut their hours to 8 hour shifts but scheduled them 5 days instead of 3. Some said they would work the 12 and not claim the overtime because that suited their school schedule....I said sorry....the law took that option away from you.
2. It prices some jobs out of the market thereby locking employees into jobs. You work at Walmart. You are miserable. You can't quit because doing so leads to no income. Jobs are scarcer because living wage laws have priced many jobs out of the market. Management knows this.....Yeah....I'm afraid you're going to have to work on Sundays from now on....don't like it....find another job.....good luck with that.
You want to equalize negotiating power...make it so people can quit anytime they want by either having an income to fall back on, or be able to find a another job the very next day(or both). You want me to work Sundays? Good luck with that.....you'll need to compensate me more otherwise find someone else to work in this shithole.