Equal Pay? Not in Kansas

[vorlon13]

corn and soy

Assuming I don't FU anything, farm pretty much runs itself. Land paid for, I self finance equipment, seeds, fertilizer and chemicals. I might be somewhat overinsured, (my farm manager thinks so) but as I'm nearly 60, I'm getting risk adverse. Also, considering the subsidy for federal crop insurance it wouldn't be smart to cut back on that. I have a $6 mill balloon policy for liability in case any of us here has a drastic liability accident. I don't have long term care coverage yet, but I need to start thinking about it while it is still available.

[The Grand Nudger]

Sounds like you've got a good thing going.  Folks around here keep telling me I need to do the same (corn/soy/winter wheat - for hay)...but I;m a younger guy and the potential returns on mixed veggies and strawberries, in particular, tickle my risk addiction. I've been assured by all my neighbors that I'm an absolute loon..well, we'll see, when I'm buying out their acreage as they shed it in order to fund their increasingly long lives.

[Drich]

That is why corporations do not want you discussing salary, as rarely can you see the big picture from the bottom line of your pay check.

But in this case, it was two teenagers with equal experience being hired for the same low-skill position. Do you think a difference in pay was justified? It's not as though the 25-cent/hour difference was arrived at after a probationary period and a review of their performances on the job. The difference was there from the start.

If a broom pusher is willing to work for a dollar a day, and agrees to it then is it not fair to pay him that dollar? If the next broom pusher holds out and i agree to give him 1.25 a day should again I not give him/her what has been agreed upon?

If I need and can have both broom pushers for what they agreed to work above, then what does it matter to them what the other makes? If I feel I can work the guy making .25 cents more just s little bit harder than the other, even if I don't then it is worth having paid one a little more than the other. especially if I know I can go to him first and he will get it done.

despite if the job is equal or not people are not. I had an opening for a broom pusher job. the last guy I had working in that job was worthless. 8.05 or whatever the government min wage is was all I could stand to give him. The guy I hired today has done more in one day than the last guy would get done in a month. I'm going to give him a dollar more than I have to because of his hustle, and ablity to get stuff done. If he keeps it up for 90 days I'll give him another dollar raise.

Again same experience same job, same job requirement, different attitude, different employee.

Now all that good will ends, if he insists getting paid like a line tech while pushing a broom.

[The Grand Nudger]

If a broom pusher is willing to work for a dollar a day, and agrees to it then is it not fair to pay him that dollar?

No, it's not, but more importantly, it's illegal.  I get that you think slavery and exploitation was real swell, but who cares what you think? 

[FatAndFaithless]

Oh for Christ's sake Drich...

[Minimalist]

That is against the law.

So is punishing whistle-blowers.

In 1997 I was a union official in NY for IRS workers.  That year, Senator William Roth held a series of hearings into what he considered abusive IRS practices and one of his star witnesses was a female revenue agent from Texas named Jennifer Long.  Unlike some others who testified anonymously from behind a screen, Long testified openly about the pressures that were placed on agents by management to, as she put it:

The IRS will often pursue a taxpayer who is viewed to be vulnerable. To the IRS, vulnerability can be based on a perception that the taxpayer has limited formal education, has suffered a personal tragedy, is having a financial crisis, or may not necessarily have a solid grasp of their legal rights. Please understand, many agents are encouraged by management to pursue tax assessments that have no basis in tax law from individuals who simply can't fight back. However, if that taxpayer does object or complain, every effort will be made by the IRS to run up their tax assessment, deplete their financial resources and force them to capitulate to IRS demands.

Of course she was right and it was no different in NY than it was in Texas.  I recall watching her testimony and being totally enthralled because as a union official I knew what was coming. It took balls.   At the end four US senators, including Roth, assured her that if there was any retaliation by the IRS she was to contact them instantly.  Now you might think that would be enough to prevent a bunch of spineless bureaucrats from trying anything.

You would be wrong.

They didn't try to go after her for whistle-blowing and she never discussed specific cases so there was no "disclosure" problem.  Instead,

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/17/news/mn-28267

IRS Moves to Fire Agent Who Told of Taxpayer Abuse
Government: Star witness in 1997 Senate hearing believes action is retaliation by her managers.
April 17, 1999

Jennifer Long was a star witness, the first IRS agent to tell Congress about abuse of taxpayers without hiding her identity, and now steps are being taken to fire her despite years of strong performance ratings.

Yeah.  Performance reviews are done annually and from the dates involved it is obvious that she had already had her annual review prior to her testimony.  Which means that when her Annual Appraisal came up in 1998 they wasted no time in deciding that she was all of a sudden a lousy agent in spite of those years of strong performance ratings.  When all the contractual provisions had been winked at they issued their final determination....which had obviously been written and was just waiting for a date and she did go to Roth and the others and also to the press.

Having been caught the commissioner stopped any action and one imagines he got a richly deserved ass-reaming from Roth which hopefully he passed down the line to those dumb shits in Texas.

We later learned that she retired as soon as eligible.  I'm sure they made her life miserable in any way they could think of.

So laws are one thing.  Justice is something completely different.

[Spirian]

Just one more reason I am self-employed 

[Gemini]

...

so that beggs the question how do you tell a 300 dollar week broom pusher that he is not smart/skilled enough to make what the top guy makes?

...

Begging the question is a logical fallacy in which what is to be proved by an argument is assumed in the premises. I think you mean "raises the question."

[/pet peeve]

[T.J.]

Yeah... I hate my state.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The only organization in the US that has true equal pay for equal work is the military. Everyone with the same rank and rate and length of service gets paid the same.