How some minimum wage workers are robbed by their employers - Polidicks

[QUOTE][B][I]Some employers find loopholes or simply ignore minimum wage laws, effectively robbing their workers[/I][/B][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Across the U.S., millions of workers in 20 states started the New Year with a raise. In nine states, the law required the minimum wage to keep up with inflation, while 11 others passed new legislation to hike up the wage floor. But not everyone entitled to a raise will actually get one. According to a recent survey from the National Employment Law Project, one in four low-wage workers has suffered some kind of wage theft, with employers taking advantage of a series of loopholes to avoid complying with federal and state labor laws. In New York, employers are required to pay workers a minimum of $8.75 an hour, up from $8 in 2014. But labor campaigners say the increase won’t matter if the law isn’t actually enforced. “A lot of times people think of sweatshops in third-world countries,” said JoAnn Lum, executive director of the Coalition for a Real Minimum Wage, a New York advocacy group. “But right here in the United States, all kinds of workers are being sweated. And one aspect of being sweated is being robbed of your wages.” [B]'Money everywhere'[/B] Bi Sheng Liu is a 44-year-old father and husband, who moved to New York from China with big dreams. “I expected to see money everywhere,” he told us. “I expected this perfect world.” In 2007, Bi Sheng took a job as a driver with an independent taxi company based in Queens known as Yes Car. Under the terms of his employment, he earned a flat weekly salary of $500 – driving 12 hours a day, six days a week. Do the math – and Bi Sheng was working 72 hours a week, earning $6.94 an hour, with no overtime pay. Two years later, Yes Car owner Tony Luo announced he’d deduct another $100 from Bi Sheng’s weekly paychecks in so-called “protection fees.” He was now earning $5.55 an hour. At the time, the state minimum wage was $7.25. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][IMG]http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2015/1/16/minimum-wage-theft/jcr:content/mainpar/textimage/image.adapt.990.high.1421788726530.jpg[/IMG] [I]Bi Sheng Liu's big dreams soon evaporated when he was "basically working for free" as a driver with an independent taxi company.[/I][/QUOTE] [QUOTE]“Just like China, the U.S. has its dark sides,” Bi Sheng said. “The boss said, 'This is as much as you get, take it or leave it.' I realized I was basically working for free.” He wasn’t alone. In 2009, Bi-Sheng and 20 other drivers filed a complaint against Yes Car with the state’s Department of Labor. They said Luo got away with underpaying them by classifying them as independent contractors, instead of employees. Lawyers argued the drivers were not independent because they were forced to work fixed hours, and were not allowed to work for other taxi companies. The case is still unresolved. [B]Case overload[/B] The New York Labor Department has 112 investigators on staff, more than any other state besides California. But last year, an official audit from the New York State Comptroller’s Office found the department was failing in its efforts to investigate alleged wage theft, describing its work as “inadequate” and “untimely.” The audit found the agency had a backlog of more than 17,000 cases, and 75 percent of them had been open more than a year. It concluded that the state Labor Department’s investigation process “[fell] considerably short of the minimum requirements established by the state” to enforce the law and protect New York workers. In its response, the state Labor Department dismissed the findings and said the majority of cases are processed in less than six months. Speaking to America Tonight, Alphonso David, New York's deputy secretary for civil rights and labor, said the only part of the process that the state controls is the investigation stage. “One of the practical realities of litigation is that it takes time,” he said. “And unless we are collectively willing to change the law in New York or anywhere else, there is an appellate process that the state does not control.” [B]'Life in China was better'[/B] In 2012, Tony Luo sold Yes Car. The new owner, who would only identify himself as Wallace, said he hasn’t seen or heard from Luo in more than two years. He also wouldn’t specify what his drivers are currently making, but he did admit their classification hasn’t changed. “We’re running taxi cabs,” he said. “There’s nobody working for us. They’re all independent contractors.” Labor advocates say they’re unaware of any wage theft cases involving drivers who currently work for Yes Car. But the company’s new ownership could complicate the case. “It's perfectly legal to shut down and then open up another business,” Lum said. “The law does allow the franchise to declare bankruptcy, to hide assets, to hide behind the subcontracting system and say, 'That's not my responsibility.' So the risk is very little.”[/QUOTE] [url]http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2015/1/16/minimum-wage-theft.html[/url]

[quote]“I expected to see money everywhere,” he told us. “I expected this perfect world.”[/quote] If you come to the US of all places with this expectation you are bound to be disappointed.

[QUOTE=Robber;47021656]If you come to the US of all places with this expectation you are bound to be disappointed.[/QUOTE] If you go ANYWHERE and expect it to be a perfect world you are bound to be disapointed.

This is how immigration has always worked. We tell them "come to america! if you work hard you'll have your own land and business and make lots of money!" Then when they get here they got no assistance and we expect them to live in slums and build our canals. Lots of irish people got tricked into coming over with empty promises.

[QUOTE=DoritoBandit;47021691]This is how immigration has always worked. We tell them "come to america! if you work hard you'll have your own land and business and make lots of money!" Then when they get here they got no assistance and we expect them to live in slums and build our canals. Lots of irish people got tricked into coming over with empty promises.[/QUOTE] It's "the land of opportunity" and while that isn't as easy as it was in older times, before capitalism spread in force. There is still more opportunity and chances to change anything there there are in many portions of the world even in today's economy. Our middle/low class is still richer than many parts of the world.

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;47021719]It's "the land of opportunity" and while that isn't as easy as it was in older times, before capitalism spread in force. There is still more opportunity and chances to change anything there there are in many portions of the world even in today's economy. Our middle/low class is still richer than many parts of the world.[/QUOTE] I'm not saying america is the shittiest country on earth, but "better than Somalia" isn't a good standard to hold ourselves to. Sure there's plenty of opportunity compared to a lot of places, but are we really, as a country, doing all we can to help others? I don't think that our government prioritizes people like Mr. Liu, and Mr. Liu is obviously on his own in this case. Now, Mr. Liu never should have taken that job in the first place, since it's fucking bullshit. Even McDonalds would have paid him more money.

[QUOTE=Robber;47021656]If you come to the US of all places with this expectation you are bound to be disappointed.[/QUOTE] Maybe because the US advertises itself as this economic bastion of freedom, democracy, and apple pie and if you work hard enough you could do anything even when that is not the case.

[QUOTE=SgtCr4zyGunz;47021957]Maybe because the US advertises itself as this economic bastion of freedom, democracy, and apple pie and if you work hard enough you could do anything even when that is not the case.[/QUOTE] More like "land of opportunities on how to get fucked"

Independant contractors are bullshit half the time anyways, how can you say a guy who you pay to do your work and has to adhear to every order by you is not an employee? It really needs cleaned up and a minimum threshold established to reign in on the abuses

[QUOTE=Sableye;47022695]Independant contractors are bullshit half the time anyways, how can you say a guy who you pay to do your work and has to adhear to every order by you is not an employee? It really needs cleaned up and a minimum threshold established to reign in on the abuses[/QUOTE] Well, if you want to change it, just start writing multimillion dollar checks to SuperPACS. You have the same access to government as the people that profit off of screwing low-income people. :downs: Wage theft is fucking endemic in this country, from the very bottom all the way up to salaried employees. That's what happens when you spend 30 years waging a campaign of total destruction against organized labor and worker's rights.

The independent contractor classification is bullshit. I was under the impression from my employer that I was an employee for tax purposes which by the IRS definitions I was without question. Come tax time I get a 1098 and find out they had never withheld taxes so I owed ~$400. I could have filed an IRS complaint but for the time it would have taken and harmed further relationship with my employer. They went under a month later and failed to inform any of us employees. They just stopped giving us hours and I found out from a Facebook post that they closed. Fuck them.

[QUOTE=SgtCr4zyGunz;47021957]Maybe because the US advertises itself as this economic bastion of freedom, democracy, and apple pie and if you work hard enough you could do anything even when that is not the case.[/QUOTE] No one I know would ever advertise the US as being the freedom center of anything. Most people will say that they work their ass off just to meet ends. It fucking sucks and isnt for those who think its easy. You want some nice places to live? Go look at Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. You dont want to pay taxes? China, Russia, and North Korea. You want to work you ass off just to get by and maybe your kids will have a better future? United States.

[QUOTE=Code3Response;47023331]No one I know would ever advertise the US as being the freedom center of anything. Most people will say that they work their ass off just to meet ends. It fucking sucks and isnt for those who think its easy. You want some nice places to live? Go look at Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. You dont want to pay taxes? China, Russia, and North Korea. You want to work you ass off just to get by and maybe your kids will have a better future? United States.[/QUOTE] Maybe last millennia. More and more it seems like you need more qualifications to do less and it's all about who you know not what you can actually do.

Just for kicks I looked up the IRS definition of independent contractor and literally my last job fails every criteria, especially the part about directing how my work was done since I was getting phone calls about complaints every few days from my employer and threats to be terminated if I didn't do the job right, this meets the IRS definition of employees employer relationship If they tell my how to do my job, according to the IRS, I'm an employee then

It's ridiculous how companies try and do get away with stuff like this. I was fired from a job last week after not having been paid for any of the time I worked there. My inquiries into where my wages were were met with a brick wall at every turn and then after a week of trying to figure out what the hell is going on I'm suddenly fired and I'm told it's because I'm not a good fit for the company culture. I asked about my wages and I was told that my financial situation was not their fault. So I called the US Labor Board and told them the situation. They called the company and threatened a federal investigation if they weren't going to pay me and suddenly my checks were overnighted to me. Companies most definitely need somebody standing over them ready to drop the hammer on them when they decide to act clever. I would be VERY cautious about anybody offering a weekly, flat wage for work.

How does an unskilled person get accepted as an immigrant? Genuinely curious, I was under the impression they had to be well educated like a doctor or something.

[QUOTE=Mitsudigi;47030376]How does an unskilled person get accepted as an immigrant? Genuinely curious, I was under the impression they had to be well educated like a doctor or something.[/QUOTE] Companies can basically import people to work for them for minimum wage. It was a thing in Canada in places like McDonalds and Tim Hortons a while back.

[QUOTE=Bonehedge;47029552]I would be VERY cautious about anybody offering a weekly, flat wage for work.[/QUOTE] I think you mean salary? There's nothing really wrong with the idea of a salary. The issue at hand is employers using a loose interpretation of what constitutes someone being an employee versus a subcontractor.

[QUOTE=Mitsudigi;47030376]How does an unskilled person get accepted as an immigrant? Genuinely curious, I was under the impression they had to be well educated like a doctor or something.[/QUOTE] Well, forging your papers to say that you are a doctor is not difficult in China. Pretty sure they do something similar here in Vancouver where they "farm" college degrees but they're not actual degrees you just pay a guy who will sign a diploma/certificate saying you have indeed completed all the things necessary for the said diploma/certificate and it's always the Chinese doing it here. Here being Vancouver not all around the world.

[QUOTE=Antdawg;47030546]I think you mean salary? There's nothing really wrong with the idea of a salary. The issue at hand is employers using a loose interpretation of what constitutes someone being an employee versus a subcontractor.[/QUOTE] I could be wrong, but salaried pay is normally based on the expected hours someone has to put in each week. You are right, the idea of independent contractors is heavily abused. For some people it works out well (I know a few people who are painters/decorators who are subcontracted for work, and they get paid well for it), but too many companies use it as a loophole to screw people over.

[QUOTE=JohnFisher89;47021719]It's "the land of opportunity" and while that isn't as easy as it was in older times, before capitalism spread in force. There is still more opportunity and chances to change anything there there are in many portions of the world even in today's economy. Our middle/low class is still richer than many parts of the world.[/QUOTE] The USA is basically like trying to be dealt into a late game of Monopoly when all the land has hotels on it. You roll the dice once and your starter money is taken and you're out. People like to say it's the land of opportunity but to be honest there are no more opportunities here than any other first world country. In some cases there's even less

The US isn't the land of opportunity. Its the land of needing college for 4 years (unless you want shitty pay for your life) and racking up 80,000 dollars of debt in student loans that then haunt you for a long ass time.

It's not as bad as some of these other stories, but my employer is also exploiting loopholes to stiff me out of the higher minimum wage. I'm a part-time pizza delivery guy. For two years I made minimum wage and pocketed the tips I got. Then, after the minimum wage was raised, the company turned the drivers' pay into a "split pay" system. While I'm in the store (not on delivery), I make the new minimum wage. But while I'm on the road (i.e. most of my time there), I'm now counted as earning "tipped wages" (like a waiter would) and make some kind of new, lowered wage they calculated out so that the total wages I ultimately end up being paid "stays the same" as before the wage change (which is their bullshit way of saying "we aren't paying you the higher minimum wage, fuck you"). On top of that, since I now make "tipped wages", my tips are now taxed, whereas before I could just pocket them. Except, I'm not getting paid the same. My paychecks are now consistently lower than before for the same hours. Fun stuff.

My employer charged me $250+ for two pairs of pants, two pairs of shirts a belt and a jacket. They also had a registration fee of $50. The same clothes could have all been bought at walmart for less than $50. After taxes and the $25 fee for the clothes and $10 registration fees I was making less than minimum wage every week.