Topic: how businesses swindle the minimum wage employee - page 2. (Read 574 times)

We know that each country does have their own different living standards or lets say that economic value in regarding on the fiat that they are using.It is really just that normal that there would really be some huge differences when it comes to conversion.If we do really tend to reflect out on how much to those people who are working with those basic jobs and their per hour rates and comparing it into those who do have minimum fix salary on 3rd world countries then it would really be having that kind of significant differences and its true that if earning 10 euro per hour then i would really be also living like a king here in our place but
we are really just that earning the lesser amount on which it is really that in fact the reality.

Economic situations does really vary on each places, the way of living, the cost or expense on whatever surrounds you. Its never been that simple for everyone which it might be looking good in numbers
but the way of living on a certain place would really be costly if you do tend to make up some comparison on which means that it would really be just entirely be the same situation
in between those people who do have their day job. They do differ in rates but the same situation which we are really that struggling on day to day living.
Therefore, finding alternatives will really be just that our solution on things.

My friend worked for a software company and they had no scheduled breaks at all.

There was a card reader at the door of the floor he worked on and the only thing there was on that floor was the bathroom and a smoking room. If you wanted to take lunch break or go outside, even to the parking lot to take something from the car, you had to use the card and they'd count how long you were outside of your working area and that time would be subtracted from your paycheck, unless you stayed after hours.

It was a common thing for people working there to take a break and then stay an hour longer.

To be fair that depends on where you live, because 10 euro per hour in my nation would be insane income, I am doing something similar give or take and I am quite happy about the result, it is really great. However, if you work 10 hours a day, at 10 euro an hour, that would be 100, and that would be 3000 euro and that is MUCH more than what I make and that would be like living like kings in my nation.

However, I understand the logic, there are people working for nearly 10-15 dollars a whole day here, and even in that situation yes you are right that when you calculate all the spending we have towards the work, it doesn't really end up with anything profitable for you, you end up working for a lot less than what you are told.

Unfortunately, this kind of oppressive setup is rampant where I'm from. And rather than complaining and be furious about it, workers have grown accustomed to it. That's, after all, the setup everywhere. And so it has become common and acceptable.

As a matter of fact, what OP has shared is a toned down version of the, shall we say, inhumane situation here. A store, for example, pays below the minimum wage. A worker, say, a cashier, will have to be there at least 30 minutes to an hour earlier. The store closes at 5 in the afternoon, but the worker will spend another hour or two doing all kinds of works in the store.

Add to this the severe traffic congestion in many cities here as well as the poor public transportation. Everything considered, the worker will have to wake up as early as 4 in the morning and could go home as late as 12 midnight.

And this is openly allowed by our inutile government.

Complaining about the minimum wage we get from the work we do will not make the income we get increase by itself, we need to make efforts on our part to develop our existing potential, it would be better because by having some skills and knowledge, of course we can find work according to our needs. the abilities we have and also with more income.

Those who get the minimum wage for the work they do, I think, is work that can be easily done by most people, so if they don't accept the wage offered, the person giving the job will look for someone else who is willing to work for the wage they offer.

very well-said. if you don't like to be controlled by this kind of situation, improve yourself, knowledge, skills or whatever is needed to get out of your current situation. it is on your hands how you will change your path.
but if you will just complain and do nothing about it, you won't go anywhere.

I'll ask a simple question - who forced this man to take this job?
I will answer it myself, but it will be interesting to hear alternative opinions.
1. The person has limited abilities, and he can only do this job, and he is forced to agree to the conditions.
2. A person does not want to look for a more difficult job, to work hard, to learn something new, and he is satisfied with this arrangement.
3. The situation in his neighborhood/city/region/country is like this - the crisis and there is no other work, even for a highly qualified specialist.
Conclusions:
1. these are his problems
2. these are his problems
3. change the situation - neighborhood, city, region, or even country

Your opinion ?

This is the reality for many people, it is what it is. I guess if you don’t like it then change career or go back to school. Take control of what you can control, there is no point moaning about something & then doing nothing about it. There will always be somebody to do those type of jobs so if you don’t like it, get up off your ass & better yourself.

Well thats something that do talks about reality and we know that there's really that thing that we called "Balance" on which if there's Rich people then there are poor ones. Even if you do live on a rich country but if you are still having no job or not really that earning that much then you would really be still considering to be poor. It doesnt always reflect out totally that if you do live into those rich countries then you are also rich as a citizen, you would really be still needing to make your ass do all the hard work on making yourself or life to be that progressive and not something that would really be talking about just stagnant and completely making no acions.

You wont really be that making yourself that progressive if you would really be just contented on what you do have.Its true that economical factors and other things could really affect out the overall struggles and
challenges that you might encounter along the way. Its never been simply as an average minimum wage earner, if you dont work then there's no pay and if there's no pay
then surviving would really be questionable and this is indeed the reality.

I do agree that it's not going to be something that would benefit you on the long run we shouldn't really consider that as "optional" when it comes to third world  nations. As someone who lives in not so rich nation, I could say that it's not even lack of jobs, it's about the average salary of a person in that nation, even doctors do not make as much as high school kids in the USA, and that's the difference and that's causing the biggest trouble.

I get that it may not cause that much trouble for the time being because they live according to the costs of that nation as well, but that's a different aspect, you live good compared to your fellow citizens, but you are not living that good compared to other people in other nations, richer nations.

i agree its very common for businesses to do this. if it was not there would be no need for unions, strikes or protests..

however the point is the lowest paid people think they are winning, getting a bonus, benefits from accepting such conditions. so much so they artificually inflate the value to make it seem like they are getting a good deal. when in reality, the maths shows they are treated as slaves

luckily i have not needed to work for many years thanks to bitcoin. but when i hear stories of the lowest paid people hyping up their position, they need a reality check and realise they should demand more from their employer, just to get the legal minimum

Oh, my! This is a classic example right? Businesses always find methods to extract every ounce of productivity from their employees without paying them appropriately. It's not right, not right at all! Your friend's circumstance shows how the system may exploit the weak

Break it down. Math is clear. He should be paid for 8:45–6:15 work hours. The end. Those breaks... if he can't leave, are they really breaks? More like a pause. And a pause isn't the same as free time

And then: fuel, washing, lunch - it adds up. It's his money, not the company's. Like taking a chunk of his money without him knowing. Sneaky, very sneaky

People, if you're giving a firm your time, be sure they're compensating you. The hours you spend tere, not just on paper. Only fair. If they won't, find a place that will. Remember that your time is valuable and deserves compensation

Yep, at least you can survive in first world or you can buy live paycheck to paycheck if you're someone who like to spend your money.

While in third world your choice is only to survive and sometime it's not enough even you've a full time job. There are lack of good job and even more entry job is really hard to get because there are a lot unemployment. If a poor people didn't want to be a slave, how can they survive if they don't have a good capital to start a business? they also don't have a good device or PC, how they can become a freelancer?

Are you always stand up when people treat you unfair?

yes to all points
supermarkets that interview employees are the local instore supervisor(untrained in HR).. so trying to make salary demands at the interview stage falls flat against a supervisor who does not have any discretionary control over salary adjustments. they are there just to evaluate the applicant and get them to sign a template strict contract they printed from HR. a standard contract with set details the supervisor cannot touch or alter

usually if a supervisor has 20 applicants and a interviewee  is questioning even the 15 min start and end addon of time unpaid. the supervisor will just not get the interviewee to sign a contract and instead give the opportunity to someone that doesnt question the math

you would be surprised how little discretion/decision making ability a local instore manager/supervisor has over their employees/applicants.

its for the HR department of the HQ of the company that can handle salary discrepancies. and usually with any industry, its a headache to negotiate a pay rise or adjust an employee contract(customise it) compared to the standard template that all employees are locked into

usually it ends up with employees having to form a group action such as a strike or a union to push the HR to adjust all contracts. for the HR to even consider changing their template.

the problem is that there needs to be a legal push to the HQ to meet its legal obligations of labour time

My assumption is that the person you are talking about works in a supermarket or something similar that serves the needs of the people around them. It is worth exploring what the agreement was with the supermarket owner when he first accepted the job. If he feels that the salary he receives is too small or below the minimum salary applied in the area where he works, he can submit a request for a salary increase. He can also leave the job if he feels he is not being treated well, in terms of working more hours than usual and never being paid for overtime.
The decision is in his hands, choose to continue working there or look for work elsewhere.

Agreed on the high cost of fundamental living expenses, probably most pronounced in the USA, where taxation and some laws are also very problematic and can immediately get one in trouble... It puts pressure on people to work very hard and with impeccable consistency, as it can all fall apart and one might find himself on the streets even if he slacks off just a little...


Philippines might not be the best example from a third world perspective as it's a pretty corrupt dictatorship, and most imported goods are very heavily taxed to make it prohibitive for the local population (or at least that was my experience when I was working briefly around Cebu there) ...

In more libertarian places, digital nomads have been really arbitraging the higher wages of the developed countries by doing remote work, and enjoying a luxury lifestyle at a far cheaper price tag, like Thailand, Portugal, parts of Eastern Europe and similar...

Well, this could easily prevent employers from abusing such power, however, a lot of people are still looking to fill that job due to the tight career competition in the professional industry and most of these people doesn't have a degree in the first place so that leaves them with a little to no option at all. The inflation rate also adds to the burden.
This is a true story though and it happens most of the time in the restaurants. I have never worked in a restaurants before but a lot of my friends does. Theirs' were even worse because they should be at least 45 mins to 1 hr early to prepare things out from small peptalk to cleaning the kitchen and dining area. Though there are 2 shifts, but both shifts were actually doing 10 hrs minimum being in the work place the whole time and were receiving of 8 hrs as well, no overtimes. There were a free launch, but it's for limited amount only, anything in excess will be an automatic deduction to the payroll.
They are used to it already so it feels normal for them, It's not against the labor code as well but I know there could be something to be done with it to fix the kind of system. The reality here is that a lot of employees are actually underpaid, but only a few have dared to fix this system up, because everyone thinks it's normal.

Yes, sometimes there are situations that cannot be controlled, requiring us to work for whatever we are paid as long as we can continue living, so a person's idealism cannot always be used and it must be in its proper place.
Realistically, we want whatever work we do to be worth it for the pay we receive, but I have been in a bad situation where I had to do whatever it took to continue living, so I know how it feels.
Maybe one way we have to go is to get up slowly and look for a place where we can find what we want.

Okay I make pretty good money, but it is all relative.  Where I live you can not walk to stores and carry the food home. So you have to have an e-bike with a cart or like most of us a car.

I have a car not two. I leased it as the one I owned was wrecked in summer of 2021.

My lease is 420 a month my fuel is 250 a month my car insurance is 200 a month. So the car alone costs 870 x 12 = 10400 a year.

Just the car . Next house insurance 1600 a year. next property tax 8700 a year.
then gas for stove and furnace 3000 a year.

and electric 8000 a year. So I am at 31700.

Phones and internet 3300 now I am at 35000.  

Sewer and water is 2000 so 37000 for a house and a car yearly cost.

No clothes or food.

If I go super cheap on food and clothes 12000 so now I am at 49000 a year.

Health insurance is 3000 so 52000 a year. That is with no vacations and very little restaurants.

So yea you can say first world issues. The biggest first world issue it things are costly.

Never mind if you want to eat healthy.

Third world is different a lot of it is fuck you starve stay poor no opportunities.
I lived in Philippines when I was in the US Navy so I saw lots of hard difficulty poor people have.

They had poor options and little money or ability to get good quality  items

It is true that not all countries around the world have the same minimum wage for each applicant. Just like here in our country, the minimum wage for an ordinary employee is too low. Then, with the number of applicants who are looking for a job, even degree holders who have completed it are still trying to apply even if their income is below the minimum wage.

As long as the pursuit and what is important to them is that they have a job and they will be paid every 2 weeks and at the end of the month, that's the mindset of others. Others who are capable of applying abroad are made to work outside their country because the minimum wage is higher.