The fight
for a living wage as a minimum wage is an important cause. However, it is also important
to consider the state of minimum wage today. Many minimum wage employees
experience wage theft wherein their employers do not pay them for the work that
they do.
In
order to recover these wages these workers have to reach out to either the
state or national labor department and they are supposed to send an
investigator in order to have proof of their claims to submit to court to receive
their wages. However, 26 states have fewer than 10 investigators 6 of which
have none. All 6 of the states- Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina,
Tennessee, and Mississippi- lacking investigators are in the south and require
employees to file claims with the national labor department.
If
a worker is able to file a claim against their employer and win further
challenges are faced. According to a Politico survey of 15 states 41% of wages
ordered to be paid back are never recovered. This is because the primary
culprits of wage stealing are able to shed their corporate skin and reform
performing the same business under a different name and no longer owe the
stolen wages.
When
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown who is legislating for a $15 living wage was faced with
these facts he focused on the fact that the minimum wage is too low to begin
with. However, regardless of how much the minimum wage increases without proper
enforcement and protection mechanisms for workers, corporations will continue
to profit from stealing workers’ wages.
If
corporations are aware that they are essentially on the honor system, they will
use that opportunity and profit. The fact that this stealing affects working
class workers disproportionately more than anyone else is just another example
of economic oppression.
America,
the country that advertises the narrative that if one just pulls themselves up
by their bootstraps they can become a successful, rich individual lacks truth.
Children raised in working class neighborhoods will often attend schools with a
lesser quality of education than those in middle or high-class neighborhoods,
they will not have the same collegiate or “resume building” opportunities as
those same peers, so the chances that they will remain working class are high.
This
is especially an important legacy to consider in light of the racial
demographics of working class neighborhoods. This economic oppression then is
also a racial oppression. A living wage is an important step for those that
earn the minimum wage. However, the proper protections and resources for
workers so that this wage cannot be withheld and stolen is another important
thing to achieve economic justice.
Article: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/18/minimum-wage-not-enforced-investigation-409644
I think it was really telling that the six states without investigators for minimum wage equality are in the deep South. Formerly segregated states like these should definitely have these investigators, but probably don't because racism is so ingrained in US economic culture. African Americans often work the jobs that pay minimum wage, and the history of disenfranchisement and economic control of black people highlights why these formerly segregated states care less about the status of black workers. By not hiring investigators, it stands as another way governments control black lives.
ReplyDeleteWelfare is essentially the same way. The process is extremely over complicated so that the possible applicants are deterred from completely filling it out. One example of this came from a story that my urban politics professor told me about the state of California. Many years back, when the economy was doing well and the need for welfare was on a decline, the state reached out to a company that my professor was working for and asked them if they could make their welfare applications more easily completable. Once the economy dipped back down and more people began to file for welfare, California contacted the company again, this time asking them to re-complicate the application. This story is eye-opening especially when realizing that California is one of the more liberal states. I cannot fathom how hard the various processes must be for a low wage citizen living in the south.
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