Pensacola Discussion Forum
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

This is a forum based out of Pensacola Florida.


You are not connected. Please login or register

Bernie wanted to keep his employees wages secret. Guess Why?

2 posters

Go down  Message [Page 1 of 1]

bigdog



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-responds-to-complaints-staff-dont-earn-dollar15-an-hour/ar-AAEA5vW?ocid=spartandhp


Ow-whee!!!!!! what a hypocrite. He pays his workers less than 15 bucks an hour and they have to negotiate with him to get the same wage he claims is necessary to live in this country. Then he has the nerve to complain that they told the evil old press about it.

Could be a good campaign issue if he gets the nomination, at least a good issue for the Trumpsters on Fox to dwell on.

Just Sayin', the old boy should leave the fight right now.


BTW, the link is from MSN, a network that couldn't be more liberal. So don't blame me or call me a Republican for spreading the news.

othershoe1030

othershoe1030

bigdog wrote:https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-responds-to-complaints-staff-dont-earn-dollar15-an-hour/ar-AAEA5vW?ocid=spartandhp


Ow-whee!!!!!! what a hypocrite. He pays his workers less than 15 bucks an hour and they have to negotiate with him to get the same wage he claims is necessary to live in this country. Then he has the nerve to complain that they told the evil old press about it.

Could be a good campaign issue if he gets the nomination, at least a good issue for the Trumpsters on Fox to dwell on.

Just Sayin', the old boy should leave the fight right now.


BTW, the link is from MSN, a network that couldn't be more liberal. So don't blame me or call me a Republican for spreading the news.

Anyone interested in this should read the very short article. I am not a Bernie fan, but it looks to me as if the description of what was going on in his campaign was a bit more nuanced than suggested.

Sanders said field organizers, who are the lowest-ranking members of a presidential campaign and are typically in their 20s, make $36,000 a year with 100% employer-paid health care, as well as paid vacation and sick leave.

For a staffer working 40 hours a week, that comes out to about $17 an hour. But 40-hour workweeks on presidential campaigns are rare. Sanders said the campaign will limit the number of hours staffers work to 42 or 43 each week to ensure they're making the equivalent of $15 an hour.

It’s an issue Sanders said the campaign tried to address in a proposal it offered to union leaders, though it was rejected.

bigdog



You're right, it doesn't sound so bad when it is explained as a contract wage. However, paying a contract wage is also a very good way for employers to get extra hours of work out of an employee without paying overtime, isn't it?

Apparently, the workers have been working more than 42 or 43 hours and not getting the benefit of  the hourly salary that Sanders claims is $17 per hour. We have no way of knowing if they've been working 5 hours extra or 10 hours, but they've been working enough that they've realized they're not getting the $15 per hour Sanders always brags about.

They've rejected his offer to cut their hours and I don't blame them. He should pay them a fair hourly salary plus overtime for anything over 40 hours or stop spouting off about Americans receiving fair wages. The overtime laws aren't there for nothing. Putting someone on contract who is only making 36K per year is ridiculous. They could do a blue collar job, work some overtime, and make a whole lot more. As it is, every hour they work over 40, they are losing money.

othershoe1030

othershoe1030

bigdog wrote:You're right, it doesn't sound so bad when it is explained as a contract wage. However, paying a contract wage is also a very good way for employers to get extra hours of work out of an employee without paying overtime, isn't it?

Apparently, the workers have been working more than 42 or 43 hours and not getting the benefit of  the hourly salary that Sanders claims is $17 per hour. We have no way of knowing if they've been working 5 hours extra or 10 hours, but they've been working enough that they've realized they're not getting the $15 per hour Sanders always brags about.

They've rejected his offer to cut their hours and I don't blame them. He should pay them a fair hourly salary plus overtime for anything over 40 hours or stop spouting off about Americans receiving fair wages. The overtime laws aren't there for nothing. Putting someone on contract who is only making 36K per year is ridiculous. They could do a blue collar job, work some overtime, and make a whole lot more. As it is, every hour they work over 40, they are losing money.

I agree. It is interesting that he's picked overtime as one of his themes and then is rather lax, to say the least, when it comes to the people who work for him. Maybe this news will help him out the door?

I must say, there are so many 'edges' of labor law that can be nibbled away at by business interests, it is hard to keep track of. I did not know about the overtime rules not being indexed to inflation. I did know about companies declaring employees to be part of "management" in order to avoid overtime but there is more than one way to skin a cat. I came across this article that is pretty easy to read that gives some background on the whole overtime issue.


The overtime rule has been repeatedly weakened in the past 80 years
The concept of overtime pay, just like the minimum wage, didn’t exist in federal law until President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed for the New Deal labor protections in the wake of the Great Depression.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a federal minimum wage and overtime benefits for the first time, was meant to end sweatshop-style conditions in US factories and lift millions of Americans out of poverty. The overtime benefit, in particular, was supposed to discourage employers from overworking their employees, by making it cheaper to hire an extra worker than have one employee work 80 hours in a week.

But the problem with the law, which is the case with most federal labor laws, is that benefits aren’t indexed to the changes in cost of living.

Business groups have been quite effective in keeping it this way, making sure Congress and the executive branch make the fewest adjustments possible.

That’s one reason the federal government has raised the overtime salary threshold only a handful of times. For example, in the 1970s, federal overtime benefits covered about 65 percent of salaried workers, according to the National Employment Law Project. Today, fewer than 7 percent can earn overtime.

That’s why labor groups pushed the Obama administration for such a sharp increase. By doubling the salary threshold, the new rule would have ensured that the bottom 40 percent of salaried workers will qualify for overtime — a boon to many in the food service industry and elsewhere at the lower ends of the labor market.

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/12/18259816/obama-overtime-rule-trump-labor-department

bigdog



That's an excellent article. I had no idea that only 7% of American workers were even eligible now to receive overtime. The Republicans have managed to rip that law all to pieces with their salary caps.
If I remember right, $23K is just barely above the poverty limit in the US, if it's above it at all. And those are the only people eligible to be fairly paid for the work they do over 40 hours.
If Trump really wanted to increase employment, he'd change the limits so that if companies didn't want to pay overtime they would have to hire new workers. As it is, it accomplishes barely anything for the general economy.
It keeps people from starving, barely, but it's outrageous.

Sponsored content



Back to top  Message [Page 1 of 1]

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum