THE MINIMUM WAGE FIASCO IN THE WORLDS GREATEST COUNTRY!

THE MINIMUM WAGE FIASCO IN THE WORLDS GREATEST COUNTRY!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Labor laws in the United States are…..well, a joke, there aren’t any laws unless you call employers attempts to circumvent whatever mandated edicts have been written down by our political leaders, and forwarded to us, the constituents, through silly laws that go largely unenforceable through a process of not caring.

We can go back to when a federal minimum wage was crated, when it was a cornerstone of President Franklin Roosevelt’s re-election in 1936. Prior to Roosevelt’s election promise during the ’36 election campaign, there had been several attempts by loose net union organizers to mandate a minimum wage, but the proposals were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that they “restricted the worker’s right to set the price for his labor.”

Bizarre is the only word that comes to mind when a person reads in the history books about a Supreme Court ruling before 1936, and a United States worker having the ability to set his own wage for work that was rendered to an employer by an employee. Talk about not being the way it works, in America, this issue was the pinnacle of that unwritten law.

I have attempted several times to dictate my wage for services rendered, and each and every time I got slapped down like a wicked and ugly step-child, or worse. It never ceases to amaze me how out of touch authority figures usually are. The final negative ruling regarding a minimum wage by the Supreme Court was in the early 1930’s, apparently after high ranking political figures discovered that backing a higher wage in the country developed into vote creators.

During the depression there was an incredible demand for jobs by a work-force that would work for next to nothing. As the depression worsened, wages in the United States dropped even further…..to an all-time low. It got so bad, that the wages being paid by employers to their workers became a national disgrace and embarrassment, further driving more and more people deeper and deeper into poverty.

It was obvious that American industry was not going to address the issue in a positive manner, and it would be necessary for the government to step in, and literally save the day. Before 1938…..in the United States, there were two basic ways to accumulate a bunch of money, you were either born into it, or you stole it.

AFTER 1938 TIMES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME…..SORT OF

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, also referred to as the Wages and Hours Bill became a federal statute of the United States. The act introduced a maximum 44-hour seven-day workweek, established a national minimum wage, guaranteed time-and-a-half for overtime for certain jobs, and prohibited most employers the use of minors (in oppressive child labor).

The law truly was a sweeping act that covered a multitude of employer misdeeds and sins, and had originally been drafted in 1932 by Senator Hugo Black. The 1938 version of Black’s proposal did have many of the earlier act’s points. There were approximately 700,000 workers affected by the FLSA, and Roosevelt called the act the most important piece of legislature passed since the Social Security Act of 1035.

As with any law, there are always loop-holes that people flock to like bee’s do to honey, and the FLSA was no different. There are exemptions, like executives, administrators, professionals, computer employees, food handlers, commercial-delivery truck drivers, and highly compensated workers may be exempt from the FLSA.

States may exempt themselves from federal guidelines, establishing their own minimum pay, however any federal governmental work does fall under the FLSA and the workers must be paid according to the federal guidelines.

There are huge misconceptions regarding what an employer operating here in the United States can do, and can’t, and what an employer has to and doesn’t have to offer. Contrary to wishful thinking by workers, business here in the U.S. does not have to give bonuses, holiday pay, vacations, sick days, personal days, and in many cases, maternity leave.

The niceties that employees get are usually bargained for through union organizations, longevity with a company, or employers becoming aware of the simple fact that well educated, experienced, and attentive employees actually are part of an employee’s attribute. Believe it or not some modern day employers don’t understand that concept…..or simply don’t care, and of course there are those jobs that do not require much of any kind of experience or education.

There now is a reversal of fortunes…..so to speak, politically some states are stripping union rights, and their operating procedures, as well as their power, away. There are those people who have actually applauded the erosion of some of these worker rights…..they have fallen for the political rhetoric that is prevalent in some states.

WHAT IS A FAIR LIVING WAGE, AND HOW DO WE GET EMPLOYERS TO PAY

If I were still working, a fair minimum wage for me would be about $25 an hour, that way I could have my toys, pay my bills, take vacations, eat pretty decent food, and still have money to salt away at the end of the month. Of course both my wife and I would need to get this $25 an hour.

$50 an hour between me and my wife working, 4160 hours x $50…..$102,000…..now where are you gonna get that kind of job and money at? A living wage, a minimum wage are two entirely different things…..for everybody. Me I’m greedy, at this station in my life, I want it all.

You can’t legislate a living wage, you can’t make laws, or attitudes, or an atmosphere that’ll bring workers enough money to live a constant, enjoyable life. It’s not in the cards, employers aren’t interested in a workers needs, wants’ and desires. The worker has to fight for everything that he gets, and you know what, getting a taste of the high life pisses of an employee, therein lays the problem.

Government needs to lay down a set of rules and regulations that will govern U.S. employees that encompass all business, no exemptions allowed. In hidden shelters, no off-shore accounts..,…and for damn sure no outsoaring. Made in America, bought by American workers needs to be the watch-word and the rules that we live by. In other words…..we need change, and the working man-women of the United States need to stick together, and address these minimum wage issues. Good luck, I can only add that I feel blessed to be retired at this particular point in our country’s history.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!