Showing posts with label Minimum Wage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minimum Wage. Show all posts

April 2, 2018

The Heart and Soul Of The Matter

So I had a beautiful conversation with an older gentleman who works in a menial job for minimum wage for most of his life. 

But this person was shinning and smiling ear-to-ear. 

What happened, he got offered a job to work in a lovely school as their cook. 

He's been doing this as a special treat for the students once a year, and they decided to bring him on to do this full time. 

He pulled out his phone and proudly showed me a picture of himself in the classroom surrounded by all the children.  He was in an orange sweater and stood out in the middle of all of them and with a smile that lit up the entire room. 

He told me how the children thought of him as a celebrity chef and the teacher even organized autographs by him for the children.

His whole life, he questioned his worth, and now he felt recognized, appreciated, and loved. 

I told him that I thought he was indeed quite a special person. 

He said to me, you may have a talent or be special, but you have to recognize it--and he repeated aloud again at least three times emphasizing more and more on RECOGNIZE it. 

Surely, after so many years, only now was he being recognized and more so, recognizing it himself. 

Apparently, someone who worked in the school was also a renown food critic, and she had nothing but praises to sing of him. 

Talking with him, I felt my eyes being opened. 

Everyone can do good with their lives and have worth. 

We have to recognize it in ourselves. 

We need to just be given an opportunity to show it and share it. 

It doesn't matter what you are or earn.

It matters where your heart is.

For many, they earn gazillions, but their heart is a heart of stone. 

For others, they may earn minimum wage, but their heart is a heart of gold. 

It's not the money, it's not the power, it's not the prestige...it's the heart and soul of the matter. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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September 23, 2017

Screwing The American Worker

So someone came to me today complaining that their company was messing with them. 

The employee was earning above minimum wage after several years in their line of work

And now their company wants to cut their salary claiming tight budgets. 

But get this:

- Instead of speaking with the employee, they send the employee a text message telling them they are going to cut their salary, and when the employee tries to call them, they don't even pick up the phone or call back. 

- The company decides unilaterally that they will cut the employee salary by $1.50 an hour or a whopping 12.5% to this person!

- And this company is going to actually pay the employee below minimum wage!

Apparently, this company hires a lot of immigrants who don't know the law and are only here for a short time, so this company disgustingly "gets away with it!"

But this employee is an American citizen and he is rightfully furious--as we all should be.

So Montgomery County, Maryland--a very liberal county--just raised the minimum wage to $11.50 effective July 1. 

Do you know what that comes out to at 40 hours per week--less than $24,000 annually.

That's less than the poverty level for a typical family of four. 

Imagine what this person has left after taxes and carfare to get to work--not much!

I have gotten to know this person and they are a good, decent, hardworking human being, and they have suffered in their lifetime--why do they need to be treated like this and forced to earn even LESS THAN minimum wage. 

They are worried that if they say anything then they will be even worse off--they don't want to be seen as trouble. 

How many times does this or a similar situation happen to innocent workers where they are mistreated, taken advantage of, abused, harassed, or even worse--but because they need the job and the money they are afraid to say or do anything to protect themselves.

We are the United States of America--one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on Earth--is this how we treat our citizens?

People deserve to work and earn a decent days pay for a honest days work--a genuine living wage!

They also deserve core worker benefits like health care and a decent retirement. 

And they should be able to do their work free from workplace harassment and abuse. 

There must be not only fundamental laws that protect people, but also the enforcement mechanisms to make it really work. 

This gets to the heart of America--do we still have one? 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 9, 2014

Mickey Isn't Smiling On Everyone

Orlando, as you know, is home to Disney's amusement park, one of the biggest employers in the area--70,000 people.

That's nice you say...only Bloomberg reports that Orlando has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation @ 20%--and that's not amusing!

Even though Disney just upped their minimum salaries to $10 an hour, they have thousands on the rolls (ride operators, bus drivers, maids, etc.) earning less than $25,000 a year (and that is similar to 40% of all the jobs in Orlando), and for that even Mickey Mouse couldn't buy any cheese.

Funny though that Disney costs a family of 5 about $1,500 for a 4-day pass, and they just earned a profit for the quarter of $2.2 billion.

Maybe next time you go to the fun house at Disney, you'll think for a moment that it's really a house of horror for tens of thousands of hardworking, decent people. 

Mickey Mouse is a louse and Donald Duck is a F-unny character, indeed.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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