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posted by on Monday May 22 2017, @03:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-gewg dept.

For the past four decades, the majority of American workers have been shortchanged by economic policymaking that has suppressed the growth of hourly wages and prevented greater improvements in living standards. Achieving a secure, middle-class lifestyle has become increasingly difficult as hourly pay for most workers has either stagnated or declined. For millions of the country's lowest-paid workers, financial security is even more fleeting because of unscrupulous employers stealing a portion of their paychecks.

Wage theft, the practice of employers failing to pay workers the full wages to which they are legally entitled, is a widespread and deep-rooted problem that directly harms millions of U.S. workers each year. Employers refusing to pay promised wages, paying less than legally mandated minimums, failing to pay for all hours worked, or not paying overtime premiums deprives working people of billions of dollars annually. It also leaves hundreds of thousands of affected workers and their families in poverty. Wage theft does not just harm the workers and families who directly suffer exploitation; it also weakens the bargaining power of workers more broadly by putting downward pressure on hourly wages in affected industries and occupations. For many low-income families who suffer wage theft, the resulting loss of income forces them to rely more heavily on public assistance programs, unduly straining safety net programs and hamstringing efforts to reduce poverty.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Monday May 22 2017, @08:58PM (1 child)

    by nobu_the_bard (6373) on Monday May 22 2017, @08:58PM (#513760)

    Man, where I am, when a sinkhole opens up under a house, sometimes the whole house explodes. Iron gas pipes from the early 20th century. One time an entire block exploded. Allegedly they are "mostly" replaced now but the gas company doesn't publish where the unreplaced ones are because of terrorism concerns... and sometimes they find out about ones they didn't have on their maps...

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 22 2017, @09:21PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday May 22 2017, @09:21PM (#513772)

    It's kind of a sad story in Lakeland. Sinkholes (there and most places) form when the water table gets low. Well, when it doesn't rain as much as normal, the strawberry crop in Plant City struggles, so - on top of the low rain input, the strawberry farmers pump extra water on their crops - seriously dropping the water tables to un-natural levels. Then, mysteriously (not) an unnatural number of sink holes appears over the following months. So, in a dry year, a $200M strawberry crop ends up scattering several million dollars in damage around the area, probably propping up a "sinkhole insurance" industry to the tune of tens of millions of dollars a year in premiums.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]