Cross-posted at The Employee Advocate Forum.
I saw this post on Crooks and Liars, and my head exploded. Corporate overlord types salivating over the idea of using unpaid workers. I guess it's the logical next step. After driving down wages and benefits as much as possible, what could be better for the bottom line than not paying workers at all?
What really gets me is how excited these corporate hacks sound over the prospect of screwing their workers. Sure, it's great for the company not to have to pay anything for its labor force. But what happens when, as the Fortune article suggests, this becomes "the new normal?" Henry Ford was smart enough to know that workers need to be paid a decent wage so that they can afford to buy your product. Who is going to be able to buy Remote Stylist's "web-based interior design services" if this type of modern indentured servitude becomes the norm? Actually, this is worse than indentured servitude, because at least then the employer was obligated to provide food, lodging and other necessities.
And what about the people who agree to this? It's one thing for a student to serve as an unpaid intern in order to get some job experience -- the type of internship that has been common for years. It's another thing entirely for a company's business model to be based on the use of unpaid workers. I wonder about the woman quoted in the Fortune article who is happy to have the "job," even though she's down to $1.50 in her checking account. What is she going to do if her boyfriend stops paying her bills? How is she going to buy food?
And the line that really gets me in this article is "Unfortunately for many employers hoping to use unpaid labor to advance their business goals, there are strict federal and state rules that workers must be paid the minimum wage and paid for overtime, and must abide by other provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which applies to about 135 million people working for 7.3 million employers." Are you kidding me? It's "unfortunate" that the law requires you to pay the peons a measly $7.25 an hour? What is wrong with these people?
We live in a world where GE can earn $14.2 Billion and pay zero in taxes. But even in this corporatist climate, a company that makes a conscious decision to rely on unpaid labor is beyond the pale. And the executives who think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread are simply reprehensible human beings.