Here’s a good indicator of how common wage theft really is:
The Labor Department announced Tuesday that federal contractors had shorted 674 Senate cafeteria workers to the tune of $1 million. Two companies, Restaurant Associates and its subcontractor, Personnel Plus, violated the law by misclassifying workers into lower-paying positions and having them work off the clock, the agency said.
Workers in the Senate were being illegally underpaid—not below the minimum wage, in this case, but below the levels set for federal workers in specific jobs. Bruce Vail reports:
Dione Tellez, 57, a food service worker and cook at Senate dining facilities, tells In These Times that she has been classified as a food service worker even though she often labors as a grill cook, which is a better-paid position. A nine-year veteran on the job, she is earning $14.21 an hour, she says, and lives with her adult son because she cannot afford to rent an apartment in the pricey Washington, D.C., area.
Speaking in Spanish (translated by Fabian), Tellez says, “I want to be paid for the job that I do. It’s about respect. I am entitled to get what I have earned … I am sick and tired of being treated unfairly.”
It’s not yet clear if the employers will face any punishment beyond having to pay the workers what they earned in the first place. The Labor Department could ban them from future federal contracts.
● Fingers crossed.
● How could Massachusetts get to free higher education? (Nepotism alert.)
● How do you get away with discrimination this blatant?
The company refused to hire women, telling applicants the jobs were for men only.
That’s what government regulators said when they sued Industrial Labor Management Group. The lawsuit demanded back pay and damages for the women.
● A false choice:
As someone who passionately believes in fair trade, American jobs, and fighting global poverty, there is nothing more infuriating than the sort of dichotomy that commenters like Annie Lowrey and Dylan Matthews and Zack Beauchamp constantly push, that if one doesn’t support “free trade,” one supports global poverty. Is there any other issue in American politics where nominal progressives or even centrists portray the choice in such stark and moralistic terms, with no sense of nuance? I’m not sure that there is.
● Raising the minimum wage could improve public health.
● If you're interested in the politics of coal, you have to read Ken Ward Jr.
● Busting the myths of a workerless future.
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