WAGE THEFT "APPROVED" BY THE GOP ON 07/23/2014

(Photo courtesy of rocunited.org.)

WAGE THEFT IS ON THE RISE

IN AMERICA

According to a People’s World article posted 07/28/2014, wage theft is on the rise, but the GOP-run House Education and Workforce Committee chaired by Michigan Republican Tim Wahlberg is discouraging the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division from pursuing the claims made by workers and their lawyers. The GOP requested a report on the subject from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, which indicates that the steep increase in claims results from more claims by lawyers.

The House Committee is urging the Wage and Hour Division to provide more in the way of “compliance assistance” to employers, rather than fining employers for their non-compliance with labor and wage laws.

The Wage and Hour Division enforces minimum wage laws, overtime pay laws and child labor laws. In 2009 an academic report on violations in the three largest cities in the U.S., New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, found a number of disturbing issues to be prevalent. A shocking 68% of the workers surveyed in the study reported having had their wages shorted in the week prior to the survey.

Other results included:

• More than 25% of workers surveyed were paid less than the legal minimum wage.
• 60% of those workers were paid at least $1.00 per hour less than the minimum wage.
• Nearly 25% of the workers surveyed either arrived early or stayed late, and 70% of those workers received no compensation for the extra work they performed.
• Among workers who earn the bulk of their pay in tips, 30% were paid less than the $2.13 per hour employers are required to pay them.
• One in eight tipped workers also reported that their tips were skimmed by their employer or supervisor, further reducing their income.
• The average worker who reported wage theft lost 18% of their pay, and most workers do not report the wage theft.
• 43% of workers who do report wage theft are retaliated against by employers.
• 75% of workers surveyed were shorted overtime pay.
• Most of the workers who reported wage theft were women.

In the following 12 job types, more than half of the workers surveyed reported being paid no overtime wages:

1. Child care, at 90.2%
2. Stock and office clerks, at 86%
3. Home health care workers, at 82.7%
4. Beauty, dry cleaning and general repair workers, at 81.9%
5. Car wash workers and parking attendants at 77.9%
6. Waiters, cafeteria workers and bartenders, at 77.9%
7. Retail salespeople, at 76.2%
8. Janitors and grounds workers, at 71.2%
9. Garment workers, at 69.9%
10. Cooks and dishwashers, at 67.8%
11. Construction workers, at 66.1%
12. Cashiers, at 58.8%

The House Committee decided on 07/23/2014 to ignore the data, instead focusing on the increasing numbers of lawsuits. The Committee seems to identify with employers who steal from employees much more than they empathize with the workers being stolen from, and ruled against improved enforcement efforts in favor of having the Department of Labor provide more help and guidance to employers about their responsibilities. This reasoning is in line with the former Bush administration’s response to the issue of wage theft, which would seem to suggest that improving guidance to employers has done nothing to stem the instance of wage theft since that political era.

The findings reported suggest the total dollar value of stolen wages amounts to more than $56.4 million per week in the cities of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles alone. Logical reflection on the enormity of the problem tells us that the practice of offering guidance to employers about how to stop stealing pay from employees isn’t working, and that more serious enforcement against thieving employers is necessary.

And the GOP shows us yet again that they don’t care about the working poor at all.

The Politics Of Science Denial

Originally, I’d planned to write about how Americans seem to have lost faith in science, as evidenced by the facts, as follows:

• 1 in 4 Americans doesn’t know that Earth revolves around the Sun
• Only 43% of adult Republicans believed in human evolution in 2013, compared to 54% in 2009, according to Pew Research Centersurvey
• In Kentucky there is a whole museum devoted to showing life on earth is only about 6,000 years old (and definitely no more than 10,000 years old!), where human children are shown putting saddles on dinosaurs

I’d planned on discussing the apparent disconnect in our love of science-based television (CSI, sure, but also Cosmos, Nova, How It’s Made, Mythbusters, etc.), and what seems to be a complete lack of faith in science among the right wing.  My thesis statement was going to be, “Even as scientific information becomes more available in the form of popular TV, our belief in the precepts of science is diminishing.”

And then I did a bit more research.  What I found has left me feeling uncertain about things, insofar as the WHY of things.

Originally, I thought that the right wing had lost faith in science because of their apparent increase in faith as right wing Christians.  Because somehow it seems that today’s Christianity can NOT allow for both faith and science.

I tried to confirm something I thought I’d read about juries starting to doubt DNA science in criminal trials, and I struck out.  Thank goodness!  From what I found, today’s juries are as likely as in years past to rely on DNA science when they vote on guilt or innocence.  (The real danger may be that juries seem increasingly unable to decide on guilt or innocence without benefit of DNA science, which is not always available.  Nor is it necessary.  People say “circumstantial” like it's a dirty word, but circumstantial evidence is often harder to refute than scientific evidence in a court of law.)

My research suggests that Republicans currently distrust science because fewer Republicans are scientists than ever before.  

A couple generations ago, when Republicans had careers in science in equal numbers to other political party members, Republicans had a rock-solid faith and belief in science.  A couple generations ago, Republicans might even have been more confident in science than Democrats.

My research suggests that Democrats also have areas of science they don’t believe in, such as vaccination science and the benefit of animal research.  It seems the more progressive one is, the more one is likely to have moral objections to animal research.  Which is inconsistent with the fact that these same people believed it was “anti-science” when G.W. Bush spoke out against stem-cell research for what he declared were moral reasons.

In today’s climate (pun intended), Republicans distrust climate science most of all.  They also distrust biology, but so do Democrats, though in fewer numbers.  

It seems the older one is, the less likely they will believe in evolution.  Also, and to my utter dismay, it seems women are less likely to believe in evolution than men, irrespective of political leanings.  It also seems that we, as Americans, are more likely to think the OTHER political party is full of idiots, so we tend to believe science the way that our political party represents its general beliefs.

I’m no fan of Republicans in our current world, but I can see that what the world needs now more than ever before is new Republican scientists.  And a lot of them, too.

image credit SMBC

DISCLAIMER:To my Republican friends:  As far as I know, I'm not talking about any of you.  I think ALL my friends are wonderful and have interesting thoughts.  I hope you know the type I refer to in my views.  
Sources:
http://www.science20.com/science_20/when_it_comes_denying_evolution_these_two_large_demographics_have_been_ignored-127063
http://www.science20.com/cool-links/climate_change_no_brains_right_wing_people_are_not_defective-117919