this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023

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Work Reform

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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

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All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
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Higher wages for underpaid workers.
Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
Better and fewer working hours.
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Millions of additional salaried workers could get overtime pay under Biden proposal (www.npr.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A proposal from the Labor Department would make an estimated 3.6 million salaried workers newly eligible for overtime pay. It covers workers earning less than $55,000 per year.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is great for teachers. Overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You’re not wrong, but that only applies to teachers in low cost of living areas. High cost of living teachers start at $55k these days.

I also wonder how it would work. My wife clocks in when she gets to school and clocks out when she leaves, but she still lesson plans and grades papers at home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

she isn't salaried?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Not a teacher, but I'm salaried and have to log every hour each day. Ours is for contract and project costing purposes though

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

They meant that the salary cutoff is too low for some teachers to benefit.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

People should be paid for the work they perform. If someone is hired for a 40hr a week job but it takes 80 hrs a week to do the job the company needs to hire someone else or pay the one employee more. Companies are stealing time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

If it takes 80h/wk then that means half the work just isn't going to get done. My personal time is more valuable than any amount of money.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

It's a good start. Not perfect, but a start.

[+] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah I’m happy for the folks that benefit, and I ain’t complaining that Ive been more fortunate than them financially, but realistically salaried positions have gone from being desirable because it was consistent and favorable to those who can finish their duties in under 40 hours to a way for companies to squeeze more work out of people without having to compensate them for work done in excess of those 40 hours.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm probably well in the minority here but I'm curious how true that statement is across the board. Or maybe I just work for a great team, lol. I rarely put in more than about 30-35 a week with exceptions of crunch-time deadlines. I do pull some odd hours because we have a team in India but can just take comp time later in the day or week to offset that. I'm paid (by most standards I know) quite well too.

That said, this is great for the folks that will benefit! I really hope this helps push for a larger reform. Far too many people are getting screwed over by shit jobs, shit hours, shit pay, shit benefits, etc...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’ve worked in salaried positions that were truly great and I had weeks where I barely put in 20 hours, but more recently I’ve seen a trend in ensuring that 40 hours of work is getting done. Both at jobs I’ve worked and from things I’ve heard from friends at other employers. Glad you have a good team and position though

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Gotcha, yeah I don't have a ton of data which is why I said I was likely in the minority. I do appreciate the insights though as my current position is only guaranteed through 2026 because of our project. Hopefully we get more projects and it continues but it's good to know that the industry is (unsurprisingly) screwing over more and more salaried employees.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is just more anecdotal evidence but prior to my current job, my prior two roles were in technical consulting, which when I started was an incredible position for both work/life and to a lesser extent compensation. I left the first one because they were starting to tighten things and demanded a return to office(which we didn’t do before the pandemic) and excessively documented timesheets, down to quarter hours. The next was straight up exploitative. The age of a chill tech job is drawing to a close because the tropes have become known to management

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I do appreciate it. I'll call my role technical consulting too to keep things rather vague. My boss, and his boss, and his boss are VERY in-tune to the work/life balance. And the company as a whole has zero plans to get people into offices as they were very remote-first well before the pandemic. Hell my team is spread out across the US so it's not like I would be able to see any of them in-person anyway. When I took this position in May I had to make a list of where everyone was located to keep track of timezones, lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That’s really close to how my role used to be, glad to know there still roles out there, I’ll have to get to searching again. Happy for you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

It's a rather niche role which is why I kept things vague since I wouldn't be hard to dox if I got into specifics, but yeah they do still exist. Hope your search goes well! And thanks!!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What a bunch of half-assed bullshit, thanks I guess?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'd be fine if we could just keep working from home