this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
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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.
Our Philosophies:
- 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.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Renting what though? How many bedrooms?
Uh. One? Then if two people had basic jobs...Maybe two?
Maybe someone is able to claw their way above minimum wage and the other can quit entirely, whatever.
Nobody's demanding McMansions for McDoubles. They just want the concept of a job to be more than an endless void that arbitrarily takes exponentially more than it gives.
Working two jobs and being one major illness or injury away from losing it all is a sick insult to humanity, for all it has achieved up to this point.
Do you guys not have salary continuance and disability insurance by default through your retirement accounts? Over here by default if we hurt ourselves at work we get workers comp and outside of work we have salary continuance insurance (unless you've unsubscribed). If it's bad enough you get a lump sum from total disability insurance
Hehe, that's how pathetic things are here.
Retirement accounts? Since we're talking minimum wage workers here, most of them have probably never even heard of those. I know I don't have one, because I've only held part time employment while self-studying a bunch of other skills. I have just a savings that gets cleaned out whenever the car makes an expensive noise I can't fix myself.
We pay into "Social Security" that you're supposed to be able to pull from when you retire, but that's been an iffy thing for years now and it's definitely not something that can be lived off of anymore.
Yeah I didn't even mean at work, just y'know, life happening can absolutely tank your finances with medical bills. Insurance is an absolute scam here, where the affordable ones can have a "deductible" in the thousands you need to pay before the company even pays out a dime.
At work? Yeah, "workers comp" is a thing, but to your job that's like declaring war on your employer, the way I understand it. Often you'll need a lawyer and they'll send private investigators to stalk you trying to catch you being "not disabled" so they can kick you to the gutter.
(Allegedly lots of people to try to scam the system, like anything else, but dystopian employer paranoia is comically ridiculous.)
This "salary continuance insurance" sounds interesting but I don't think we have anything like that here. You either use up your paid sick / vacation leave, or if it's dire you can use "FMLA" (Family Medical Leave Act) to take time away from work, except that doesn't support your pay, it only protects your job so they don't outright fire you for having a serious situation come up.
If you're curious about the situation here, there's a book called "On the Clock, what low wage labor did to me and how it drives america insane" or something like that. Super eye opening.
Screw amazon but this is the first link I found because I'm literally rushing out of the house lol.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779084-on-the-clock
Hope this illuminates things a little. Pray for us plz. :)
Oof that is not a great place to be for a worker. These reform groups make so much more sense now
I do see the temptation when tech salaries (for example) are like 5x ours but the drawbacks are wild if you get hurt or fall ill