Your employer could be screwing you over — and you might not even know it.
Here are five hidden tactics corporations are using to exploit you.
If you’ve experienced any one of these, please share your story in the comments.
First, the tactics that are entirely legal — but outrageous.
One: Forced overtime.
Get this -- your employer can force you to work for more than 40 hours a week. If you refuse,
you can be reprimanded, demoted, or even fired. Forced overtime is at the heart
of the explosion of strikes in 2021. Workers at a Frito-Lay plant in Topeka, Kansas
went on strike for nearly three weeks, demanding an end to 12-hour “suicide shifts,” forced 84-hour
workweeks, and working conditions that have led to heart attacks, electrocution, and even death.
How is this even legal?
Well, federal overtime laws are wildly out of date. The Fair Labor Standards Act of
1938 established the 40-hour work week and that workers must be paid “time-and-a-half”
for hours worked beyond 40 hours, but imposed no limit on the number
of overtime hours -- unlike nearly every other industrialized nation.
The term “forced overtime” should not exist. Congress must pass legislation that bars
employers from forcing workers to work more than 40 hours a week.
Second: Forced arbitration.
Under this sneaky provision in employment contracts, you must waive your right to
sue your employer or to participate in a class action lawsuit against them.
Employment disputes must be resolved by a private arbitrator — often chosen by the
employer — rather than a judge or a jury in a court of law, and the outcome is not public.
Forced arbitration means that workers cannot sue their employers for violating any of
their labor rights, whether it be wage theft or discrimination or retaliation.
You might not have any idea you’re agreeing to this because it’s buried in the fine print
of your employment contract. As of 2019,
forced arbitration affected 60 million workers. It’s particularly prevalent in low-wage jobs
held by women and people of color. Unsurprisingly, the practice
overwhelmingly favors the employer. One study estimates that forced
arbitration enabled employers to steal $12.6 billion from low-wage workers in 2019.
Congress must pass legislation banning forced arbitration in employment contracts.
Third: Unpredictable scheduling.
Millions of you are subject to “just-in-time” scheduling, in which you discover your
schedule with little or no advance notice. Over 40 percent of younger retail workers with
hourly wages report receiving their schedules with one week or less notice. Unpredictable
scheduling puts you at the whim of your employer and prevents you from planning for childcare,
attending school, or holding down a second job. It also causes high levels of stress.
And it prevents millions of working families from gaining financial stability and building wealth.
It’s time for Congress to enact a fair workweek law, requiring employers to
send out schedules two weeks in advance or pay extra for last-minute changes.
Now onto the illegal tactics that have become standard practice.
Fourth: Wage theft.
Employers steal from you by working you off the clock,
paying you below minimum wage, or not paying for overtime.
A study of just three cities found that employers stole $3 billion in wages
from low-wage workers in just a single year. On that basis, researchers estimate $50 billion
is stolen from the country’s low-wage workforce every year.
Many of them, as a result, have to rely on public assistance,
meaning we all subsidize corporate theft. What can be done? Tougher labor laws, harsher
penalties for employers, and stronger unions. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act,
passed in the House in March 2021, contains all of these crucial provisions.
Fifth and finally: Misclassifying full-time employees as independent contractors.
If you’re classified as an independent contractor, you’re not entitled to
minimum wage, unemployment insurance, overtime pay, sick leave, workers’ compensation,
protections against discrimination and sexual harrassment,
or the right to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions.
Many gig-based companies have built their entire business model on misclassification.
Uber and Lyft, for example, saved at least $413 million from 2014 to 2020 by not paying
into unemployment insurance. More than 20 states have passed
laws prohibiting employers from misclassifying employees as independent contractors. The PRO Act
would make this the national standard. Now, let me summarize.
You don’t have to stand for a system that allows employers to exploit you, forcing you to work
overtime, making it impossible for you to sue your employer for violating labor protections,
making it difficult for you to plan your life outside of work, stealing your wages, and
misclassifying you as an independent contractor when you’re actually a full-time worker.
You and other American workers have the power to change this system.
Keep organizing. Keep striking. Keep pressuring Congress to pass the PRO Act.
Never stop fighting.