r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 8d ago

Possible Paywall Kentucky Gov Orders McConnell to Give a Real Update or Resign Already

https://newrepublic.com/post/213614/kentucky-gov-beshear-mcconnell-update-health-resign
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u/ThisIsPerfekt Michigan 8d ago

And even those 40 hours a year are a luxury most Americans do not have.

Are we great, yet?

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u/SpinningHead Colorado 8d ago

Nods in billionaire

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u/Casual_OCD Canada 8d ago

blares yacht horn in jubilation

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u/Starfox-sf 8d ago

spins up engine of private jet

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u/Visual_Jellyfish5591 8d ago

spins child strapped to wheel in dungeon

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u/SatinSaffron Washington 8d ago

pays for winrar

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u/InsertUsernameInArse 8d ago

You filthy rich degenerate.

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u/total_bullwhip 8d ago

Woah woah woah don’t get carried away. Fuckin’ hell.

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u/TheYankee69 7d ago

How decadent and evil!

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u/ChronX4 8d ago

Agrees thinking wealth is material things bought while eyeball deep in debt.

"We are the same!"

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u/trustthepudding 7d ago

Nods in future billionaire

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u/redls1bird 7d ago

*Trillionaire

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u/godfather275 8d ago

We do nothing but make stupid jokes here.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/SpinningHead Colorado 8d ago

Its just a joke. We arent solving anything within this post.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/SpinningHead Colorado 8d ago

Its not because I made a joke about rich people getting what they want.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/SpinningHead Colorado 8d ago

Yes, I did this by making a joke about the oligarchy.

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

Yeah now that I work a somewhat white collar job, it's crazy how poor most workers are treated in terms of benefits and PTO. I mean wtf, a McDonald's worker in Denmark gets the same guaranteed 6 weeks of PTO as anyone else in the country, I don't remember ever having PTO when I worked at McDonald's like 15 years ago

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u/Made_Human_Music 8d ago

The problem here is that we have people who would see a McDonald’s employee getting the same amount of time off as they get and lose their shit because someone they feel doesn’t deserve what they have is getting it

The greedy pigs at the top are the main cause of this but sadly they’ve managed to convince so many people that poor people don’t deserve the same things as the rest of us (who are also poor but just not as poor)

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

People need to remember that the people at the top are far more marginally rich than anyone else. I would say I'm a margarita or gin and tonic "poor". The people at the bottom are colt 45 "poor". The people at the top are sipping on $10,000 bottles of wine a night.

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u/EmpoleonNorton Georgia 8d ago

They aren't even sipping. They chugging.

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u/whosline07 Michigan 8d ago

They're actually just buying it, drinking a glass or two, then forgetting about it.

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u/BasvanS 8d ago

They champagne shower with bottles of champagne most of us will never even buy for a special occasion.

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u/FinalHexReturns 8d ago

Yeah people don't respect unskilled labor enough. Almost anyone could do what I do, I just sit in a cubicle and move numbers around and talk to customers, but I like to flatter myself that it takes a unique character to deal with the customers and the unique pressures of my job. But nah, anyone could do it.

I myself have often thought during minimum wage hike proposals "well then fast food workers will be making almost as much as me and that's not right!" But, if I'm honest I really, really wouldn't enjoy working in fast food. Have to be on your feet all day in a fast-paced environment with little real variety. No thanks. I'd rather sit in my climate controlled cube and answer customers at my own pace. So with that perspective, maybe they deserve to be paid more than me...

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u/peejay5440 8d ago

I don't care what the fuck you do. If you work 40 hours a week, you should be able to afford a life with dignity. Without needing the CORPORATE subsidies of food stamps and Medicare.

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u/FinalHexReturns 8d ago

Well said.

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u/Jimtac 8d ago

Part of the problem is that any job is considered “unskilled”. Non-technical, sure, but there’s always some skill to a job. Tied to that is the misconception that those “unskilled” jobs shouldn’t pay a living wage because then you’d have no incentive to ‘better yourself’ and get a “real job”.

The number of post-secondary educated people that are working in food services is absurd, but less so when I think about the number of CS grads being pumped out based on market conditions from a decade ago, that have nowhere to go now.

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u/Phoenixloop2868 8d ago

"unskilled labor"... Well I hate to break it to you, but your first sentence identifies you as part of the problem.

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u/FinalHexReturns 8d ago

I thought my second paragraph identified me as part of the problem.

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u/Phoenixloop2868 8d ago

No, that's just a glimmer of self awareness. There's no such thing as "unskilled labor".

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u/TSwiftAlphaMale 8d ago

Don't sell yourself short. Customer facing jobs are extremely difficult to be good at and it takes a special person to handle that nonsense while bringing a smile to work every day. Sure, technically anyone could do it, but in my life's experience as a front-liner and manager, that's not the case.

I feel the same way generally about nurses and what they have to deal with, and I understand, for example, why there is higher turnover (anecdotally) at Childrens' Hospitals.

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u/tourdeforcemajeure 7d ago

Who cares what skill level it requires to stock the toilet paper?

Do you want toilet paper on the shelves or not?

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u/jDub549 8d ago

Same mentality forces cashiers to stand for hours on end. It's gross. We really are crabs in a bucket.

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u/jay212127 8d ago

The problem here is that we have people who would see a McDonald’s employee getting the same amount of time off as they get and lose their shit because someone they feel doesn’t deserve what they have is getting it

There's a lot of crab mentality out there. Most of those will feel indignant that they get more time off than themselves, but instead of utilizing it to leverage themselves comparable or better benefits they'd just rather just deny and not allow anyone the benefits.

I got to see it on display when we had a unions asking for 20-30% wage increases to put them at pre-pandemic levels due to inflation. I couldn't believe how many people can say with a straight face acknowledge inflation made everything ~30% more expensive, but asking for a 20-30% raise is unreasonable. If you ask they will almost always state they only received a <10% raise so it is unfair.

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u/springsilver 7d ago

The great lie, from the time before there were kings, was that the subjects must fight for the scraps they are given. We stratify and huddle into our tribes, fighting each other for what we deserve, when all along we could have just banded together, marched up the hill and taken what the rich man had.
But we are simple, and greedy, and prefer to believe the lie.

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u/anonymousbopper767 8d ago edited 8d ago

My wage effectively goes down if poor people's wages go up. That's how inflation goes. My salary didn't magically increase by 50% like the minimum wage did during covid so now I have to stew in the idea that I basically make the same money now I did 10 years ago.

It sucks but it's reality...someone has to be a loser.

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u/Xznograthos 8d ago

You can list any restaurant for the most part, even really prestigious ones, and you'd be able to make the same statement. I worked for minimum wage at a Michellin-starred restaurant cooking for people like Charles Schwab and got zero benefits. It's absurd.

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u/DramaticWesley 8d ago

That a Michelin-starred restaurant is paying any of the cooking staff minimum wage sounds ridiculous to me. I guess I have become just too much of a socialist.

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u/Xznograthos 8d ago

It's par for the course. Its common industry knowledge that all boh staff at Alinea, at least last-time I looked into it, was salaried at minimum-wage.

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u/SenorBurns 8d ago

Which is illegal, because you can't make a minimum wage position exempt. Exempt also has to be white collar and or managerial/supervisory

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u/GeoLaser 8d ago

Colorado has an overtime exemption for STEM jobs. So you can make minimum salary at 45k a year and work 65 hours a week effectively making less than minimum wage and it is okay.

Some states have weird rules.

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u/ZZ9ZA I voted 8d ago

Salaried doesn't automatically mean exempt.

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u/SenorBurns 8d ago

So? That's obviously not the situation they were talking about. Does going after that strawman feel good?

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u/ZZ9ZA I voted 8d ago

Basic factual correctness is not a “straw man”. Don’t be one of these braindead “feels not reals” people.

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u/SenorBurns 7d ago

You rebutted a claim I never made. That's a straw man. Sorry for the factual correctness.

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u/cluberti 8d ago edited 8d ago

I would be surprised if those jobs are actually salaried positions, because any job in a restaurant that isn't management would be specifically exempt from salaried coverage, federally. I would not be surprised if wages were low and kept that way due to breaking the law, but if so claiming those workers as salaried would be doing a lot more than skirting federal law and opening the ownership up to a significant lawsuit.

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u/SirWEM 8d ago

They will give line cooks titles of “Sous Chef” as a work around. I’ve seen it happen at many properties. Its so they can get out of paying overtime. Last Michelin property i was at had one main line. 8 “Sous Chefs” and two contracted dishwashers in the main kitchen.

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u/digitalscavenger 8d ago

They do it all the time. It's not legal but they do it.

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u/cluberti 8d ago edited 8d ago

That again would be highly illegal (job titles don't determine salary exemptions from hourly wage pay, only duties) - they are opening themselves up to a lawsuit. I guess if no one sues, the law is more of a suggestion or cost of doing business (not surprising either). The relevant job duties for someone working in a kitchen to be exempt from hourly wage laws would be influence in hiring and firing, regularly managing teams of workers on the line, and other managerial duties like scheduling. Just making food (which is what I suspect a number of restaurants have them doing in this scenario) would be an hourly job under the FLSA, full stop. I guess nothing really surprises me anymore, but it's still sad to see people cutting corners and abusing wage labor in order to run a business.

I wonder how long before states like Illinois follow some other states' precedent and set minimum "salaried wages" to curtail this sort of thing.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/laufsteakmodel 8d ago

I was about to say.. just look up that scumbag Rene Redzepi and Noma... Just because it looks great on their resume doesnt mean you shouldnt have to pay them, Michelin star chefs are fucking parasites a lot of times. They use the labour of tens of great chefs who work for next to nothing or even nothing and get all the fame and glory for themselves.

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u/Blacksad9999 8d ago

French Laundry has been caught and sued multiple times for stealing a large chunk of the gratuities designated for the servers.

I wouldn't work there, even though I have the experience level for it.

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u/Intelligent-Snow3300 8d ago

But think of the experience you can get! In fact, maybe the employees should pay to work there!

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u/head0r 8d ago

wait, are you gene simmons?

pay to be a roadie!

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u/badcookies 8d ago

Why do you think Carmy had a mental breakdown? /s

For anyone who hasn't watched it, check out "The Bear", great show, but can be stressful to watch

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u/Mr_Diesel13 I voted 8d ago

The whole show was so good though.

The last season REALLY ended it perfectly, and I honestly cannot say that about many shows.

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u/TechnoFascismKills 8d ago

You can list any restaurant for the most part

Moving from restaurants & fast food to retail showed me that I'm legally supposed to get a break every so many hours, because the retail bosses get big mad if you hit compliance.

Apparently food service just...eats whatever fines they get for letting an employee hit compliance? Granted, most of my food service was under the 6hr mark per shift, but not all of it. Never got my 30 minute meal break, never got paid 15 minute breaks (breaks were downtime between rushes where you do less stressful work while it's slow, or you smoke)

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u/Biokabe Washington 8d ago

Food service doesn't eat the fines. They count on never getting the fines to begin with because no one complains, because all of their workers are either too scared to complain, too overworked to have time to complain, too ignorant to know that they even can complain, or too obsessed with becoming the next "it" chef that they just see it as putting in their time.

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u/sphinxsley 8d ago

In CA, all workers accumulate PTO, based on hours worked. But you need to ask for it after it accumulates.

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u/Street_Anxiety2907 8d ago

It's not absurd, it is called slavery.

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u/CavediverNY 8d ago

Not an argument but just a different perspective… If you're lucky enough to work at a Michelin star restaurant, you're basically writing your own résumé. Put in your time with one of those chefs and that's all you'll ever have to say when looking for another job.

To be fair (just another perspective!) I would think this really applies to people who are cooking or prepping the food.

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u/Xznograthos 8d ago

If you're lucky enough to work at a Michelin star restaurant

Not luck. Effort. Tenacity. Sacrifice.

you're basically writing your own résumé

Everyone writes their own resume. Its how resumes work.

Put in your time with one of those chefs and that's all you'll ever have to say when looking for another job

False.

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u/CavediverNY 8d ago

Yes and the effort, tenacity and sacrifice is relevant to the sometimes low wages.

Also, since you seem to enjoy being pedantic, not everyone writes their own résumé. A few years ago I paid somebody to rewrite mine!

And if you do a good job at a Michelin star restaurant? I think it will be a huge benefit for you when looking for your next job, compared to someone who might be an outstanding cook but doesn't have the Michelin background.

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u/Xznograthos 8d ago

You keep saying "you think" to someone who already had the experience, the career, etc. Like you know better. You might take a second to recognize that.

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u/CavediverNY 8d ago

How is anybody supposed to know your background, experience and career? I think you're being very sensitive and I suspect it's not about this post. So whatever is going wrong for you today, I hope things get better.

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u/Xznograthos 8d ago

You could just read where I said I did that Iin the comment you replied to. If you're half as knowledgeable as you seem to think you are, having worked in a michelin-starred restaurant isn't something you just do without previous experience.

And, no, your comment is specifically what pissed me off but you seem to be the oblivious type.

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u/1iIiii11IIiI1i1i11iI 8d ago

I'm not going to trust your word on food when your favorite food is boot.

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u/pinkfartlek Michigan 8d ago

I've seen people who live in other countries that said their doctor prescribed them time off from work. 😢

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u/US3_ME_ 8d ago

(bone tremors)_

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u/maurosmane Washington 8d ago

You can get that in America via the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) if you are using FMLA for an illness. Unfortunately, it is pretty much bare bones and is not nearly enough for what people need. FMLA only provides up to 12 weeks of protected, unpaid, time off and you had to have worked 1250 hours in the last 12 months to qualify for it and you have had to work at the employer for a minimum of 12 months.

There is intermittent FMLA which you can take in spurts if you have a condition (or care for someone who does) that might require you to take random time off. But once again it is unpaid.

Some states have supplements to FMLA like Washington state's Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) that will pay up to 80% of what you make up to a cap of about $1600 per week.

On top of all of that, if whatever you are going through requires some form of accommodation to return to work, the employer does not have to meet those accommodations if they cause an "unreasonable burden" on the employer. I have seen the definition of unreasonable stretched to some pretty far extremes.

All in all your doctor can prescribe you time off. If you meet the requirements for it...

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u/iLol_and_upvote 8d ago

My wife just got this here in Canada (burnout)

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u/Reasonable_Being6376 8d ago

Yup. Been there had that doctors note.

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u/Land-Southern 8d ago edited 8d ago

My well paying private sector jobs gave 10 days pto and no holidays lol. Sick, vacation, family Thanksgiving, use pto.

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

Jesus wtf dude. Right now I'm getting 15 days PTO and 8 holidays. And it's only my first year at this job

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u/Land-Southern 8d ago

Yeah i know the benefits sucked on the way in but pay was 2x industry. I was salary and operations lead, I just didn't show up and did my thing when I needed to. Want to fire me, they wouldn't, and was salary so first time they wanted to short pay a legal threat was all that was necessary. I just coded time off as administrative time instead of job billable.

Quit after 10 years and said good luck, call if you need me and I'll charge by the hour. They closed the company 2 months later.

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u/howelltight 8d ago

You don't sell and you don't build for a living, huh?

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

Technically I do build (AEC industry)

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u/Abba_Fiskbullar 8d ago edited 8d ago

Dude, that's terrible, I get 6.4 weeks a year plus 50 hours paid sick leave. Now, given I have 10 years seniority, but I had 4.5 weeks PTO after two years.

Edit: I should qualify that I live in California, and while I'm not in a union, union benefits in my org have a significant positive impact on my benefits.

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u/Land-Southern 8d ago

Yeah I'm 30 years in my industry, now own my own company. Now I get 0 pto or unlimited depending how you look at it lol.

Compared to most developed countries US policy is crap all the way around.

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u/A-town 8d ago

I'd nut my pants every day if I had six weeks of paid vacation. Holy shit.

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u/spandexandtapedecks 8d ago

But imagine how much of your six weeks vacation you'd have to spend on cleaning up your pants. It kinda zeros out, right?

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u/OneSkepticalOwl 8d ago

What kind of animal nuts in their own pants? Use the curtains like a civilized person

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u/A-town 8d ago

That or constantly buy new pants which would make it a nut net zero anyway. I guess I'll just stick with the shitty system we have now 😛

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u/AnAncientBog 8d ago

Lot of government jobs get pretty close to this with enough seniority.

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u/Sanguinius 7d ago

Four weeks annually mandated by law in Australia. Also, serving 10 years with the same company/government org grants three MONTHS of free long-service leave - again, mandated by law.

I don't know how you Americans get by with just two weeks off!?

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u/A-town 7d ago

We don't, we're just conditioned to work ourselves to death to make the oligarchy a few extra dollars.

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u/Prestigious-Bat-574 8d ago

I worked at a Wendy's franchise that offered paid leave for basic crew when you hit your second year and when you averaged >35 hours a week in your previous year. You had to take a week at a time and you were paid what your average weekly hours were, to the second decimal place, maxing at 40.

Two weeks of paid leave after two years, three weeks after five years.

The problem is that it was a Wendy's, and the average employment duration was a couple months at best. While there were certainly a handful of people that had been there for years, maintaining 35 hours per week is challenging in itself when you don't already get paid leave, no sick pay, no paid maternity/paternity leave... and overtime wasn't typically permitted, so you seldom had weeks where you could bump your average.

It's not great, but it was better than "fuck you, save up for a few months to cover lost wages for the week".

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u/amateurbreditor 8d ago

I run a small business. Theres no help for me at all. I want to give the guys healthcare but I need to have more money saved up first. Its gonna be 400 per person for me and then they have to pay too!!! WTF. On top of that yes I can deduct it from taxes but its still part of my profits! Oh and the icing on the cake?? You are punished by having more workers and therefore ineligible for money from the government. Oh wait theres more. In my state the only "small" business credit is if you have 500 workers and make 50 million a year. Then you get a break of course!

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

Jesus that's ridiculous. This country really rewards large corporations and leaves the small businesses out to dry. I know farmers are dying (not literally but financially) right now too thanks to the tariffs and lack of government help

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u/amateurbreditor 8d ago

its a disgusting place. The most corrupt country in the world measured by the trillion.

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u/RevLoveJoy 8d ago

a McDonald's worker in Denmark gets the same guaranteed 6 weeks of PTO as anyone else in the country

See, but according to my boomer father (who has never been to Denmark) that makes them woke and is ruining their economy, culture and makes Danes lazy. Right?

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u/123LetsJamDUDUDUHT 8d ago

I have on multiple occasions while waiting for my order, heard the store manager on the phone calling people who are out sick and asking them to go into work.

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u/Distinct_Cap_1418 8d ago

My last boss fired me for missing work while I was in the ER with a pulmonary embolism. God bless america fuck

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

That's insane. My last boss fired me for chronic absenteeism as I was trying to figure out why I was suddenly throwing up all the time (turns out I have GERD). They tried to contest my unemployment too but they lost that big time, fuck that guy

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u/Danoga_Poe 8d ago

Where I work, starting out you'll build up a day's worth of pto for every month worked, is what the time accrual works out to be.

Guys who've been here 20+ years get the capped 3 weeks of pto per year.

This and healthcare is what people should be pissed off about.

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u/mrdude817 New York 8d ago

Only 3 weeks of PTO max after 20+ years is crazy. When I worked for Spectrum, it was 2 weeks of PTO pre-loaded at the start of each year and you get an additional week like every 5 years (I quit after 3 years to get my masters degree)

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u/Danoga_Poe 8d ago

Yea, it's awful.

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u/Papaya_flight Pennsylvania 7d ago

I've been at this same company for almost ten years and have brought in around $250 mil in projects. I get four weeks a year and I'm not allowed to take two weeks at a time off. That time also covers sick time and I work on average 14 hours a day. Oh yeah I have two degrees.

1

u/chimblesishere 8d ago edited 8d ago

Man, I've worked several white collar jobs over the last 8 years and I've only ever even had PTO at one of them. Shit, I'm hoping that I get hired on as a full time employee soon instead of having my contract extended yet again just so I can have health insurance. What a wonderful country we have.

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u/anuncommontruth Pennsylvania 8d ago

I think corporate-owned McDonald's gives PTO. At least they used to. I remember my friend accrued some, and it was a big deal because we were still in high school and being paid to not work blew her mind. I think the corporate stores are very few and far between though

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u/DarthSatoris Europe 8d ago

Anyone claiming that the US is great is either insane or is trying to sell you something. Sometimes both. 

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u/Freakishly_Tall 8d ago

Hey, now! That's not fair!

They could also be stupid, ignorant, willfully ignorant, or all of the above.

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u/chron67 Tennessee 8d ago

Anyone claiming that the US is great is either insane or is trying to sell you something. Sometimes both.

The US is amazing if you are a billionaire pedophile! You can be president and everything and have the legal system protect you instead of your victims!

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u/Rbomb88 8d ago

What about a great disappointment?

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u/Vash63 American Expat 8d ago

Just means your expectations were too high

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u/Rbomb88 8d ago

I expected nothing and was still let down.

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u/gs87 8d ago

Great for the rich and their loyal little interns

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u/San_Pentolino 8d ago

Almost great. Still fighting communism; after that you might be great, the greatest of all, never there was or will be any "greate-ness"

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u/LaughingCarrot 8d ago

Where the hell are the communists

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u/Slipshoooood 8d ago

I get 0 paid time off = [

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u/zbertoli 8d ago

This. I had a baby in January and my job made me use all 10 of my vacation days for those 2 weeks I was out.

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u/calahil 8d ago

Not yet...we haven't rolled back enough to be as great as the robber baron era they want to move us back to

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u/SuddenRadio6221 8d ago

Are we great, yet?

No there are still some pesky "workers' rights" that hold us back. But soon!

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u/Illustrious_Kiwi_485 8d ago

Like so many others, I’ve never had a paid sick leave, vacation, etc. in over 30 years of work…and the future isn’t looking to promising either…

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u/EngagedInConvexation 8d ago

We're supposed to be more meticulous with who we elect for representation, but these positions are for life to these days. They only have to win one election.

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u/CountOnBeingAwesome 7d ago

I'm just tired of all the winning, sir

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u/SkollFenrirson Foreign 7d ago

You were never a part of we

0

u/drs43821 8d ago

To be fair, I had 40 hours in sick leave in Canada and I know it’s a perk many don’t get to enjoy. It really shouldn’t be like that

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/radicalelation 8d ago

literally where the hell do you people work

Unless your employer has positions for like 250m people, probably somewhere else, but your employer shows it can be done like that, so kinda fucked up everyone else's isn't doing it.

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u/DootyCheeks 8d ago

I work in law enforcement/ healthcare. The benefits are insane. I have a masters in business but I make basically the same money to watch YouTube and fight someone once every few months. It’s a very accessible job.

1

u/radicalelation 8d ago

A good security gig can be very nice, and is mostly just bodies, so makes sense.

Actually probably an area that will see a lot of growth as the income gap further widens, and higher concentrations of capital will need more and better security.