If employees are literally having to skip meals because they are paid so little, it is, by definition, starvation wages.
My brother went from couch surfing to living at the beach through Construction.
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I can believe it.
Would you care to address the current issue of GDP vs wages? Corporations have, for decades, made money hand over fist while average workers have not seen any meaningful increase in wages in the same time period.
https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/business/economy/wages-workers-profits.html
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âOne employee wrote that they had to skip meals to pay rent and that they used the companyâs free coffee as an appetite suppressant.â
Thatâs the quote in the article. One employee. Iâd like some more details on their lifestyle.
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Check your State laws.
Thereâs no direct Federal Law that prevents Privately Owned, or Publicly Owned Companies from keeping wages a secret and preventing Employees from discussing the wages.
There is direct Federal Law that prevents Companies from preventing Employees from bargaining collectively for better wages. (Forming Unions).
However, several States have passed Wage Transparency laws based upon the NLRA Act of 1935.
You can find the full text of it here:
https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act#:~:text=Congress%20enacted%20the%20National%20Labor,businesses%20and%20the%20U.S.%20economy.
One good thing Obama did, would be to sign an Executive Order allowing Federal Employees the right to discuss wages and preventing any Federal Employer from taking action against that.
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It doesnât help that that Californiaâs cost of living is incredibly high. The cost of an average 1 bed apartment in Anaheim/Irvine is upwards of $1700 for the cheapest. A 2 bedroom apartment is probably going to net you $2000.
The employees at Blizzard likely make good money (hard to tell without actually seeing the spreadsheet) however due to the location the Blizzard offices are at, if they want to live somewhat near work and not have to commute for 3 hours+ a day, they are looking at spending that much for just an apartment. During the summer because of how hot it is, their electricity bill is probably upwards of $200 as well. The cost of gas and food is also higher in California than most other states (I live in California and can tell you my electricity bill for the months of summer is usually over $200, even more since my bf has been working from home a lot due to Covid).
While I do agree that Blizzard should be paying their employees a higher wage to offset these costs, it is also getting to the point where California is so unsustainable to live for the average employee/work force without having to work a second job or do OT regardless of who you work for.
âBlue-collar jobâ and âentry-level jobâ are not interchangeable. Entry-level jobs are exactly what they sound like: an entry point, typically for high school kids and people with little or no experience. From there, you work your way up. To better pay, top better jobs. You arenât meant to stay in an entry-level job for your entire working life.
A blue-collar job just means one that typically involves manual labor. As opposed to a white-collar job, which is typically administrative.
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Wages have stagnated largely because the labor market continues to be saturated with workers willing to work for less. Americans are very expensive workers.
Their lifestyle? So, now youâre attempting to blame the employees, who are thoroughly documented as being underpaid, instead of the corporation that is making record profits(Just like last year, when they fired hundreds of people and broke records in terms of profits) and giving their CEO a $40,000,000 salary. The shill in you is strong.
Seems like a simple economic principle is that a job is only worth what the employer is willing to pay you. That is determined by the difficulty of the job. What skills, experience, and education is needed to perform the job. Thatâs why non-skilled jobs, jobs that anyone from off the street could do, are low paying jobs.
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Correct you are. One of the big problems over the last 20 years or so is the entry-level positions are more and more no longer entry-level because of a sheer amount of workers available that have more experience and training that are willing to take these positions because thereâs little to no upward mobility right now. People that normally retire are no longer retiring and opening up spaces for younger workers. Itâs a conundrum.
Itâs an important detail. Also, where are they living? Are they choosing to live in a really nice gated community where rent is sky high? We canât always live in areas where we would like to.
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The amount of people bootlicking corporations in this thread is rather hilarious and sad at the same time.
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You can have a âruleâ against it but that doesnât mean that employees wonât do it. They actually are protected in that area, employees have the right to discuss their salaries and no employer can ban them from doing that. So while employers can try and put little rules into place at a higher level, they could also get their arses sued for trying to go after someone that broke that rule.
Blizz/Acti can do nothing about these employees sharing their salary information with one another.
In 2015, CA Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Equal Pay Act, an aggressive equal pay law that expanded on existing anti-discrimination in the workplace laws . Under the Act, employers cannot prohibit employees from discussing their own wages or the wages of others.
There is also an executive order that protects them 
;). Sharing wages is actually a really good way to get a raise if you play your cards right.
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Then thereâs something fundamentally wrong with our society.
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Whatâs ever more hilarious is the amount of people who donât understand simple economics. Real economics.
Who are these workers in the labor market, willing to work for less and leading to wage stagnation? Got any demographics?
This point of yours also conflicts with the idea that some employees, like these Blizzard employees, should really just look for another job but theyâre too lazy to do so. I thought Americans were expensiveâŚ?
Perhaps, if the labor market is saturated with employees (of any quality), itâs pretty tough to just up and leave your current job to get a new one. Your prospective employers could always just hire somebody willing to work for less.
Well, we do tell children all they can be when they grow up is an artist, a doctor, a lawyer, or a scientist.