pianogonzology: workers

Showing posts with label workers. Show all posts

Monday, July 3, 2017

Studies . . .

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/new-study-casts-doubt-on-whether-a-15-minimum-wage-really-helps-workers/?utm_term=.0f77955a9ac4)

". . . When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city's minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they'd hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. . . some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They've cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found. . . The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study. . .The paper's conclusions contradict years of research on the minimum wage. Many past studies, by contrast, have found that the benefits of increases for low-wage workers exceed the costs in terms of reduced employment -- often by a factor of four or five to one. . . Experts cautioned that the effects of the minimum wage may vary according to the industries dominant in the cities where they are implemented along with overall economic conditions in the country as a whole. . . And critics of the research pointed out what they saw as serious shortcomings. In particular, to avoid confusing establishments that were subject to the minimum with those that were not, the authors did not include large employers with locations both inside and outside of Seattle in their calculations. Skeptics argued that omission could explain the unusual results. . ."

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Thursday, June 11, 2015

The Stronger . . .

. . . sex? . . .

(from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/careers/why-men-least-pretend-work-longer-hours-n369731)
(A survey of) ". . .3,042 Dutch male workers . . . asked about their personal situations, how many hours they worked and how many hours they thought their peers worked on average. Men who thought they worked fewer hours than their counterparts were found to be less happy than those who thought they worked more, regardless of their working time or income. According to the report's authors, this phenomenon, called "conspicuous work," occurs when "the individual derives status from working more than his peers, which increases his utility." The report states: "In many social groups, an individual can indeed increase his status by telling everyone that he is very busy, preferably even more than others around him. Symmetrically, he can lose status if he has less to do than others." Apparently this phenomenon only affects men. Marion Collewet, one of the report's authors, told CNBC by email: "The patterns of conspicuous work which we identify for male workers cannot be found for female workers in our data.". . ."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html or at
http://www.ohomusic.com

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com

My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak

(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

A Caring . . .

. . . executive . . . a rarity?

(from http://www.npr.org/2015/04/30/403257223/health-insurer-aetna-raises-wages-for-lowest-paid-workers-to-16-an-hour)
". . . Aetna. . . raised the pay of its low-wage workers to $16 an hour this month. Aetna's CEO Mark Bertolini says he believes the raise could largely pay for itself by making workers more productive.
The pay raise will affect 5,700 of Aetna's lowest-paid workers, including those like Kally Dunn at its call center in Fresno, Calif. The veteran employee teaches newcomers how to handle calls, sometimes from irate customers who can't make sense of what's covered and what's not. . . "Finance can be one of the main stresses in people's lives," he (an Aetna employee) says. "And when you can pull some relief away from that stress, I definitely think it makes for — you know, a happy employee is a productive employee." Bertolini in convinced that's true. . . As Bertolini and his executive team worked to understand what challenges their low-wage workers face, they discovered that to make ends meet many were on public assistance, such as food stamps, or Medicaid for their children. Bertolini says he was taken aback shocked "that we as a thriving organization, as a successful company, a Fortune 100 company, should have people that were living like that among the ranks of our employees." . . .

Saturday, May 2, 2015

The Right . . .

. . . thing to do

(from http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/30/news/companies/cvs-baltimore-riots-jobs/index.html)
". . . Forty-five Baltimore CVS workers who saw their stores burned down in the riots earlier this week are still getting paid. Two CVS locations sustained such heavy damage that they remain closed Thursday. But "given the extraordinary circumstances," CVS is paying those workers for their regularly scheduled hours while they try to transfer them to nearby stores, spokeswoman Carolyn Castel said. In fact, "most" have already been working at other locations, she said. There are 20 other CVS stores in the city. Castel declined to say how long they would keep paying the displaced workers, but added she is "confident" that the company could place all those who want to work at another location. . ."

Monday, December 15, 2014

Scrooge . . .

. . . in real life . . .

(from http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/americas-working-poor-face-pervasive-wage-theft-report-n261546)
". . . Between 3.5 percent and 6.5 percent of workers in New York and California — and between 11 percent and 12 percent of low-wage workers — are victims of wage theft when employers violate minimum wage laws, a newreport commissioned by the Department of Labor says. Workers in service industries fare the worst, and the report calls the problem "pervasive." The report estimates that violations cost workers in these two states between $20 million and $29 million in lost weekly income. This missing money makes a big difference in the lives and finances of workers, pushing 15,000 families below the poverty line. These findings come on the heels of a study conducted by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which found that lawyers and regulators recovered nearly $1 billion that workers never received because of wage and hour violations in 2012. American taxpayers also pay the price, since wages that aren't paid don't contribute to tax revenues, and cheated workers rely more heavily on public assistance like food stamps. The report comes as union-backed protesters are staging strikes and rallies in 190 cities to advocate for a $15 hourly wage for fast food workers. . . "

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html or at
http://www.ohomusic.com

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Monday, November 3, 2014

Holy . . .

. . . tacos . . .

(from http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/29/news/companies/chipotle-labor-lawsuit/index.html?iid=SF_E_River)
Chipotle workers are suing the burrito chain for making them work extra hours without pay. It is the latest example of workers accusing a fast food chain of so-called wage theft. The class action lawsuits filed in Colorado and Minnesota in the last two months allege that Chipotle routinely requires its hourly employees to work "off the clock" without pay. The workers filed written statements describing how the restaurant's time keeping system would automatically punch them out at 12:30 a.m., even though they had to stay later to finish cleaning up. Demarkus Hobbs, who worked at a Chipotle in Minnesota for about a year, said in one lawsuit filed earlier this month that he was not paid for "several hours" of work each week. "If I complained about not being paid for all of the hours that I worked, Chipotle would threaten me with termination or would punish me by cutting my hours," Hobbs said in his statement. . . "

I suspect this happens a lot more than we actually hear about it.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com