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Increased Pay for working Thanksgiving

paddymcdougall said:
Luckily, others thought differently and thus we have overtime pay, 40 hour week, protections against child labor, OSHA regulations, etc.

Quitting isn't always an option.
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When you live in a country that has food stamps, medicaid/medicare and other forms of welfare that virtually guarantees almost every American can survive just fine by sitting on their butts...quitting IS almost always an option.
The government should guarantee survival for it's citizens - not a nice apartment, iPad's and a 60" tv.


As for your point about health and safety and child labor - that is a strawman and you (should) know it. I said NOTHING about these and I have said MANY times that child labor and health/safety laws should exist.

But how much people get paid or how many hours they are asked to work is none of the government's business, imo.

Obviously you disagree...fine.
 
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DA60 said:
Jeez - your boss was a dick.

I have been fired just once - for sleeping in and when I was reminded that I would be late for work if I did not get up - I chose to roll over and go back to sleep.

Needless to say, I am NOT a model employee (I HATE conformity) - that is why I have run my own businesses (not at the same time) since I was 23.
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Or maybe I really didn't have the aptitude to sweep the floor or to dig ditches (literally, those were the two jobs I was fired from), I was going to college during those days.

I actually started my business about a year before I left my last real job. I was a supervisor in a plant working third shift, when my shift was over I worked in my business for the next eight hours, getting about 4 ours of sleep in the evenings. I eventually talked my wife into quiting her job to work in the business full time, so that I could catch some more sleep in the back room of the business. My national guard unit was mobilized in 1991 and sent to the middle east, when I returned to the US I quit my job and went to work in our business full time. Never looked back.
 
KevinKohler said:
No here. Holidays in retail are called "black out" dates, and cannot be requested off.
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Most of the time, there are no vacation days approved between mid-November and the end of the year.
 
DA60 said:
None of the government's business.

If the worker's do not like the terms of their employment - quit.
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So America is going back there again. Bread and Roses.
 
imagep said:
Or maybe I really didn't have the aptitude to sweep the floor or to dig ditches (literally, those were the two jobs I was fired from), I was going to college during those days.

I actually started my business about a year before I left my last real job. I was a supervisor in a plant working third shift, when my shift was over I worked in my business for the next eight hours, getting about 4 ours of sleep in the evenings. I eventually talked my wife into quiting her job to work in the business full time, so that I could catch some more sleep in the back room of the business. My national guard unit was mobilized in 1991 and sent to the middle east, when I returned to the US I quit my job and went to work in our business full time. Never looked back.
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Cool.

The job I was fired from was working in a bowling alley at 17. Shame too as I had just made it to working the counter (from 'pinchasing').

Story of my life - everytime things start going good, I find a way to f*ck it up.

:)
 
Cephus said:
Most of the time, there are no vacation days approved between mid-November and the end of the year.
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And I bleive that, in the interests of preserving traditional american familty values, some things should remain sacred, like thanksgiving dinner.
 
KevinKohler said:
And I bleive that, in the interests of preserving traditional american familty values, some things should remain sacred, like thanksgiving dinner.
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We live in a secular society. Nothing is sacred. Get over it.
 
KevinKohler said:
And I bleive that, in the interests of preserving traditional american familty values, some things should remain sacred, like thanksgiving dinner.
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Not everyone has a family in town with which they will be eating dinner. And certainly not all citizens grew up with the tradition of Thanksgiving dinner.

I think Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday. It's secular, not religious. It's really just a time to say "thank you and I appreciate you " to family and friends. A chance to take a day to reflect. With no presents. I think it's a great holiday.

But not everyone celebrates it like I do. If they want to work, or they want to shop, that is their choice.

And I admit I will be watching football tomorrow, thankful that a large number of people have given up their holiday to entertain me. I do hope they are able to use Friday as an alternative

I was just chatting with someone whose celebration got moved from Thurs to Fri because his mom decided she wanted to come visit them Fri, not Thurs. It will still be a joyful event for them; and luckily they were able to make the schedule change.

It's really not about a specific day. It's about taking A day to say "thanks, family, friends, neighbors, whatever" - let's reflect on what good things we do have (even if we have many sorrows) and be glad we survived another year and think about those who didn't.

ps - I admit, I do feel sorry for jehovah's witnesses who refuse to celebrate this holiday because it's "government imposed". Of course that is totally their choice; but I hope they find another time to be with friends/families in a relaxed sort of way.
 
DA60 said:
When you live in a country that has food stamps, medicaid/medicare and other forms of welfare that virtually guarantees almost every American can survive just fine by sitting on their butts...quitting IS almost always an option.
The government should guarantee survival for it's citizens - not a nice apartment, iPad's and a 60" tv.


As for your point about health and safety and child labor - that is a strawman and you (should) know it. I said NOTHING about these and I have said MANY times that child labor and health/safety laws should exist.

But how much people get paid or how many hours they are asked to work is none of the government's business, imo.

Obviously you disagree...fine.
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Yeah, we'll have to disagree. I don't think quitting is an option for most people -welfare doesn't pay that much and it's limited in time, food stamps aren't that generous and most people want to work. (if you think it's such a great deal, feel free to quit your job and depend on it...) If they are afraid they will get fired if they ask for overtime pay, they won't ask for it. Thank goodness it's mandated!

Whether holiday pay should be more than OT pay - that can be debated. But if businesses want employees to be happy working holidays, they would be wise to pay extra. And if the govt mandated it, it would mean every employee wouldn't need to negotiate it. Oh, if only there were more unions!
 
Declan said:
Sure because the college athletes who do not even get to go home for the holiday because they are off playing for free in front of tens of thousands of people who are being served refreshments and foam fingers should be made to work--just not the guy who works at Walmart. Mom and pop shops have no incentive to even be open on black friday. People aren't coming there when Walmart has so many good deals.
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I don't agree at all with any gov't entity forcing businesses to pay employees more, however, you make a great point about college athletes. That pisses me off as well. NFL? Whatever. Those guys get paid ridiculous amounts of money to entertain and should do it on any day they're told. Not college athletes.
 
DA60 said:
When you live in a country that has food stamps, medicaid/medicare and other forms of welfare that virtually guarantees almost every American can survive just fine by sitting on their butts...quitting IS almost always an option.
The government should guarantee survival for it's citizens - not a nice apartment, iPad's and a 60" tv.


As for your point about health and safety and child labor - that is a strawman and you (should) know it. I said NOTHING about these and I have said MANY times that child labor and health/safety laws should exist.

But how much people get paid or how many hours they are asked to work is none of the government's business, imo.

Obviously you disagree...fine.
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You overestimate the quality of life that would be possible. The key is highlighted in red. That's about all one can do... survive. If it were as comfortable and easy as you seem to think, pretty much everybody would do it, not just the relative few who do.
 
Higgins86 said:
Why are they open anyway? Don't you have all your sales on the Friday after?
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The sales on Thanksgiving are even better than those on Black Friday.
Not to be a sexist, but for the most part, men and their boys are watching football.
Women and their girls are shopping for Christmas.
It's become a right of passage .
 
Ohio is run by Republicans .
apdst said:
A triple pay law would insure that more stores closed on Thanksgiving, meaning that workers will makenothing. That's way better! LOL!
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$20,000 a year for college athletes, their education, is barely above the poverty level.
Not to mention that most student-athletes on full ride have two full-time jobs.
Their full academic load and their full-time athletic load, both taking 40 hours each on the average.
And many also work at a paying job through the University .

StillBallin75 said:
This year I'll be working on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday and I get time and a half, which is fine but nothing to write home about.

But the thing is, neither consumers or retailers really give a **** about the retail workers in this case. At least not as much as they care about money and sales. It really is a race to the bottom but whatever, it is what it is I guess. Two years ago we opened at midnight, last year we opened at 6pm. This year we are open at 5pm and I have to be at work at 3pm on Thursday. At least this year we actually aren't open overnight, which is a plus.
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NIMBY said:
They're the ones proposing this three times increase in pay you railed on .
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Ok...and? A bad idea is a bad idea. I'm not a Libbo; I don't goose-step to the tune of my party.
 
Since when?
You're the inventor of the word Libbo !

apdst said:
Ok...and? A bad idea is a bad idea. I'm not a Libbo; I don't goose-step to the tune of my party.
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Declan said:
Sure because the college athletes who do not even get to go home for the holiday because they are off playing for free in front of tens of thousands of people who are being served refreshments and foam fingers should be made to work--just not the guy who works at Walmart. Mom and pop shops have no incentive to even be open on black friday. People aren't coming there when Walmart has so many good deals.
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I haven't been to a walmart in nearly 1 1/2 years.
 
reinoe said:
I haven't been to a walmart in nearly 1 1/2 years.
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I can't remember the last time I went to one either.

Yes, others will go; they won't miss me. But I feel better not patronizing them given their business practices.

I do understand for the struggling poor among us, WalMart offers a lot of value. I just don't like how they do it. And perhaps there would be fewer struggling poor if WalMart paid a bit more
 
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