#essential workers

gagatha-krispy:

have just learned that federally, agriculture workers are exempt from overtime pay

Like. People can really ask someone to go out and work a field 70 hours a week, and not even pay them overtime. You’d get 70 hours of minimum wage.

I’ve been in agriculture my whole life and while I am salaried now, every job where I was an hourly, I got paid overtime after 40 hours. AND YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT WASN’T LEGALLY REQUIRED AND I’VE JUST LUCKED OUT ON THE COMPANIES I’VE WORKED FOR THIS WHOLE TIME?

And only like five states have decided “hey that’s bullshit so we’re gonna actually pay overtime” but they are “PHASING IT IN” which means this year they pay overtime after 55 hours?? And then 2023 they’ll pay overtime after 48??? Bro????

Hmm, okay, so I keep seeing discourse about “the labor shortage”, and there’s a few huge very simple explanations aside from unemployment and low pay.

First, and at least President Biden and Governor Beshear of Kentucky addressed this one: CHILDCARE. Daycares have closed, have limited capacity, and I’m sure need workers like everyone else. Low-paying retail jobs don’t exactly letcha bring your kids with you, nor pay a whole hell of a lot for professional child care.

Who else provides childcare for parents? GRANDPARENTS. You know, the demographic that suffered the highest death rate from the pandemic. Along with losing a precious member of their family, families have also lost in them the person who cared for their child while they worked.

Relatedly, another reason for the labor shortage?

The nearly 600,000 DEAD. Nearly six hundred thousand people in the United States literally do not exist anymore. They’re gone. That NO ONE has connected the dots and realized this would *also* impact the number of people available to work is just…astounding.

This is the thing that really gets me. We have ALL watched video after video in the past year of out-of-control assholes screaming, assaulting, spitting, coughing, and even so extremely, *murdering* low wage essential workers in retail and the service industry. Absolutely fucking NO ONE should be treated the way retail workers have been treated this past year. Every sanctimonious blowhard in politics and the media whinging that people need to take these jobs and get off unemployment would refuse to be treated the way retail workers are treated.

The SAME type of people who attacked the Capitol on January 6th have been terrorizing low wage retail workers for over 365 motherfucking days now.

It is absolutely unsurprising, and completely understandable, that many people have decided, FORGET THAT.

·         The average hourly pay for a Registered Nurse -Hourly Rate - C$28 - C$45. On average C$33.1 Dollars. These people look after all your needs when you need them the most. They are there on the day you are born and they will be there when you die. They fed you when you could not, they cleaned you when you could not, and they stood by you when no one else could.

·         The average salary for a Cleaner is $15.94 per hour. These are the people that keep our homes, workplaces and all other facilities clean so you can enjoy a clean environment, they washed your floors, cleaned your walls, picked up the garbage from your floors and grounds, and today the disinfect the world around us so we stay safe from a virus that may kill you.

·         The average hourly pay for a Farmer in Canada is Hourly RateC$10 - C$25. On average C$16.56 hour. The farmers are the people that plant the seeds of our sustenance, grow the food that we eat, be it a vegetable, fruit or a meat product. They feed the world.

·        Grocery Clerk - CA$12/hr  -CA$14/hr. stocks the shelves at a store so that we can pick our food off a shelf in the stores, They make your life easier so you can pick and choose your food at a store

·         The average hourly pay for a Construction Worker in Canada is C$19.24 Hourly RateC$14 - C$32. These are the people that build our civilization, our homes our roads, they build the home you live in, and they put a roof over our heads.

·        Physicians earn an annual income between $150,000 and $312,000. These are the people that help you from the day you are born, throughout your life when you feel sick; they relieve your physical and or mental pain.

·        Basketball player ( Kyle Lowry) one-year, $31 million. Range of pay per basketball player is between $ 1 million and 31 million. – These people chase a rubber ball on a basketball court. Demand special treatment and expect you to give them special benefits and treatment. These are the people that make more money in one year than most “essential workers” would make in 10 life times.

I believe that we as a society have over paid and idolized the wrong people.

We have rewarded and devoted more respect and admiration, to those who entertain us, than to the people that provide us with all the basic needs that we need to live.

We must change our society around so the that the people that feed, clean, look after us and that build our world are given the respect, admiration, and appropriate pay for the service they provide to us on each and every day of our lives.

We don’t need to be paying millions of dollars to anyone for our momentary entertainment.

We should be rewarding the people that make our world a better place each and every day.

Share this and be part of the change.

my gf instigated a walk out over unsafe work conditions , on marx’s birthday none the less, and i couldn’t be more proud rn tbh