If you are an employee, you are in luck.  There are a ton of laws governing how you are treated that will really work to your advantage.  Look up the laws that govern your area; local laws can be different from place to place.  For example, the federal minimum wage is around $7/hour, the California minimum wage is around $8/hour San Francisco minimum wage is over $9/hour.

1.  Your employer MUST pay you for the hours worked.  They are very strict about this.  If your company goes under, the employees are typically the ones to get the first stab at what is left.

2.  Your employer must inform you of any pay cuts before you work those hours.  You cant be making $15/hour, but then all of the sudden get paid for $13/hour.  Its just plain illegal.

3.  Know your break rights.  From what I remember, you must take a 30 minute break for every 6 hours worked, and you have the legal right to take a 30 minute break if you work a 5 hour shift.  I remember an old college job where we were forced to waive our rights to the break.  I didn’t mind since it meant more clock time, but I am sure it was still somewhat illegal.

4.  You can never be forced to do something illegal or unsafe.  If you get fired for refusing to do something like that, your employer can get in HUGE trouble.

5.  Harrassment and sexual harrasment laws are extremly strict.  You would be shocked at how easy it is to label things as harassment.

If you think you are treated unfairly at your job, research labor laws online, or talk to an attorney.  The government has taken a lot of steps to prevent a lassie-fare sort of economic system.  Legislation in this department is very strict to help look out for the little guy.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 12:58 am and is filed under Long Term Cash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.