It takes more than $10 an hour to make a good employer
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2015-06-18 11:57:54
Digital data management systems are useful for retailers such as Walmart, which this month an-nounced that by 2016 it is raising its minimum hourly rate in the US to $10. Sophisticated new software that captures real-time sales patterns and other data means companies can deploy more staff at short notice, or send them home when restaurants or stores are empty. Workers are often sent packing mid-shift or called in early. It saves costs for employers and ultimately shareholders.
It is also a nightmare for many low-wage workers, among whose ranks I worked for more than a decade, mostly in food service. Software does not take into account the shifting nature of human lives. Nor can it deal with unexpected events such as a sick child.
Quality of life is about more than the size of your pay cheque. It means being able to spend an evening with your family once a week — instead of keeping one parent at home with the kids while the other works, and then exchanging a few words when you switch roles halfway through the day. It means being able to request working hours that allow you to travel when buses are running so you do not have to walk miles to get to work.
Those things matter to workers. When someone on a low wage talks about finding a better job, better pay is just part of the mix. This is why campaigns groups across America are trying to win better conditions — enabling employees to address questions of health, safety and life quality, alongside their wage gains
Big employers in America seem to be realising what is meant by the term “human capital”. Should this trend continue, led by the world’s biggest private sector employer, it is possible that we will start seeing the kinds of stable and dependable jobs that build a strong economy, instead of the efficient but unstable sort that build a strong quarterly report.
The writer is author of ‘Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America’