$75 for a 14 hour day?
 

OK, so I work part time at "Bill's Motel," a mom and pop type outfit. Carmen is the manager and my immedient boss. I've never met Bill, the owner, but apparently he's an older guy who likes to drink and chase the ladies. Whatever.

The motel is open form 8am - 10pm, 24/7, 365 days a year. Someone needs to be at the front desk the entire time the motel is open - 14 hours every day. I'm one of two front desk clerks besides Carmen. We get paid minimum wage. However, Carmen lives at the motel. Her compensation is $75.00/day, a free 2 bedroom apartment, and free utilities, cable, etc. Carmen gets no sick leave, paid or otherwise. Her only benefit is one week paid vacation a year. Whatever else Bill may be, "generous" is not one of his attributes.

About a month ago, Carmen became very ill and was in the hospital for a week, Me and the other gal, Judy, filled in for her and were paid our usual minimum wage with no overtime, although we both worked more than 40 hours that week. Carmen took her hospital stay as her "vacation."

Now, the local doctors are telling Carmen that she is going to have to go see a specialist for a complicated surgical procedure. Not only is Carmen suffering from narrowing of the arteries, but she may have cancer. It is possible she could have a stroke on the operating table and die right there. No fun at all. She has to go to a branch of the Mayo Clinic down in Scottsdale, Arizona for the procedure.

Needless to say, Judy and I will be filling in for her and working 14 hour days. Carmen only wants to pay us $75.00/day - what she would normally get. Only Judy and I both go home at the end of the day and no one foots OUR rent and utilities. After taxes, we'll be lucky to bring home $60.00/day or $4.40/hour!

I like Carmen quite a bit. She has a very kind heart and is incredibly patient when I make a mistake, and I made a lot when I was learning the job. I really want to help her out, but this is ridiculous! Carmen says Bill won't want to pay all that extra on the motel payroll while she is out. I think Carmen is worried that she might lose her job to someone younger and healthier and I can certainly sympathize with her.

But not Bill.

So he'd have to put out $200 extra dollars a week for a week or two. If that's going to tip him over the edge, he's going down, anyway. And if he really wanted to save money, he could stop his practice of allowing our Navajo "guests" to trade cheap jewelry for a room. We have tons of jewelry we've gotten that way, and are lucky to sell one or two items a month for maybe 15 bucks. If Bill was really hurting, he'd stop people from getting 3 nights ($120.00) for a $10.00 bracelet.

Should I talk to Bill in private (go behind Carmen's back) and request that we at least be paid minimum wage for the days we have to fill in? Should I say nothing and work for nothing?

Jobs are scarcer than hen's teeth right now in Cortez, and small though it is, I really need my paycheck. But this has me pissed off big time.

off topic, but are you in cortez, colorado? i've been looking at that area for when i retire.

You have a third choice. Say no, and let them figure out another way to staff the desk.

If it were me, I would say that I'm happy to work extra hours at my normal rate, but that I won't take on more hours with a pay cut.

"No" is a very powerful word. It is against the law for them to pay less than minimum wage unless you have a very specific situation like you are a waitress or get room and board. In your state, it may also be against the law for them to not pay you time and a half for more than 40 hours in a week. Not sure what your state laws are. If you take on extra overtime hours, they should be increasing your hourly rate, not decreasing it. That's fucked up.

In negotiations, if you've let the first mention of something pass, without having a visceral reaction, then it is now believed that there is some chance that you will be "okay" with this. Coming back later and saying "I've thought it over and I disagree with this" just doesn't have the same impact.

I agree with glatt.

I agree with merc.

I agree with Shawnee.

Sam, do they kick people out between 10 pm and 8 am, when it's closed? What the heck kind of hotel is that?

Oh, the front desk is closed? Gotcha. I think.

Anyway, no...these guys are right. See if he can find someone else willing to do it. Bill might turn on a dime. (pun intended.)

Better watch that. With high unemployment, there might be somebody just waiting to get a prime job like that.

Like, an illegal?

Or a former PA state employee. There'll be 1,500 of them fighting for her job.

Funny how no one bitched about unions when GM was paying 70 bucks an hour for guys to play cards, which brought down more than one city into poverty through its own damn fault, but it's all the rage to carp on public employees. Why is it so "cool" to badger public employees, do you think? Buncha bandwagoners. Oh yeah, and 'cause of the pubes.

BTW, (and no I'm not in a union) our pres said in his Town Hall meeting that PA got totally blindsided by the cuts (he was speaking of education cuts but I'm sure more than that were blindsided.)

yeah, this goes prolly in another thread but I'm hoping the sniffing rat-sheep bandwagon-jumping morons don't find it here.

They will.

:D

Yeah, I know. But I know Sam won't mind.

Expecting it in 5, 4, 3, 2...

You mean those ding-dong ass-fuck tit-grabbing dog-raping baby-punching who also have bad breath probably and donkey excrement where their brain should be fiddle-faddle shenanigan-causing dimwit halfwit NO-wit snide snarky sneaky sycophant psychopath types?

Know it? I WROTE IT! :lol:

Play cards and worse. When GM employees would show up drunk/high to work, management would send them to medical where they could sleep it off and STILL collect their hourly wage. We had a broom-sweeper (she swept the floors) who made 90,000 the year I was there (1999). GM killed its own damn self. (and yeah, if an employee got a speeding ticket in the town where the plant was located? The union would get it dismissed for them...great use of union time/money, huh? Those guys not only got a hand-holding, they got their balls stroked for 70 bux an hour. And most of them were on vicodin, too - at company expense. Carpal tunnel, you know.)

Now. How can I possibly afford my dream home on 75$/day? It's listed as 299,000 - but i betcha they'll come down a few thou.

yeah, I've been neglecting bringing it up...but one of my dad's buddies told him that they'd often spend the afternoon in the bar. Mornings were coffee, newspaper, sometimes cards if a machine "broke down." My dad liked the guy, but that shit pissed him right off. That isn't the only horse's mouth story I've heard.

I've argued before that the Japs have it right: the area (and there are a few in Ohio) Honda plants pay a decent wage, and the folks have to work for it. They are sustaining. People are making a living wage. There have been NO layoffs in all this time. They plan. They use their freaking heads. Do their employees have 3 motorcycles and an RV bigger than most people's homes? Maybe not, but they're damn happy to be there.

No one dared bitch about the auto unions. Those guys were too big and tough. But the bitch at the DMV who's making 30 grand a year putting up with the public's bellyaching bullshit? She's fair game.

You know what's happened to the economy here, Bri. You're right, the biggest cause, the big ripple...all come from the same place. The model was not sustainable.

And Sam I am so so so sorry for the threadjack.

Unfortunately, American executives only think about this quarter's stock price and how they can put more cash in their own pocketses. Sometimes putting more cash in there own pocketses means suck union balls.

No, they have one scooter.

And a damn nice camera. :p:

Ahem, getting back to the OP for a moment. :eyebrow: I liked glatt's advise, also. One of my major problem is that I don't want to add to Carmen's worries when she's going through such a bad time. That's why I'm thinking of negotiating directly with Bill who is currently basking on the beach somewhere in California. So, if I tell him I want minimum wage and his response is to fire me, that would be illegal, right? I want to talk with Bill at the very last minute (he's due back next week), so he won't have the chance to train someone else in my place. If Judy and I split the time equally, we'll each work 48 hours/week. For that miserable sum? Hopefully, Bill will listen to the voice of reason without enacting reprisals against anyone.

And Shawn, you're just a natural at threadjacking! ;)

yeah, well, it slid when spexx mentioned people wanting the jobs and me saying illegals and then he said PA...blah blah blah. I figured it'd be all right up your alley. :eyebrow:

If'n you don't want your thread to drift, PM it to someone. ;)

(P.S. One nickname I can't tolerate is Shawn. There's a good reason for that. And with that, I shall now change my cloak.)

Oh hai. Were we talking about wages?

Yeah, don't do it.

Sorry for calling you that, SHAW. I didn't mean for you to think from my reply that I was pissed at the hijack. One of the joys of the Cellar is hijacked threads. I just wanted people's sense of whether it would be unethical to go behind Carmen's back. Other than that, hijack away.

no, the other ones

Nah, I was just teasin' back.

I do think it's a lot to ask you to do that without proper compensation. Have you made a decision yet?

(I'm sensitive about that name AND my post count (but how could you know that?) hence the name change that I'd been considering. I'm not sure if it will last though, it feels weird.) :)

So, did you ask for a perk Sam? If they can't pay you in cash they should pay give you some other compensation. Maybe a huge $200 or whatever giftcard and they can write it off on their taxes.

What's wrong with that name, apart from the spelling?

It doesn't look good. Bill the Neanderthal refuses to pay for anyone to come in and cover for Carmen while she's in the hospital getting surgery for a life-threatening condition. I hope Bill's dick falls off soon, but he'd still be a dick-head. Carmen is paying her own $75.00 wage to me and Judy while Carmen is out. So she gets no sick pay - nothing, and she's been there 12 years.

If it were just me, I'd tell Bill to stick it where the sun don't shine, but my co-worker, Judy is timid and thinks she'll never work again if she loses this job, so she won't back me.

Meanwhile, I'm looking in the papers and Internet for another job. :(

Homeless Hobos like to spell it that way. Otherwise, it's a grand name.