Since When Can A Private Recreation Club Pay Employees UNDER Minimum Wage?

[orleans]

my daughter got a paycheck. it was only for a few hours of "training"

she was told she would be paid $7.50 per hour.

can they pay "less" for orientation/training?

she was paid $7.00

she asked what someone else was getting and this other girl said the manager told her she was going to be paid $7.00.

i checked on the illinois board of whatever and it looks like minimum wage around here was $7.50 since july 1, 2007 and it is to go up to $7.75 july 1 2008.

can they pay less for training?
can they pay less because it is a "private club?"

anyone know?

on edit: i'm thinking i must be crazy or something because there are a ton of kids (over 16) who work there. aren't their parents noticing their kids are getting paid less than minimum wage?

[baldguy]

1. How old is your daughter?

http://www.state.il.us/Agency/idol/Laws/Law105.htm

"Guarantees a minimum wage of $7.50 per hour for workers 18 years of age and older; workers under 18 may be paid $.50 per hour less than the adult minimum wage. Credit for tips may not exceed 40% of the applicable minimum wage. Employers may apply for licenses to pay sub-minimum rates to learners and certain workers with physical and mental limitations. Overtime must be paid after 40 hour of work per week at time and one-half the regular rate."

[orleans]

3. she's twenty. and she's pretty pissed off about this. and so am i.

the girl she spoke to who said she would be paid $7.00 was 17 btw.

[truedelphi]

2. Thank you for looking out for your daughter. She is lucky to have you.

Most Americans are such sheep - I was hired about fifteen yrs ago for a firm that told me my first day would be training. AN hour into the training, the instructor explained to the roomful of us new trainees that we would not be paid for the day.

I left and never went back. But everyone else just sat there going, "Oh it isn't WORK, it's training, so we don't get paid."

Part of my reason for leaving was that I didn't want to work with co-workers who were sheep, though without the wool covering.

At that time in America, jobs were more plentiful - don't know if I could act on that same decision today.

[ingac70]

4. not paid just for the day?

A few years back here in Tennessee, Nissan was allowed to have a training period of SIX WEEKS.... UNPAID. The only way you could be considered for employment was to go through that training.

I think they get temp workers now, but that was the shit they pulled back in the late 80s.

[orleans]

5. that's a fucking crime. n/t

[truedelphi]

6. California has a lot of faults

Including the fact that its Democratic party leadership are a bunch of Gatekeepers

But our right to work includes the right to be paid for any and every hour worked - including training.

Had i been enjoying my co-workers, or the idea of holding that job full time, I would have stuck it out - like you say - it was only a day.

but the job was beneath me, and unlike other similar jobs, no one in my group of co-workers made me laugh or gave me much hope of enjoying the workplace.

[orleans]

7. i understand you leaving after "training"

my daughter is still working there. they do this every other week pay period, and you get paid for the period before the current one. so...

[truedelphi]

8. Loving your sig line! n/t

[Occulus]

10. Your last line is just the way employers like it.

They know that, today, they have the upper hand, and it's a royal flush. They treat us workers like shit, in the main, because of that.

I'm a member of the APWU- the one of the largest and most ineffective unions in the country. We bargained away our right to strike. They gave us a no-layoff clause in return- and now, today, they're using temps which were a violation of the previous contract (the APWU caved, IMO because the practice was so rampant they couldn't stop it short of a strike) in record numbers. That mail you got late? Google "postal casuals" and go from there.

I live your last line every day, and my job is one of the vanishingly few that is protected in some way. I pity every last poor bastard out there under the gun, because I'm not- yet.

The economy is bad in the US, and in a bad economy, workers get treated like shit. We're headed for a repeat of the 1920s, and I don't see any pro-labor forces in place willing to fix it. They might lose their jobs if they try, which again is exactly the way employers like it.

Keep 'em quiet and subdued and feeling like they're lucky to have a job, and they'll be good little sheep. I could go on and on.....

[madeline_con]

9. Is there anything in writing stating how long the "training" lasts?

spell edit

I remember years ago, Taco Bell woulkd pay less than minimum for a long training period. When someone complained, they'd be dismissed.

I'd call the labor board.

[TahitiNut]

11. Less than four employees and they'd be exempt from the Ill. MW Laws.

The Minimum Wage is part of the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) at the federal level and corresponding laws (if any) at the state level. There are lower limits on the number of employees and other eligibility standards that make such laws apply.