If your unemployed, go here http://american99ersunion.yolasite.com/
Support the 99ers, the long tem unemployed, the exhaustee. Everyone thinks it can't happen to me.If it does, you're stuck. I'm a 99er and I'm glad I found this. Go here for support.
http://unemployed-friends.forumotion.com/index.htm
Perhaps the people "paying" people under minimum wage will do some simple math next time they advertise for workers, and realize that $100 for 12 (or more) hours of work is UNDER minimum wage (in California, anyway).
Young people eager to gain experience in their desired field are being taken advantage of. These students or artists, or whoever fall prey, hope to gain entry into the world in which they want to succeed in; meanwhile their 'employers' mock them behind their backs referring to them as 'cheap labor'.
I am constantly boggled by the ads I see asking for highly skilled labor at no pay or some ridiculous flat rate. You would not place an ad for a doctor to set your broken wrist for $5 an hour---where on earth do people get off treating skilled artisans, craftsmen, and musicians like they are a dime a dozen. Many of us have put in years of apprenticeship and assistantships to gain the knowledge and skills we have. Yes---you can probably get a student to do it for no pay. But in your quest to dime it down, you are ensuring a future where your art is bought Target and your plumbing will always leak and your music will, frankly, suck.
Most "internships" tout the idea that one may gain experience - yet most of the time the intern is made to perform menial tasks that have nothing to do with the individual's chosen field of interest. This is institutionalized slavery!
Most "internships" tout the idea that one may gain experience - yet most of the time the intern is made to perform menial tasks that have nothing to do with the individual's chosen field of interest. This is institutionalized slavery!
a recent ad I saw called for a "person with 4-5 years of industry experience and proficiency with all design software" to work as an unpaid intern. This stuff has to stop.
I am happy to see someone doing something about this situation because myself and thousands of other recent grads who are very skilled need jobs and should not have to work for free. How can you expect us to succeed in life if the system is set up to make us fail from the start?
I have encountered numerous situations with unpaid/under minimum wage paid work involved, and can safely say that no one benifits, and it is in everyone's best interest to enforce the rules already in place.
Too many ads ask for expert level skills for no or very little pay. Unfortunately, they get desperate people to apply and work for slave wages. Too many people have reached expert skill levels, only to be laid off and replaced by an "intnern"
Just recently, I saw an ad for an unpaid internship requiring people to work 30-40 hours a week. Even law firms, notorious for long hours, are getting involved. 40 hours a week is considered part-time for attorneys & I have seen unpaid internship ads for admitted attorneys.
I have seen this go on for years where a non profit [who makes tax free $] uses and exploits people. Usually young, hungry and naive people. They bring them in under the guise of one position, then play a bait and switch game going to another position. Then these slave drivers have them work very long hours without even have their meals paid for.
All in the name of "exerience and internship". What a joke!! Please put a stop to this loophole....!!!!
I have seen this go on for years where a non profit [who makes tax free $] uses and exploits people. Usually young, hungry and naive people. They bring them in under the guise of one position, then play a bait and switch game going to another position. Then these slave drivers have them work very long hours without even have their meals paid for.
All in the name of "exerience and internship". What a joke!! Please put a stop to this loophole....!!!!
Even for people that graduate from college and are looking for experience in their field with something that does not pay, employees are required by law to give some kind of stipend whether it is for food, for transportation, or some cash.
Stop letting employeers exploit the workforce! While you are at it why not secure the borders so that the millions of people out of work can have the jobs that are being worked at right now by millions of illegals!
while internships are great for getting experience they should not be free, minimum wage is a stipend. Nothing more. It is a starting wage below poverty. People who would pay less should not offer positions at all. They should be in a different enterprise.
Unpaid internships are a real scam in many ways. A few of them.
1. If you can't afford to take one, becuase you have this habit of eating, then you find your resume competing with people whose family could subsidize them while they "paid their dues" putting you at a disadvantage that you may not overcome your whole life, as those subsidized people continue to stay far ahead of you while they advance up the ladder over many decades while you never could. Everybody should start the race that we call this life from the same gate, not halfway to the finish line running for the roses at Churchill Downs!
2, Unpaid internships artifically depress wages.
3. They are a subtle form of slave labor, as employers promise workers all kinds of good things in the future, then dump them.
The job market is in trouble right now and that gives certain employers the chance to take advantage of a bad situation. Everything is so expensive regardless of minimun wage . the minimun wage should be atleast 10 dollars an hour no matter what state you live in .So many people are already on welfare and more apply everyday. Some one needs to start making a difference , and it doesn't start with health care, or giving money to a third world country.
I need a job badly. I WILL be homeless. It has to be minimum wage or I will not be able to make it. I did not cause these problems. Go to the source, even if it is not popular.
I am writing to day to protest illegal job offers of unpaid work, and work offered at below the minimum wage. These abusive offers are rampant, and laws against them are unenforced.
This needs to happen now! I have watched this go on my entire career in film and video, and with the onset of the internet, it's spread like cancer to every industry. Enforce the law - stop this now!
Enforce minimum wage jobs - End illegal ads for unpaid or illegally underpaid work
86 People Have Sent 192 Letters and Emails
Sign the Petition
Some recent comments: these messages are published with permission of the signer.
Support the 99ers, the long tem unemployed, the exhaustee. Everyone thinks it can't happen to me.If it does, you're stuck. I'm a 99er and I'm glad I found this. Go here for support.
http://unemployed-friends.forumotion.com/index.htm
That just makes my head hurt.
Enough is enough!
All in the name of "exerience and internship". What a joke!! Please put a stop to this loophole....!!!!
All in the name of "exerience and internship". What a joke!! Please put a stop to this loophole....!!!!
1. If you can't afford to take one, becuase you have this habit of eating, then you find your resume competing with people whose family could subsidize them while they "paid their dues" putting you at a disadvantage that you may not overcome your whole life, as those subsidized people continue to stay far ahead of you while they advance up the ladder over many decades while you never could. Everybody should start the race that we call this life from the same gate, not halfway to the finish line running for the roses at Churchill Downs!
2, Unpaid internships artifically depress wages.
3. They are a subtle form of slave labor, as employers promise workers all kinds of good things in the future, then dump them.
4. Tey freeze out unions.
5. It also means no medical benefits.
Sign the Petition