Do you believe more employers are taking advantage of desperate employees during this bad economy?

It’s absolutely an employer’s market. Who knows what the job market will look like when all is said and done. I believe that both of your scenarios are elements of what exists.

Yes.

But, also many companies have less revenue and have to cut expenses. Payroll is a large expense, so they reduce the amount of workers, and have each worker doing more tasks.

I agree with @MissA. I don’t think you can say that employers are “taking advantage” of people necessarily, but it is certainly an employer’s, a buyers market. More people are competing for fewer jobs in terms of new hires. And as @JLeslie points out with layoffs and cutbacks workers that have been able to keep their jobs are often doing more, taking up the slack.

If the companies are making huge profits and working their employees to death, I find that deplorable. I feel the airlines do this to some extent. Did you see Undercover Boss about that one airline? I can’t think of the name, hub is in Denver.

Yes, employers have increased the employer share of medical insurance, taken away the Christmas bonus, made stricter rules regarding taking days off, cut back workers even though the amount of work remains the same, and removed break room benefits like free coffee and juice.

@JLeslie If the companies are making huge profits and working their employees to death, Well that is what is happening to many in my field. I’ve worked as an electrician and we used to have mechanics who used to work with electricians and we would help each other out when one of us were not busy. These newer positions I’ve been working in pretty much have one maintenance guy per shift responsible for an entire plant. What was once a career where I used to actually look forward to going to work has now turned into absolute dread. Sweatshop city and sweatshop pay. Little time off. I do not even know why I’m given any vacation days since they rarely allow me to use them anyways since there is no qualified backup personel to replace me.

All the alternative positions that are available are the same as well. I have no regrets doing what I do for a living but I hate where it has gone in the last few years. I will try to get in a union when they have their openings in my area again. Extra responsibilities mean extra schooling (which is extra cost, time and sacrifice to me) but the employers do not want to pay up on their end. I’m done with this nonunion crap (I hope).

Lets see…..

Health insurance benefits are either reduced or dropped. Employers used to cover most (if not all) of the cost but more and more are actually teaching their employees how to scam the government at no cost to the company.

Real wages are down even further than the trickle-up trend of the last decade. I mean, we all know that the wages for most people have not kept up with inflation, but now, even though each dolar is worth less than it was, the same job will get you less dollars than it would’ve before the recession hit.

The balance of power has shifted in favor of employers due to supply and demand; there are at least six applicants for every job so an employer can find at least a dozen people to fill any position they want for whatever pittance they deign to offer.

~But companies are kind and benevolent, so they would never do anything so deplorable.

Does water run downhill?

@skfinkel
Unless it is being pushed up!

@Paradox

Best wishes in getting a union job!

I was a CWA (Communications Workers of America) member for 31 years when I worked for AT&T.
Great benefits, working conditions, and pay.

@Brian1946 Thanks for the kind words. I may not have too much of a choice here anyway since so many places have closed down.

@Paradox Like I said, deplorable. Employees are overworked, and probably prices are higher than they should be to the end consumer. It’s the same as the American auto industry back before the union really pushed back hard. No one ever learns. If you push too hard, people are eventually going to push back. It’s much more pleasant to treat everyone with respect, and not be in an adversarial environment. Sorry you are dealing with this right now. It sucks when there is no fun at work, all pressure and exhaustion.
I know what it is like.

As a side note, I am generally anti-union, because when they get very powerful, they hurt business too. But, in circumstances when staff is being abused, and I feel is can be abusive, people need to stand together and voice it is too much. I prefer it not be done through a union, but I can see why people do organize, especially in large companies when there is a big disconnect between the realities of the daily job of people working on the floor, and people up in the ivory tower.

I just don’t understand how people are making it. Are the unemployed putting out resumes? With so many places closing, where exacly are they supposed to be searching? Those who are financially secure, don’t understand how hard others have it. It is a reality that a lot of those with so-call secure pension plans…have great cause to worry, as they’re running dry.

@jerv ” I mean, we all know that the wages for most people have not kept up with inflation, but now, even though each dolar is worth less than it was…”

“Each dollar is worth less than it was” because during 2009, there was no inflation. We were actually deflating. Now the inflation rate is only about 1%. Most people take it for granted that there will is always inflation, and that if their pay doesn’t go up, then it’s not keeping up with the inflation rate. But last year, literally any pay increase would have been beating the rate. This year even a very low raise keeps pace with inflation.

Things have definitely gotten harder, and corporate greed is a big part of the problem. But companies are also forced to cut costs or raise profits just to keep operating in this economy. I’m lucky enough to be in a small business where the higher-ups work very hard and candidly talk about the budget with us. This honesty keeps me motivated even when they ask us to work harder and with less resources. We’ve had to come up with a lot of fresh ideas. It’s a challenging environment, and just plugging away and doing what we’ve always done won’t keep us in business.

@Haleth You seem to assume that raises are being given, and you can’t use a little blip, one single data point, to refute a long-standing trend, especially not with inflation going from -0.4% to +1.1% in a year.

Those of us who went from $17/hr to $10/hr haven’t seen it.
Those that went from employment to unemployment sure as hell haven’t seen it.
Those that work for companies that look at the numbers and use the deflation of 2009 as an excuse to not only freeze wages, but also to reduce non-wage compensation haven’t seen it.

I agree that things are not easy for many small business owners (and thus, most employers), but things pretty much suck for most people right now…. except for the very top who see their incomes increase almost exponentially lately.

I am fortunate enough to be in a company that is taking on more work and expanding, but the wages…. well, if it weren’t for the fact that I was pretty desperate after 13 months, I wouldn’t have even considered taking the job I have now de to the pay cut. Then again, it’s an employer’s market right now, so I guess it’s unreasonable to expect prevailing wages to not plummet like a fucking rock.

Yes they are and it makes me sick. As a business owner and being independently employed as a consultant I can tell you that it is both the perfect time to employee good people as well as get the “most bang for your buck.” Translated, this means most folks who are used to getting benefits, fringe and medical plus a $50K a year salary are now working for 25K-35K with little or no benefits. Employers are suffering also so it is a two way street. As long as there are people willing to work for scraps then the standard will be lowered across market standards for salary and benefits. I am on both sides of the coin and I am trying my best to not take advantage of the worker. There is good business and there is socioeconomic standards to consider, even if they are never seen, it will reveal itself in the long run. Do good and either fail honestly or prevail victoriously.

Whenever there is opportunity for corporations to maximize profits they will do so. It is the nature of the corporation. As we have witnessed since the Industrial Revolution that America’s greatest resource has been it’s work force. That is until the workforce wanted to make a living wage. Then Corporations looked to move somewhere where there was a greater natural resouce, slave labor. But that wasn’t profitable until they could sell the government on the “wonders of free trade”. Now that thats been accomplished what use do they have with us? Consumers…..

I see how company after company is beating estimates on wall street, continuing to past massive profits and growing their cash reserves to historical levels. (over Two Trillion) They have been awarded tax insentives to hire, R&D, Capital reinvestment, all to no avail. What are they waiting for? Nov 3 when they get to keep their tax breaks on top of all the breaks that have just been handed to “small business’”.

Stand up and vote, tell the corporations that your vote is not for sale and that they need to CHANGE the way they USE our greatest natural resource, Americans! If we never stood up to the corporations we still have our children mining for coal at 5cents a day.

It’s happening just as you say. Incredible skills are demanded because they have the pick of the unemployed litter, and prefer to take the already-employed whenever they can. Pay is low because of supply and demand.

And when someone can’t afford to take some of these too-much-crap, too-little-pay jobs, especially if the commute is egregiously long or it would require a cross-country move, one of the standard cries of the Right is to say that people are just lazy and don’t want to be employed when they don’t take those ridiculous jobs, and that unemployment pay is what makes them that lazy.

Yes, I believe that employers are taking advantage of their employees, because they know that they can get away with it in the current economic situation. The company that I work for (& have worked for almost 12 years) announced two years ago that they were going to begin a Profit Sharing plan, whereby all employees who had been employed for at least one year would receive a Profit Sharing check on a quarterly basis – if the company made a profit. I was of the opinion that the idea behind the Profit Sharing idea was, basically, to get around giving raises (which they were really too tight to do anyway, no cost of living raises for the employees of the company that I work for!). So everyone buckled down & made a concerted effort to increase their work efficiency, & the ink on the bottom line became nice & dark. So, we started getting small Profit Sharing checks at the end of each quarter. We felt good that we were finally getting some sort of reward for all of our hard work & we kept it up. Profits got even better (& I should know, I am the individual who keeps track of the money that comes in, it went from coming in at the rate of ¾ of a million dollars per month, up to a million dollars per month, & now it is up to almost a million plus an additional ¼ million per month). The last Profit Sharing check we got at the end of June was almost $700.oo for each of us. We should have had a Profit Sharing check at the end of September – but nothing was said & nothing was posted on the bulletin board in the break room. Finally the owners called everyone (from the office, the warehouse, shipping, & production) into a big meeting & they made the announcement that the Profit Sharing plan was being “put on hold” because, in their opinion, ‘some people were simply not working up to expectations.’ Talk about destroying morale…..... it just wiped us all out. I don’t think that they had expected that giving us such a financial incentive would have resulted in them having to give out so much money, & they did not like it, so they stopped it. Then the president of the company & his wife went on a trip to London, England & stayed a week. We have been betrayed by their greed. It will be interesting to see if the work effort falls as much as I anticipate that it will, it has already begun to show up in production. Soon it will be reflected in the cash coming into the company. They might even then consider going back to the Profit Sharing incentive, but I seriously doubt that we will believe them anymore. It is a shame that people in a position of power cannot see that greed is a killer of dreams & a killer of financial gain.

@jerv Unfortunately I believe you’re right. We can’t count on most employers to do the right thing. Going by my own employment experiences in my career field the circumstances have definitely changed during the last 20 years.

Regardless of the economy (at least in my field) it seems like the more requirements/more schooling/more skills/less manpower for a slight wage increase, or sometimes no wage increase at all is becoming the norm.

There used to be a such thing as maintenace electricians, maintenance mechanics, electronics technicians, forktruck technicians, computer technicians and so forth where each position used to pay between $18.00 to $30.00 per hour. Now the employers are requiring candidates to be on at least a journeyman level in all of these disciplines for the same and in many circumstances even less pay. What this means is less personel to complete their tasks (since employers want superman now), more responsibilities, more stress, less time off, less manpower help, more schooling (which means more money/time out of my pocket since most employers aren’t willing to pay for training), along with a salary/or hourly wage that does not truely compensate for all of these extras.

Now instead of employers wanting a maintenance electrician, maintenance mechanic, electronics technician or computer technician they now want the whole shabang for the same or less pay in new cleverly named positions (to cover up the sweatshop circumstances these positions will incur) known as “electromechanical technicians”.

@Paradox Technically, I am a Material Removal Specialist; the prevailing wage for Machinists is more than my employer is willing to pay, so they get around that by not calling me by the title for the job I actually do. That cuts my wage almost in half. But at least they are good enough to work for that my non-monetary compensation isn’t bad; the working conditions are tolerable, unlike many other places that underpay their workers. And we still get profit sharing twice a year.
Still, the job I had before paid twice as much and it’d be nice if I still earned enough to allow my wife to quit her menial retail job that she hates.