Retail jobs are famously low-paying, with erratic schedules and sometimes shift changes without prior notice. Little wonder, then, that an hourly-paid retail worker would aspire to be promoted—to a salaried low-level management position with its promise of an ascent up the corporate ladder. But it doesn’t always work out so nicely, as writer Virginia Sole-Smith explains in this November 2015 Newsweek report.
Read it here: Sole-Smith, “It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the battle for overtime”
- For an hourly-paid retail worker, a salaried position is presented as a way to advance their career. Sole-Smith argues that large companies such as Walgreens, Chipotle, and many more, are using the shift to salaried status as a way to avoid paying overtime, without keeping the promise of genuine advancement. What evidence does she present? Give a brief summary. Is her argument persuasive? Why or why not?
- Although Sole-Smith’s article focuses more on the concerns of the workers, the positions of the companies and industry groups are also explained. How fairly does she treat these opposing views? Point to examples to support your conclusions.
- Sole-Smith refers to the American Dream without giving any definition or explanation. In what sense is she using the term? Read (or re-read) Edward McClelland’s essay in Chapter 19 of your text. Are McClelland and Sole-Smith interpreting the American Dream in the same way? How are the two authors’ interpretations similar? How are they different? Point to specific passages to support your thinking.
- As Sole-Smith explains, it has been the law of the land since 1938 that wage workers be compensated at time-and-a-half for hours worked in excess of forty hours per week. However, the baseline salary that determines the threshold for overtime qualification hasn’t changed in forty years. In addition, the proportion of time a worker spends on managerial tasks can figure into the determination of overtime qualification. Thus, the current debate centers around “how to determine who qualifies for overtime.” Should this determination be based on the proportion of time spent on managerial tasks? The salary a worker receives? Some combination of the two? How would you propose solving the problem? Using Sole-Smith and/or the sources she cites as your They Say, write an essay proposing clear and fair guidelines for salaried workers’ overtime compensation.
They Say I Blog 
I completely agree with the fact that companies give employees the option to earn salary or stay at hourly so that they don’t have to pay overtime. She describes that she was clocking 50-60 hours but was only promised to work 44 hours a week being on salary. So now that shes on salary, she doesn’t make any more money for those 6-16 hours extra that she is working.
My store manager is on salary, and almost every week she works every day 9-10 hours a day. And on certain days, she’ll be like “yup, working for free tomorrow.” Honestly, she really is because shes not getting paid to come in the next day because shes already hit her hours but she has to do what needs to be done.
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Salary vs. hourly pay
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Mrs.Warner has very good keep points. For example, a person who gets promoted should get paid more. In her case, her salary was the same, but she got paid less per hour. In paragraph three it says, “ But Warner quickly found herself clocking 50- and 60- hour weeks instead of the 44 she’d been scheduled for. Even though her annual salary was now about $10,000 more than she’d made as a management trainee, when she did the math, she realized her wage per hour was exactly the same or less.” She did everything that her job wanted her to do. Clean bathrooms, stock things and also help take things out of trucks. I believe hard work and dedication pays off, in this case, it didn’t. When she was a manager she wasn’t really at times, because people had her do other things. I think she did the right thing by switching jobs and finding something better for herself. Companies should give employers more money when they work more hours then they are sopost to.
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What is the American Dream? The American Dream, is the idea that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. Equality is something America has been struggling with for decades. Someone who is dedicated to their job or career, shows up early every day, works until they feel weak in the knees and expects nothing too much in return, except equal pay and respect. How can a person achieve the American Dream and true equality, if they are treated unfairly within the workforce? When a person works overtime they work 40 hours or more without pay, in one 7 day calendar week. As an employer I would feel very grateful and honored to have such dedication brought upon my business. Therefore, paying them extra for their services, should be the right and normal thing to do. If someone is helping your business prosper and strive, they should be paid for their gratitude and hospitality. Smith argues that large companies are using shift salaried statuses to avoid paying overtime, which is unfair and unjust. People who work their respective hours, should get paid for both those hours and however much time they put into overtime. Most companies may not believe in pay for overtime, because that means more money spent out of their pockets.
Every voice should be heard when, it comes to equal justice and their own rights. I feel as though more people should speak up, when they are treated unfairly so they can catch the attention of others. One man/woman cannot change the world, without an army standing by their side. I feel as though, no one should ever put in 110%, while someone else is putting in 50% and still manages to be treated the same. People who stand out and make a difference, should be rewarded for their accomplishments, not because they need to be shown off but simply because they deserve it. I feel as though the government should do much better, when it comes to equal pay, whether it is for race, gender, age or for overtime. A solution to this problem could involve the government either ending the overtime era, or making a law that states people who work overtime, should earn some type of pay. The law could propose, that minimum wage should be the reward given to those who meet the requirements of overtime. If not then, the government should put an end to overtime and only allow people to work their respective hours.
How are we “One Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all?”, when certain people are being targeted for their beliefs, race, age, skin color, and equality. People are being stripped of their rights every day. We cannot call ourselves a “Nation” or a “Whole”, until changes are made and people can truly experience freedom. Until then, the world will continue to be unfair and unjust, as long as we continue to work and bow-down to “The Man”. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. ~Thomas Paine
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Reading the blog and the comments helped me to understand that jobs are very tricky if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on. It taught me a lesson in way which was, ask questions if you don’t understand something. When I read the comments, many people said that they believe you should get paid more if you’re promoted. I agree with this statement completely because most times if you’re the boss or manager, you have a lot more stress to deal with. Most companies good people because they don’t pay them the money they deserve. It isn’t fair that people work these minimum wage jobs and have to deal with stress, rude people, working long hours, and still get paid a low amount of money. In my opinion, if I have to clean the bathroom and do all the things Mrs. Warner does, I would expect the same things she wants as well.
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Virginia Sole-Smith article can be easily disassembled via tactics used in the book They Say I Say. In chapter two of the book, it tells of how to summarize something that is said. Smith used the tactic of summarizing what Ruby Warner, the ex-management trainee at a Florida Walgreen, said about her scheduling. She does not simply state her summary as a list of events that occurred. Instead, Smith starts her article by creating a story around what Ruby Warner described as her experiences. Indeed, Smith supports her argument by telling of how Warner was promoted to executive assistant manager just so that Walgreen did not need to pay her for working over 44 hours. Finally, Smith closes her article with what Warner is up to now. Essentially, Sole-Smith used Warner’s story as a through line to accomplish and support her claim that companies are not paying overtime to salaried employee and why it clearly need to change. In chapter five of They Say I Say, the author tells of how to distinguish what you say from what they say. He offers multiple templates for sentence structure that help determine what I am saying over what the author is saying. Thus, I would say that Sole-Smith offers a persuasive argument because she uses real life events of an individual mixed with ongoing legal procedures.
In chapter six of the book, the author describes how putting a counter argument in your text can be a powerful tactic in writing because it allows a writer to combat counter-arguments that may arise. Thus, forming a stronger argument for why your position is the correct one to take. In her article, Sole-Smith says very little about the naysayers of her position. The strongest argument in her article is that small businesses will not be able to afford the salary increase in some parts of the country. I think if she elaborated on this statement by Weil, she would have a stronger argument for her position. Cynics of the new overtime policy claim that 45 percent of managers surveyed feel like the new overtime policy would make them feel like they are simply performing a job instead of their career. Overall, I think she treats these points strongly enough that it makes her position seem like the most logical position to take for society as a whole. The only gripe I have with Sole-Smith is that I wish she gave more information of the smaller businesses concerned. Maybe some revisions need to be made to the overtime plan before it is fully enacted in our country.
Again, in chapter seven of the book They Say I Say, the author brings up the most important part of all in writing. Why does what the author say matter? Sole-Smith answered this message with grace. Throughout her writing, she keeps the overtime payment issue relevant to all by making it personal with Warner’s story. She goes from being excited about an executive assistant manager at a Walgreen store promotion six years prior to becoming tired working over 44 hours without additional pay. She found she was making less money in some instances then those who worked under her because hourly associates have the ability to make time and half overtime pay. Sole-Smith turned an article that could have been boring and turned it into something important. Warner tells of how she would miss her children’s baseball games and other family events due to not knowing what store she would be assigned until shortly before being assigned there. After many years of this, Warner eventually ended up working at a Casino as a regular hourly associate because it allowed her more time with her family while also giving her marginally better pay. Overall, Sole-Smith answered the question of why one should care about changes in overtime payment with the use of Warner’s story mixed with information on current statistics of salaried employees. Essentially, Sole-Smith successfully appeals to an audience’s intelligence and emotional side in her article through the use of these tactics.
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I agree that companies are basically robbing their employees with their wages. they pay them the bare minimum that they have to and the employees get really bad benefits if they even get any at all. When I was working my summer job this past ssummer I worked with a civil engeneering firm on the surveying crews. I was fortunate that they paid well and liked when the crews worked overtime because it showed the office people doing the engineering work with the data that we brought them that we actually cared enough to want to work overtime. Also with surveying when the survey crews hit their 40 hours after that the engineering firm charges the customer extra for every hour the crew is in the field. So it makes up for the extra overtime pay for the whole crew and some extra. So I was lucky that the office was more than happy to offer us all overtime whenever we wanted it and we could work. Most businesses aren’t like that thouugh because they end up paying the employees more money when they hit their 40 while still bringing in the same amount.
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americans have always wanted to be living the dream, but it seems as of late most employers want more work from you for less cost. So yes although it is nice to be offered hourly or salary choice, unless the company is going to work you more than 40-50 hours a week so they dont have to pay overtime. In my experience if salary is offered than its usually to save wage costs.In my opinion the american dream is becoming more and more expensive to achieve in todays economy.
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Every American need to have equal opportunity in working. It is not fair when they work over 40 hours in week and don’t have money for the overtime. The workers work hard to help the company develop, but the company don’t pay salary for them.
People who work overtime, they should get paid for those hours.
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Sole-Smith doesn’t come right out and say what the American Dream is but implies it with the addition of an employer statement “that workers who stand to be reclassified under the proposed rule will view that as a demotion rather than a step towards the American Dream”. This seems to say that the American Dream is highly advancement based even though the salary numbers don’t advance with the advancement. This coincides with chapter 19 from They Say I Say, where it says “We go to school,study, get a job, and work hard with the assumption that doing so will allow us to achieve financial security, rise up the economic ladder, and perhaps achieve great wealth “. Americans seem to associate advancement with progresss, and things like financial stability. AMexicans like making money and progress but according to this article it would seem the wool is being pulled over our eyes when it comes to what progress is. Chapter 19 doesn’t recognize the same specific problems as this article but definitely hits on the rift between rich and poor just as well. Chapter 19 touched more on government it seemed to me and this article more on big business being the problem. Maybe thereally is something to be said when it comes to local businesses, small owners and home grown products. Maybe if our society supported and sponsored the little guy more there wouldn’t be as many middle class issues and illusions in our economic idea.
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This article hits the nail right on the head, it explains exactly how the system works and how businesses take advantage of their employees. I most definitely agree that companies offer employees salary instead of hourly rates to save money in overtime. Just like Warner, who had an annual salary increase but found herself clocking 50 to 60 hours per week; my ex-husband was put in the same dilemma. He was offered a salary position as an Assistant Manager at a well-known restaurant in the San Diego area. He was obviously very happy and excited about this “promotion”, thinking he was heading to financial success and growth; he could not have been further from the truth. This so called “promotion” brought huge problems to our marriage. He started working 10 or even 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, thus, he stopped spending time with us as a family and never had time to show up to our kids’ activities. Unfortunately, he did this for 10 years, all throughout this time I tried to explain to him that if he did the math, he would be better off working hourly, he finally realized that the extra $13000 yearly were not worth losing his family, but by this point it was too late, our marriage was done.
I am sure there are thousands of cases like mine, there are hardworking people trying to accomplish and live the “American Dream”, but in reality what is the American Dream? Does it mean losing your family over a company that is not even yours? I believe employers should be more sensitive and put themselves in the employees’ shoes. They should treat their employees with respect, gratitude, and loyalty, they should consider that the business is striving thanks to the employees’ hard work.
It is morally correct to pay employees for their time, and it’s only fair to pay extra for over time hours worked, after all we work hard with the hope to achieve financial stability and provide enough for our families.
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This article uses Tammy Jenkins story as an example of how many companies are secretly saving money. By promoting eager workers to a management position so that they work more and lose their overtime pay. In her mind, the promotion was a reward for the last 6 years she had dedicated to the company. It was an accomplishment she had been seeking for her future. Only to later realize that she was being taken advantage of. She was working more hours weekly and not performing any managerial task that one would assume would be included with a promotion. Workers should be paid and compensated for their hard work. Instead is has a short list of employment loopholes that some companies are already doing: Several part-time workers instead of a full-time employee in order to not have the expense of benefits or schedule full-time employees a reduced 30 hours so they can have the flexibility of working more without touching overtime.
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American dream as defined ” a house, 2.5 kids, cars on the driveway and a stable job” seems far fetched, as the economic status of many people is trending towards poverty line. Large employers like Walmart, Chipotle and many more as smith argues are coming up with new tactics to offer managerial, exempt positions just for the sake of title and have their employees overwork. Ms. warner’s story is incredibly sad. She is promoted to an assistant manger, but, did the duties of an hourly employee. As pointed by Liz Simmons, these employees feel like “they were performing a job instead of pursuing a career”. Exempt employees are supposedly eligible for take time off to take care of sick children or attend their baseball games. If these so-called exempt employees are asked to work overtime and not paid for there overtime, how is it beneficial? American dream is way too distant for these workers.
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The article “It’s Walgreens VS. The American Dream In The Battle For Overtime” by Virginia Sole-Smith, shows that career success is much more than attaining a manager or supervisor title. For many, being a manager means working up the corporate latter. It is something that employees should be able to be proud of, not just a money saving title that comes with the same work as their previous job. It is disgraceful that for many, being a manager is nothing more than a ploy by big corporations to save money.
Ruby Warner, a former Walgreens employee, experienced this firsthand as she was taken advantage of in order to save her store overtime money. Not only did Warner make the same or less hourly than she did previously, she also was denied valuable training that she was entitled to. Sole-Smith describes this mistreatment of Warner, stating in her article, “the training her bosses promised, she says, rarely amounted to more than a weekly conference call, which her manager often asked her to skip to so she could stock shelves.” Companies like Walgreens need to take their promotions seriously and not use them as cost cutting opportunities. This is a big problem in America as “The Department of Labor estimates that around 6 million Americans hold jobs like Warner’s: Their employers classify them as overtime exempt even though their positions should qualify them for after-hours pay, and they may end up earning less than hourly employees working under them” (Sole-Smith). For the American Dream to be alive again, corporations need to stop taking advantage of employees and lawmakers need to step in to better ensure that people are not cheated out of years of hard work.
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In her article, “Its Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the Battle for Overtime” Virginia Sole-Smith gives us a glimpse into the experience of a retail worker who claims to be promoted solely for the purpose of saving the company money. Ruby Warner was excited about her promotion at first, until she realized that the company now expected her to work extremely long hours (50-60/week) without paying her beyond her base salary. Sadly, this is a common practice in retail and restaurants. When I worked for a restaurant in high school, a couple of my co-workers were in this same position. They had been promoted to a salaried position with the title “assistant manager”, but after a few weeks they began to notice the trend as well. They were expected to stay longer each day, adding up to a longer workweek, and their paychecks never saw an increase. Just like Ruby Warner. The American dream is mentioned in this article, in the sense that hard work and dedication will pay off and give one a successful life. I don’t believe that to be true anymore. In order to be successful and happy, one must work for a company that encourages their success, not one that limits them.
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I’ve witnessed what Miss Warner went through first hand. As a licensed cosmetologist I was promoted from an hourly stylist to a salaried manager. Most of my job was the same as it was before my promotion, but I was given extra tasks on top of the work already required. I was also able to earn different bonuses for different aspects of my job. Keeping sales high and employee hours low awarded me more on my bonuses each paycheck. My “full time” employees didn’t work more than 30 hours a week. These stylists had gone through the time and expenses to learn a trade and were struggling to get by. Our hours of operation were 9-8 each day, with even shorter hours on the weekends. Schedules were never set or guaranteed. The lack of consistency and clause against competition basically ruled out a stylists ability to get a second job anywhere else, let alone within the same trade.
As a manager I was expected to keep my hours below 40, even though I worked off salary. The reason behind the restriction was that my bonuses would increase too much (higher sales with lower employee hours, not to mention tip money) I was also required to work at least 30 hours each week. If was ever short on hours, for something like sickness or uncontrolled events, my pay was actually docked. So even though I was a “salaried manager,” I was making no more than dollar/hour more than what I had been originally. That was on a good paycheck too. There were times that my hourly employee made more than I did, because their bonuses weren’t limited like mine. It ended up being a lot more work, stress, and responsibility for very little, if any, reward. It’s because of my 7 years spent “working my way up” at that company that I finally cut back and focused my time more on school. I’ve since had a child (another on the way) and now do school full time while being a stay at home mom. The money I would make working and putting my kids in daycare wouldn’t even out, or would barely add maybe an extra hundred dollars to our budget each month, on a good paycheck.
It is unfortunate that these new guidelines that people are trying to put into place will only negatively affect the small business owners of America. Increasing restrictions as they’re suggesting will only lead to an increase in part-time job, as the article stated. That is already the reality at my former job. Full time jobs, for those without college degrees are few and far between. That just seems to be the way things are going now.
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In Virginia Sole-Smith’s article, “It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the Battle for Overtime,” she makes the argument that large corporations are using loopholes in the current labor laws to save them money by promoting employees to over-time exempt salaried management positions. Sole-Smith introduces Ruby Warner, a grandmother from Florida, who was promoted to the executive assistant manager at a local Walgreens six years ago in hopes of having her own store. Warner was happy to put in her time and work hard, but after her promotion took affect, she was still responsible for the same tasks as her hourly-paid coworkers, even “cleaning the bathrooms,” she claimed. Although Warner had a $10,000 pay increase and was working more hours, she did not see an increase in her pay over all due to the exempt overtime hours, nor did she see the advancement her bosses promised (Sole-Smith).
Warner is not alone. There are many others working 50- and 60- hour work weeks, but not being compensated for overtime hours, since their employers are using management promotions to disguise overtime exempt positions and make them look more attractive. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which was passed in 1938, was put in place to protect the workers and it is doing just the opposite – it is allowing these employers to save money at their employees expense. The “baseline” was set in place in “1975 at $23,660 (an … equivalent to [approximately] $104,642 in 2015 dollars…), which covered 62 percent of salaried workers at the time.” Now, only 8 percent qualify in today’s world, since that “baseline” hasn’t been reevaluated (Sole-Smith).
Sole-Smith reports, the Obama administration has been working to change FLSA, proposing to raise the baseline to $50,660 per year, which would benefit approximately 40 percent of the American workforce by allowing more to earn overtime pay. “Industry critics” argue that small businesses would not be able to afford the increase and they also point out the new loopholes the employers can use to their advantage (Sole-Smith), once again. Sole-Smith quotes, UCLA’s Chris Tilly to explain ways around the proposed increase: “[employers] may replace full-time positions with multiple part-time jobs (… sav[ings] on benefits), or set the base hours for full-timers as low as 30 hours per week, so they can still have them work those 10 extra hours without … overtime pay.”
After reading this article, I am questioning the American Dream and if it is still “alive” in America. I believe that the American Dream is defined as being able to work your way up through hard work and dedication, but if these large corporations are constantly finding ways to dock pay or not pay their employees the wages that are deserved, how can anyone ever move up or forward towards their dreams. If I were in Warner’s position, I too would be excited and relieved with a new management position thinking I was working up towards my goals of having my own store. But learning that I am earning less then most of my co-workers without a management title, would be extremely discouraging to me in hopes to make a better life for myself.
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How is anyone supposed to be able to afford the American dream in the first place? Moving up from a part-time position to a salaried position is every employee’s goal. The new title is supposed to come with higher pay and more opportunities for growth within the company. But according to Sole-Smith that isn’t always the case. This article was a real eye-opener for me since this is a practice that I have never encountered or heard of. Why give someone a so-called “promotion” and get their hopes up? This is a very underhanded way to get free labor out of someone in lieu of hiring more employees. “But salaried employees whose roles are considered “executive, administrative or professional” and who are paid above a set baseline are exempt. Employers don’t have to pay them extra if they work more than 40 hours” (Sole Smith, Newsweek.com). So I get a promotion, hooray, but then I get to basically work for free doing the same grunt work as before? There is something wrong with this picture.
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In this article, Ms. Sole-Smith equates the American Dream to a battle for fair pay. She is writing specifically about overtime pay and employees who are exempt from overtime pay. I don’t think it matters what the definition of American Dream is, fair pay should be a part of that. For some, the American Dream is owning a house; for others it may be having a new car every year. These scenarios require money, which is supposed to be paid according to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Ms. Sole-Smith alleges that corporations are reclassifying employees as salaried managers to avoid paying overtime. When looking at the numbers, I think this could be accurate. As she states, the baseline income of $23,660 was in 1975. At that time, the minimum wage was $2.10. A salaried worker in 1975 was making more than five times a full time worker making minimum wage ($4,368). To federal minimum wage today is $7.25, or $15,080 annually for a full time employee. If we go by the same ratio – 5 times minimum wage – the baseline for a salaried worker should be around $75,400, more than three times the current baseline. In California, the minimum wage is currently $11, which is $22,880 per year. This figure is a difference of only $780 from the overtime exempt salaried worker baseline. It would be extremely beneficial to “promote” hourly employees to salary and avoid paying overtime – which means this probably does occur in many corporations. In order to keep this from happening, the FLSA needs to be brought current. Either the baseline needs to be adjusted, or a better definition should be made regarding who qualifies as an exempt employee.
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I would like to agree on how companies try to cheat ways or find loop holes in not paying for overtime to workers. I’ve noticed from personal experience, companies and small businesses try to avoid paying overtime by giving as little as 20-30 hours a week. They also higher more part time workers to avoid having full time workers to receive and avoid hourly costs. They tend to have part time workers work without pay raise and then give them promotions that will cut them from being paid extra hours with a manger position on salary. My mother was a manager for McDonald’s and she became known as a shift manager so they can avoid paying her overtime. She was making the same amount of money I was making and I Was working part time for another job. She got switched hours as well without any warning and did not receive any benefits for working there because she was considered a salaried worker but part time. The loop hole in her job was to avoid paying shift managers higher than $10 and having them work long hours but refused to be paid overtime. Some shift managers would go overtime up to 20 hours and still receive not even half of those hours. But the regulations say those who are salaried as chosen are exempt from over time. This article very much describes how companies, franchises, and small businesses try to obtain a hold and focus on trying to give more for those with experience and who have no pay raise for years or who were tricked into being payed the same with a salary. They need to pay those of higher positions a higher salary rate and be given the overtime pay so they wouldn’t need to work for “free”.
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I agree with most of the comments. I don’t see the American Dream for everybody. For personal experience, I saw how in a small business how they were hiring par time employees so the owners don’t pay the extra hours, how they have some employees in salary, working long hours for the same pay, I think this is not fair, some owners take advantage of their employees, maybe for the necessity of the job I don’t know. I agree when you get promoted you should get paid more, it is true what somebody said in a comment, sometimes some employees get better pay that some managers and the managers or assistants managers , like I used work at a restaurant and some servers were making more that the assistant managers, this was not fair.
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It seems like a goal for everyone is to reach that sought after salary position. Although a salary position can be beneficial, at some jobs it’s actually a step down. Many big companies like Walgreens, Walmart, and other big corporations have found loopholes in the salary laws that allow them to pay their employees less. Salaried employees are not entitled to overtime pay under the current law, employees will find themselves working over 50 hours a week, and not receiving the compensation for it. That is exactly the situation Ruby Warner, an assistant manager at Walgreens found herself in. Ruby accepted a promotion to a salary position thinking it would be a better opportunity, but after working long days and doing the math ruby realized she was making less than her hourly position. According to this article over 6 million Americans are in this position, and it needs to change. If employees are putting in extra hours each week, they should be entitled to overtime pay salary or not. With the price of living so high now a days, Americans can’t afford to put in this extra time, unless they are making over $150,000 a year. The economy is just going to get worse and worse if this stays the same. The national debt level will continue to raise, if employers continue to take advantage of their employees like this.
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A salaried position has been viewed over the past few decades to be a sign of stature and a sense of being comfortable. A steady income allows for planned budgeting, which helps people achieve their American Dream over time. However, what people are starting to realize is, this form of work actually puts them at quite the disadvantage. Virginia Sole-Smith’s story of Ruby Warner, It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the Battle for Overtime, is a clear example of this realization. Corporations have begun restricting the American Dream by creating an environment that people can barely live a regular life, let alone succeed and thrive. The fear of paying overtime has caused companies to create more salaried positions, with which they can create free labor by overworking them.
These people aren’t given the chance to live the American Dream because they are stuck in a capped position with a clear ceiling. As well, they aren’t even able to enjoy the parts of life worth living such as the, “ability to take time off to manage family emergencies or for children’s baseball games,” because they are clocking 50-60 hours of work a week. The same laws that were used to help create a better life for these workers, are now being exploited to create profit off of under-valued and over-worked employees. Without a change in the law, more and more companies will realistically be removing the opportunity of the American Dream from these hard working people. They may not all dream of houses, families, or nice cars, but one thing they are wrongfully being deprived of is their freedom.
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After reading this article “The American Dream” that everybody seems to dream about feels like it doesn’t exist. Hard work and determination seem to be losing its value in the battle over equality under all these corporate loopholes. People always taught if they work hard and keep their mouth shut, they are paying the dues to reach the top. The retail chains and the big corporations seem to be taking this quality into their advantage and trying to rob people of their equal opportunity. Generally, people always felt that moving from a part-time employee to salaried positions is the gateway to reach the top, but everybody had to learn it the hard way, it’s just an excuse to exempt to pay for over time.
These companies are generating free labor and overworking their employees instead of paying for the extra hours and hard work. “Virginia Sole-Smith’s story of Ruby Warner, It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the Battle for Overtime” is a good example of how these corporations and big retail chains playing people in make them believe in the American Dream which actually doesn’t exist.
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Walgreens Vs. The American Dream highlights one of the biggest problems within the American workforce. Unfortunately, the more laws we try to pass to protect workers from being underpaid or overworked the more complicated the answer to a solution becomes. There are a lot of factors that play into the problem that are not addressed in the article such illegals filling jobs or taking over entire industries because it is not an employer’s responsibility to decipher if documents are authentic or the issue with the exorbenant and constant rising costs to maintain insurance and mandatory health benefits for full-time employees. However, in a nutshell, I feel the bulk of the problem falls between large corporations and its employees because thousands of workers cannot be appreciated as individuals. While I advocate for higher salaried wages especially when taking into consideration the “baseline set in 1975 at $23,660” has not changed, I do not feel like the article addressed the positives of salary wages. I myself have opted to work for a salary paying less than other positions because I am guaranteed and can depend on a set amount every pay period without fluctuation, and it was my responsibility to not allow myself to be taken advantage. If my schedule was 9am-5pm, then ultimately it was my decision if I wanted to stay and continue to work. I understand that workers sometimes feel they don’t have a choice but you do and you can be clear about that before accepting a position. Change for the better only happens when people don’t tolerate abuse and there’s mutual respect between employer and employee, but greed is the biggest hurdle to overcome.
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In It’s Walgreens Vs. the American Dream in the battle for overtime by Virginia Sole-Smith, we see how the typical version of the American Dream has turned many American’s into little pawns for major corporations who care little for work-life balance, and more for exploitation and loopholes to increase their own profits. “Promoting hourly workers to low-paying salaried positions is a common practice among restaurant and retail chains…It totally makes sense from a corporate point of view because of how much they can save on overtime costs.” The reality for a lot of Americans is forty hour weeks behind a cash register or food counter with the hopes of doing a well enough job to be promoted. Well, it has been shown that those promotions do little to actually increase pay without losing precious time with families or exploring other interests, but give more time at work doing sometimes the same work you were before. Smith does not give much credit to the corporations in charge, but neither do I. It is not good business to treat people this way, no matter what makes sense for it. Just shows me you are a crappy business.
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In this article, Ms. Sole-Smith compares the American Dream to the battle we wage for fair pay. She is writing specifically about overtime pay and employees who are exempt from overtime pay. In her claim, she used specific examples, statistics actually, that showed just how unfair these “promotions” are. Due to a salary pay, a lot of the workers are not eligible to receive overtime. This hurts the people and benefits the companies because they can get more labor out of a person without having to pay them fairly, or at all, for that labor. In this lies the facade, that getting put in a position where you earn a salary is actually not a step up for the individual, but is in fact a step down; the individual will be prone to having to work more hours and lose more time, but not gain more money. Sole-Smith introduces Ruby Warner, a seemingly average woman from Florida, who was promoted to the executive assistant manager at a local Walgreens six years ago. Her “American Dream” consisted of the hope of having her own store. Warner was happy to put in her time and work hard, as long as it would help to build her road towards achieving her dream. After her promotion to her previously mentioned position took effect, she was still responsible for the same tasks as her hourly-paid coworkers; these tasks included even cleaning the bathrooms. Although Warner had a $10,000 pay increase and was working more hours, she did not see an increase in her pay over all due to the exempt overtime hours, nor did she see the advancement her bosses promised (Sole-Smith). After reading something like this, it is hard to not think that the American Dream is on the downturn. No longer does working harder and having dedication equal building a path towards achieving your dreams. Now, we must fight corporations and other extra obstacles to lay the bricks for our success.
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For many years American people believed that if they work hard they will get a better life and the American Dream of fast wealth and success will come true. Later on, hardworking people realized that even if they worked very hard, many of them did not move forward financially, nor in their careers. The question is: Is hard work alone enough to achieve the American Dream?
In the article, “It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the battle for overtime” Sole-Smith argues that Walgreens possibly promotes their workers for only one reason – to save money. To support her argument Sole-Smith gave an example of Ms. Warner, who was promoted to a management position, but still stuck with the same job she did in the past. Also, when Warner counted her working hours she realized that although the amount she worked increased, her hourly rate decreased. It happened because as a salaried worker the amount she is paid stays the same, with no matter how many hours she works. It seems unfair, that after many years of work, and finally getting a management position, Warner still had to cleans bathrooms and instead of getting management training she loaded empty shelves. It is a shame that companies are trying to find any possible way to save money on people’s salaries and underpay them for the work they do. Warner’s Dream of getting promoted did not bring Ms. Warner any desirable success.
Prior to reading this article I was not familiar with how the American retail system works, but now, comparing this story to my own store work experience, I can say that it seems store retailer jobs are not the best place to work in many places on earth. Like the author states: low payment, long hours, busy environment. It is very hard to grow in a carrier and even if some people do, there might be more downside than benefits. The system really has to be changed. Salaried workers should be pay for overtime, like hourly workers. Salaried workers working long, hard hours, should not work for free and they deserve to be paid fairly.
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In the article, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz argues that only 1% of the American population are enjoying real wealth. Although America is called the land of opportunity, this opportunity is not for everyone. In my opinion, everyone sees the opportunity from his/her own perspective. For some, moving to a better neighborhood, or (like I read in the previous article), getting a management position instead of a sales position, is an opportunity to a better life. For others, life will be incomplete without a Bentley in the garage and a personal yacht. Although it might be true that only 1% hold real wealth, there are a lot of middle-class people in our society whose income is good enough for a comfortable life. Try to go to a restaurant on Friday. You might stay in line for an hour to get in, even in an expensive one. In addition, I recently visited newly-built houses around my neighborhood, and the price and richness of the houses (with large swimming pools and extremely-expensive interiors) made me think wow. And because there are a lot of beautiful houses, cars, boats and yachts in California, which people with low income cannot buy, I can assume that there are much more than 1% of wealthy people around us. So although I agree with the author that a lot of people are living in poverty in this land of opportunity, on the other hand, there are much more than 1% who are successful and wealthy.
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The points made in this article are startling but necessary. Currently, I’m working in a restaurant on an hourly basis, and in the restaurant industry the only way up is through managerial positions. Reading about how corporations will move employees up to cut costs is disturbing for me. Having to pay for college and rent is nearly impossible as it is, but factoring in more time spent away from school for the same pay sounds terrible. Glad I was made aware of this before I try to move up anywhere.
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In my opinion Sole-Smith makes a really compelling argument in regards to how employers shift many hourly workers over to salary just to save money and avoid having to pay overtime. As evidences she tells Rudy Warner story about her struggles after being promoted to middle management. Making it clear that Warner’s story is only one of many and the practice of promoting to save money is used often in today age. To help her agreement even further she adds a couple quotes, one from Chris Tilly of UCLA who states that the practice of promoting to save money is used often throughout the retail world. As well as from Bernie Anthony a prior Chipotle employee, who had the same thing done to him. I believe that she is convincing in her argument because she does more than just state her opinion. Instead of just stating her position and then going on to give stats or numbers she gives the best evidence she can, a personal story of someone who’s live had a negative impact from a promoting rather than a positive. So as someone that new nothing about this subject before I have really had my eyes opened.
While never defining the American Dream Sole-Smith’s article is all about how the American Dream is not the reality that we live in today. To her the American dream was that one could work hard and over time move up the ladder till you can go no higher. But by writing this article she tries to make us see that the dream is all but gone. In “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013” by Edward McClellend paints a very similar picture. He talks about the Golden Age were anyone could come out of high school and make good money. Yet he is quick to point out that the dream is died and that even factory worker are required to have some college. While both Sole-Smith and McClellend hint the same thing, each talks about it from a different view point.
McClelland makes it clear stating “Never again will 18-year-olds graduate directly from high school to jobs that pay well enough to buy a house and support a family.” (554) which is tough on many individuals trying to get in on good jobs. Sole-Smith makes you see that when you do land that job it may not be what you expect “’I thought it would take two, maybe three, years, tops.’ Six years later, Warner was still waiting.” is what she writes about how Warner thought she would be promoted. So good bye middle class it was nice knowing you.
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I agree that some managers are being worked to the brink; even though they acquire a salary, sometimes the hours put in are worth more than they are being paid. On the other hand, I disagree that a person cannot move up in the industry. The experience acquired as a manager anywhere; opens the doors to any other manager position in any other job. Maybe, Walgreens does not give their employees potential to become general managers, but that does not mean that other companies will not. In my experience in the restaurant field; I have seen many managers work crazy hours, with it I also saw their hard work get them higher positions. Not to mention less work, and more money. Since they are the ones that order other employees to do the dirty work; I see their work life more open to sitting down, having conversations, essentially doing what they want. If their salary were to be turned into hourly wage; I believe it would make their work actually harder. Since they would be haggard by the company to work less hours; they will have a harder time getting their quota down at a shorter amount of time. This in turn would lessen their productivity; and lessen what makes them an asset to their company. Therefore, making them not such a valuable asset; as well as more people would be hired to do their job, so less would be paid in overtime. Hence, losing more hours; essentially making less money. Ms. Jenkin complains how she had to take lower pay to be able to have more time with her family. The thing is that’s what life choices are about; a person cannot have their cake and eat it too. Either she does what she did, and finds a job that can work more with her family life or she goes back to school and opens the doors to more opportunities that can actually work with her family life. Life is not an easy ticket; people must work hard to have what they want. Complaining gets a person nowhere; change comes from changing whatever it is that is conflicting that person’s life. May it be through another job or education. If she wants a better form of life, with better pay; then she should strive for it. With the experience as a manager she could apply to many managerial positions or she can apply to school get a certificate or degree and better her life that way.
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Sole-Smith argues in “It’s Walgreens vs. The American Dream in the Battle for Overtime” that Walgreens and other retail chains exploit workers by “promoting” them to salaried positions. Since these salaried positions exempt workers from overtime pay, they can actually end up working more and earning less, while still engaging in the same menial tasks with little hope of further advancement. Relating the story of Ruby Warner, a former-executive assistant manager at Walgreens, vividly illustrates the unfairness of this practice. Sole-Smith backs up Warner’s personal story with Department of Labor statistics that estimates “6 million Americans hold jobs like Warner’s” and the baseline exempt salary is a shockingly low $23,660 a year. In an attempt to rectify this situation, the Obama administration has paved the way to more than double the baseline salary to $50,440 leaving business owners concerned that the steep increase is out of step with geographic areas that have lower costs of living. There is also concern among labor advocates that employers may resist the drastic increase by “demoting” employees and replacing full-time workers with part-time employees.
Sole-Smith makes passing mention of California’s exempt laws which are quite different than the rest of the country. For example, to quality for exempt status employees must “spend at least 50 percent of their time on managerial tasks” (Sole-Smith). However, Sole-Smith fails to mention that California’s threshold is 30% more than the state’s minimum wage or $41,600 a year. The managerial requirements and the higher salary threshold protects employees while giving them the added value of a flexible schedule. I think that Sole-Smith’s article would have benefited from taking more time to point to a state that has been a leader in the area of protecting overtime exempt workers from exploitation.
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For, hourly-paid retail worker, the are promised a salaried position to presented as a way to forward their career. Sole-Smith says that large companies such as Walgreens, Chipotle, and more corporate companies are behind this. I would say I do believe with Sole Smith, her argument is persuasive. Her first example was Warner who worked at Walgreens, I took her 6 years to get a position as manager. In ways that she saw her opposing view point I don’t believe they were strong, for Walgreens she wasn’t able to get evidence from them so there able to support themselves as a company.
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Like Mrs. Warner, I worked at a retail store that ran the same way. In her case, she was promoted, but still preforming the same duties and working up to 60 hours a week instead of 40 for any salary employee. At the store I worked at, there were dozens of part-time employees that worked long hours and sometimes almost 40 hours a week. We would be given tasks that we would not be able to complete in the time we were given, and would get in trouble if we clocked out even one minute late. There were times in which management would change the clock in/clock out system just so we couldn’t get paid overtime. Therefore I completely understand how Mrs. Warner feels. It saddens me that much of America is like this. What shocked me even more was the difference in value that 23,000 was in 1975 vs. today. America is encouraging us to strive for a dream that is being taken away from us in a manipulative matter, just to make us work even harder for something we can never fully obtain.
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The land of the free. America is said to be the greatest nation in the world since it supposed to provide freedom and equal opportunity to everyone who lives here. Yet, stories like these depict the unfair treatment given to some employees. I for one have been very lucky since I was born and raised in America. I decided to join the military and through hard work I am able to reap many of the benefits such as Tuition Assistance, paid food and housing (for those single military members) and a scholarship. Yet even in the military I see certain “things” that seem unfair. For example, as a single Marine I would get paid very little and “free housing” was not really free. It would get deducted from my checks. Also, the job position I hold as a fund’s manager or other financial management jobs in the military pay six figures in the civilian sector. Yet, Marines are getting paid based on rank, in my case a Sergeant who has 6 years of service.
I believe the dream is not dead, it is highly hindered with schemes of how to drain the poor however. I believe success is possible yet there is much sacrifice that one must endure to get there. Life will never be perfect, that is for sure but success is attainable. Many of my peers believe it is “too hard” or nearly impossible to go to school while working in the military full time but in my opinion this is a mere excuse. Of course there are certain times when you cannot attend a semester yet, it is possible in other circumstances. We just have to make time and sacrifice other things that are not as important as our “American dream.” The American dream is not impossible, but it is becoming very difficult to attain, very expensive too.
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While reading the article all I was thinking was; “isn’t this illegal?” I know big companies such as Walgreens are always going to find loopholes in the system so that they can make the most money possible. I also think, and I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this, that most big companies really only care about money, they don’t care about any individual, or maybe even a group of individuals, the more money they make, the better it is for them. Is it right to say that at least that is pretty obvious? And what is a salaried single mother of four, working (but not receiving) overtime going to do against a huge company such as Walgreens? There is really not much she can do. Unless of course a big enough group of people voice their discontent with how much they’re being payed. The system is very very weird, many people wouldn’t even dare to speak up in the way that Ruby Warner did, for fear of losing their job, a job that they absolutely need because they have four kids. Yes we could all argue the fact that anyone could just quit their jobs and look for one that pays them what they deserve, but we also know how hard it is to even land a job in the first place, let alone keep one. Things like this are what make me thing that maybe the American dream is a thing solely of the past. Maybe it never existed, How can we proclaim ourselves to be the best nation in the world when there are things such as this still happening not to one, or two people, but to thousands upon thousands of individuals, individuals that have lives just like we do.
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The article shows how companies are doing this to save themselves money, to keep from having to pay their employees overtime by setting very low salaries that would actually make them less money than overtime pay. The rules regarding salaried employees and overtime have not changed since 1975, though inflation has greatly changed the value of money. Once, in order to not earn overtime, and employee that to make well above the median salaried range. Now, the minimum number that dictates when an employee does not have to be paid overtime actually falls below the poverty line. At the time of the article, Obama was working to increase the salary cap that would exclude overtime. This is a good thing, and needed, but unfortunately Sole-Smith points out ways in which companies can get around this. These ways include cutting out full time employees and hiring part time employees in their place, which would also save the companies on having to pay benefits.
This writing was very persuasive, and did an excellent job of riling me up. I completely agree that something needs to be done about companies taking advantage of employees. It would be really frustrating and sad to think that you are getting an advancement, on your way to a better life, only to realize that your company is trying to take advantage of you. While I don’t know what the solution is, something needs to be done.
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Miss Warner’s dream was to one day own a store. She knew she had to start from the bottom and work her way up. She was excited for he promotion, as most any one else would be. She gets to have the title of manager, gets a yearly income rather than hourly, gets to be the boss; or so she thought.
The main argument in Virginia Sole-Smith’s article is how it is unfair for salaried employees to work more hours than hourly employees, yet they ultimately make the same (sometimes less) per hour than the hourly employees do. Employers have are allowed to have what they call “over-time exempt” employees. These employees, like Miss Warner, are promoted into some sort of managerial position and are receiving a yearly salary. Although that may seem nice and fair, in the long run it is not. Hourly employees are to receive overtime pay (pay and a half) after working 40 hours in a calendar week, while the salaried employees are not. This is not fair. Miss Warner, as well as many other hard working Americans, deserve to be paid higher than hourly employees. They have put in their time and effort to reach the level they are at, so they should be awarded accordingly.
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After reading Sole-Smith’s piece titled “It’s Walgreens vs. the American Dream in the battle for overtime”, my eye did that twitchy thing that people’s eyes tend to do when there are the brink of a mental melt down. I being someone who has been interested and involved in pushing for workers’ rights for awhile now—in particular the right to unionize— found the manipulation being described in the Walgreen’s case near intolerable to read about. In fact, my brain is still trying to grasp at the idea that such a large corporation, which makes millions of dollars each year, feels the need to screw over it’s workers so badly. I think about the subtle twisting of the government officials hand’s that are constantly at work to keep loopholes in place that pretend to offer the “American Dream”, but actually push the attainment of that dream even further out of reach. Playing sometimes off of people’s ignorance and other times on their hopefulness, companies such as Walgreens have become mass providers not of off-brand medicine, but of “dreams deferred”. They have watched the dreams of their employees dry up like raisins in the sun, only to then walk over, pick those raisins up, repackage them, and sell them to their employees neighbors at three times the price. They have us hooked on the greatest drug imaginable the drug of hopefulness in world run by hopelessly ruthless economic behavior.
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According to the United States Census Bureau’s 2015 report, the median household income in the United States was $53,482. In San Diego, where I live, the median household income was $63,996. (https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/HSG495214/06073,00) Obviously people are making much more than the over-time exempt baseline of $23,660, that was set back in 1975, as Sole-Smith explains in her article. So the baseline should be increased to reflect the times. Although the Obama Administration has been trying to increase the “…threshold to $50,440 per year…”, there are some businesses who are against this change, arguing that small businesses wouldn’t be able to afford to pay over-time for the increased workforce.
I am disappointed to know that workers in positions similar to that of Ruby Warner are being taken advantage of by these multi-million dollar corporations. One of the main reasons why these companies are thriving is thanks to their employees. If an employee shows initiative and improves the production of the business, they should be rewarded monetarily for their extraordinary performance.
As Sole-Smith defines, California has a rule that requires a person in a managerial position to spend at least 50% of their time performing managerial tasks. However, the rest of the nation does not want to follow suit. They would rather solely increase the proposed salary income. Now, I’m not a retail worker, but if I were, this would make me feel like my job title of manager was just a ploy to make me work harder and longer hours. The whole point of having employees is to increase the productivity of a company, which means bringing in money. So how do companies expect to increase the productivity of their workers without allowing them to earn more money in terms of over-time for their hard work? I’m sorry, but a pat on the back doesn’t pay the bills.
I propose that the government raise both the threshold income for employees to qualify for over-time, and the percentage a manager is required to perform managerial tasks. If the manager feels their time is better spent doing other things, like cleaning the bathrooms, then so be it, but it should be under the manager’s discretion since their job is to increase productivity and efficiency of their store.
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The “American Dream” has become very hard to obtain in recent years. Based on the article “It’s Walgreens vs The American Dream in the Battle for Overtime” published by Sole-Smith, many people are shifted into managerial job with a salary pay with the promise of a pay raise. These people go from working 40 hours a week at a paid hourly wage where more work equals more pay to a flat pay. The flat pay comes with more responsibilities or authority but then means working more than a 40-hour week and being paid less for the more work. This is a problem because before the if the employee earn for the week say 50 hours, they would be paid accordingly, with the check reflecting their time spent at work. As a manager, they are not allowed overtime pay at Walgreens making those hours unpaid or if balanced out means that manager is making less than their associates.
A manager should be paid more if they work above and beyond their scheduled work week. They may now have a secured paycheck of a certain amount of money, but that does not pay for those extra hours of afterschool care for their child or gives them the time back with their families. Managers are now expected to pick up the slack when someone calls out of work if another employee is unable to fill in. That may have been in the job description but the manager who came is for the second shift of their day are not getting paid for that second shift where as another crew member would have and who had the option to say no as well. The American dream has seemingly disappeared and has become a game of survival. Many middle class Americans have lost the drive for bigger and better due to the fact making the everyday bills and basic necessities has become so difficult.
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This article reminds me of how corporate America is greedy and just like the article from Joseph E. Stiglitz “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%” stated, America is “self-interest properly understood” which is the lifestyle that you do not help others unless it benefits you and/or your business. Corporate is unlikely to provide a hefty wage for lower-tier positions to increase their profit rather than thinking of the employee’s morale. Either they are very greedy or they do not realize treating your employees with care would result in higher employee morale and likelihood for employees to remain within the company.
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I don’t think so because she doesn’t give that many details or information in the article. Some people in retail to pay bills because they can’t afford to go to college. Other people in retail so they can pay for there college and pay for other bills and they need to work somewhere that pays good.She doesn’t give any evidence because she only talks about that the workers get paid really low and thats about it. i think she needs to explain more about why they pay low or why people still work there
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Many large companies make it seem like advancing you to a higher position is the best thing ever when in reality, you’re doing mainly the same thing but you’re working more hours without overtime pay. Hourly vs salary makes it so that companies can get away without paying extra. Even though you may earn a bit more for your salary, it all levels out to basically the same pay per hour. Her argument is definitely persuasive because they’re basically duping her into working more and basically working for free because she is working more hours for almost the same amount she was earning before.
She doesn’t really treat the opposing views very fairly because she talks mainly about the concerns of the workers and she talks about how she sued and they don’t promote people to give them a chance to move up, but they moved people up to salaried positioned so they could save money. She lists that as a salary employee, she’s had to miss so many baseball games, and how she never knew what store she was assigned to week to week and how her commute may range from 5 minutes to even an hour. She also feels like she hasn’t advanced much because her manager often asked her to skip meetings to go stock shelves and it doesn’t seem fair that she’s called a manager yet she’s stocking shelves and cleaning bathrooms.
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I’ve never had a job before so this article gave me a little insight as to how working is. There are so many loopholes behind getting a job like getting paid, promotion, insurance, benefits, etc. Based on my knowledge and the context of this article, I would think that those that are higher up or have more responsibility/authority, should be paid more than the person that was just hired a few days ago. In addition, both employees, manager or not, should be getting paid for working overtime. They are taking more time out of their day to continue to work all while not being paid? That sounds ridiculous to me, but like this article states, it happens in some cases. The employees that do have to work overtime should be getting paid extra because it is time that they are missing with their family or that they could be using for their personal needs. I’m glad that Ruby Warner left Walgreens and has started a different job because it seems as though she’s enjoying the time she gets to spend with her family while having time for herself.
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After reading this article I am a bit perturbed. The “American Dream” is becoming a thing of the past. Physically,mentally,and financially.I was always taught that if you work hard the rewards are great. Now it’s seems as though in corporate America the concept of “working hard” is minimised by small wages unless you are at the top of the corporate ladder.Seems as though the only con to seeking a “higher position” is the benefit of having a glorified title.It’s clear that higher title doesn’t mean higher pay. It’s a sad state of affairs when a country as great as America cheapens “The American Dream” by putting a price tag on it. The American Dream should be good health,prosperity,and livelihood equal for all. Once we reach corporate and economic equality things such as welfare,poverty,etc. will diminish. After all more often than not the difference between upper,middle,and lower class citizens is education and training. Most times it is advancement not skills that makes the difference. for example,One can become the manager of a restaurant with or without a degree having worked their way up from the bottom.The difference in having a degree and not having a degree is the dollar amount in salary.Once we realize the true definition of “equality” then and only then will we become the nation where “The American Dream” is Everyone’s dream.
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Sole-Smith treats the opposing views well. As a author you have to give both sides of the story and she does that. Some companies such as, Walgreens and Chipotle dont want to pay overtime for their employees. She says that companies will purposely lower their wage so that they dont have to pay as much as with people who have higher wages. She also says that managers and people who conduct interviews dont have the ability to earn overtime pay.
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The thought of what the American Dream has been not as much changing for me but more of giving me a better understanding of what it means to a lot of different people. As I was growing up I’ve always been told if you work hard good things will come to you. I’ve always had to work and work hard for anything I want and in the end it did pay off. After reading this article I was in shock not as much as to the salary workers not getting paid right, but knowing I have actually experienced this myself. Right out of high school I got a job and started to take care of myself. Managers always wanted us to leave on time and not a minute over, they wanted to make sure they wouldn’t need to pay us overtime. As I went through other jobs I got an assistant manager and had to work extra hours. This article I think helps show how selfish some companies are. They have hard workers who do as much as they can, employers put all this time and energy into their work and if its past the time you are suppose to be off it really doesn’t matter because thats your job and you need to get it done. So after reading this article I think that companies need to see that they moved these certain people to a higher position and should be getting paid what they deserve, missing family time, never knowing what time you’ll be off is a big thing. Knowing Warner left to another job even though it wasn’t as much as she was making I think was better in the end, she knows that she deserved better and she wants to succeed just like most of us want to in the end.
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Although this article is only arguing against the practice of the practice of switching hourly wage employees to “higher positions” that are salaried for the sake of not having to pay overtime, I think it’s also making strong arguments for heavier government regulation on practices of big businesses looking to save a quick buck here and there at the expense of their employees. All of the companies listed as being guilty of employing this practice, among the other two listed, are large corporations, whose higher-ups are so far separated from their hourly-wage employees that they can make decisions like these without feeling bad about the livelihoods of their employees that they’re potentially ruining.
This article not only comments on corruption within big business, though, but also comments on the state of America’s lower and, to a degree, middle class. Many American’s without higher education spend years working on hourly wages, working hard toward career advancement in their jobs hoping that they’ll eventually make higher wages for themselves and for their families, but in addition to already working unlivable wages, many of their hopes of advancement are crushed by these underhanded techniques that businesses use to make sure that they never need to pay anyone more than they have to, while still making the employees think that they have a chance for advancement. As long as practices like these are in place, Americans in positions like that are unlikely to ever get out of them, which keeps Americans essentially perpetually poor.
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