Could the minimum wage apply to the self employed?

[sologdin]

haha as if the petit capitalist has a right to remain in operation that supersedes the minimum wage.  if the losers can't pay the minimum when the rule applies to their competitors, and they go bankrupt, that's called competitive capitalism, which is what the losers wanted.

 

this took a bit of parsing, because the statute is a mess.

but 29 USC 203(s)(1) defines 'enterprise' in a particular way and then in (s)(2) excludes from the definition 'any establishment that has as its only regular employees the owner thereof or the parent, spouse, child, or other immediate family member of such owner.'

the first paragraph of 29 USC 206 (minimum wage) and of 207 (maximum hours) appear to be applicable inter alia to employees of an 'enterprise.'

so, safe to say an enterprise can employ only its sole shareholder in as abject conditions as it wants, as well as reduce shareholder's own parents, spouses, and children to sweatshop servitude?

also, WHD investigates complaints, usually.  sometimes it will investigate without a complaint, but that's typically in industries with histories of complaints, particularly areas with large numbers of vulnerable employees.

isk--

there's exemptions for managers, professionals, et al.

[DireWolfSpirit]

A workmate of mine surprised me the other day when he pointed out that while he and his brothers had worked on the families orchard from a very early age and for quite some time, their mother, the owner, always paid into social security for them so they would have some benefit from that program when (if) they meet the age requirement. ( Which is becoming an increasingly big "if", considering congress seems motivated to push that age requirement out further and further). What do you got to be like 80 now to get SS retirement? jk sort of.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

DWS,

Are you aware that when Social Security was created the retirement age was higher than the mean age of death.  We simply started living longer on average after social security was created.

[JonSnow4President]

On 4/16/2016 at 4:28 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

DWS,

Are you aware that when Social Security was created the retirement age was higher than the mean age of death.  We simply started living longer on average after social security was created.

Was that mean age of death for an adult, or life expectancy.  I was under the impression life expectancy at adulthood hasn't improved all that much (of course, on a scale of the whole nation, a few extra years could be the difference in success and failure) but life expectancy at birth increases have largely been tied to a decrease in infant mortality.

[DireWolfSpirit]

That's actually a pretty relevant point JS4P makes. Only the increase in age of life expectancy for those who have already reached the age of working adults (lets say 18) would be a factor.

People who never lived long enough to enter the workforce or begin paying the ss taxes would be non factors in computing survivor benefits. ( Even while they would be part of the equation for computing the overall life expectancy). These are two seperate things.

[Which Tyler]

UK Office of National Statistics on life expectancy; only shows the figures for 2 census years, 20 years apart, and both fully modern era.

 

For an 18 year old in 1989: M56; F61

For an 18 year old in 2009: M61; F65

 

TBH, that's a much greater change than I expected.

[sperry]

On 4/18/2016 at 6:04 AM, Which Tyler said:

UK Office of National Statistics on life expectancy; only shows the figures for 2 census years, 20 years apart, and both fully modern era.

 

For an 18 year old in 1989: M56; F61

For an 18 year old in 2009: M61; F65

 

TBH, that's a much greater change than I expected.

 

Those are worldwide statistics I'm guessing?

[JonSnow4President]

1 hour ago, sperry said:

 

Those are worldwide statistics I'm guessing?

I would assume a UK national census would be UK statistics, which would be largely similar to US.