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Worked as a housekeeper for a large hotel chain that everyone has heard of back in high school and I can tell you that there is absolutely zero investment into
by save_ferris 6y ago
Worked as a housekeeper for a large hotel chain that everyone has heard of back in high school and I can tell you that there is absolutely zero investment into staff at many big hotels.
Housekeepers at my hotel has to fight just to make minimum wage since our pay was pegged to the number of rooms we cleaned (about $2.50 per room). Managers would tell us to clock in late and clock out early so we’d “get paid more”, and most went along with it because it was 2009 and jobs were hard to find.
I realized instantly that these guys were fleecing the housekeeping staff because my checks were always just a little short of where they should’ve been based on hours worked.
I stopped clocking in and clocking out when they told me to, and instead punched my card based on my schedule. My manager caught on and started punching my card for me (which was illegal).
I calculated how much they’d shorted me over that summer, went to the hotel manager’s office, put in my resignation and demanded the extra pay they’d shorted me, which they agreed to.
I’m not saying every big hotel is this shady, but the idea that minimum wage workers are invested in these days is pretty laughable, because there’s a hundred other people ready to take that job.
Those who patronize big hotels tend to get caught up in the marketing, but I assure you that perception in no way aligns with the reality of that work.
- hobs 6y agoYou're correct, but AirBNB encourages people to run untaxed unlicensed hotels, so its even worse than an already terrible system.
- dehrmann 6y ago> untaxed Occupancy taxes actually really bother me because they're usually cash grabs targeting visitors who have no clout with the local officials that put it in place. It's taxation without representation, or a slightly different take on the speed trap on a major road through a drive-through small town.
- vorpalhex 6y agoVisitors are using public resources that are normally funded by taxes, and depending on the ratio of visitors to residents this can really turn out to be an unfair deal for residents - see any small coastal town whose population inflates 40% when it's tourist season. An occupation tax is because you're using public resources and don't normally pay taxes to that jurisdiction.
- dehrmann 6y agoIt depends. Cities tend to get income from sales, property, and income/payroll taxes. Some jurisdictions don't have all of those, but hotels pay property tax, visitors pay the sales tax, and as a second-order effect, jobs attributable to tourism pay income tax. It's not like visitors aren't paying taxes. You also didn't touch on how there's no electoral protections as a check on these taxes.
- vorpalhex 6y agoSales taxes and property taxes pay different things. Sales tax also affects residents more than tourists, and it'd be unfair to ramp it up to compensate for thousands of people descending on your town. There are electoral protections as a check - for the residents who live in the town. You're a visitor to a place, you don't get to change how it's run. If you don't like it, don't visit that place.
- dehrmann 6y ago> unlicensed Something Airbnb and Uber have shown is that licensing for these services is overkill. There are a handful of exceptions, but in general, anyone can do them safely enough. This isn't to say there shouldn't be any licensing, but that it can be lightweight.
- save_ferris 6y agoI think it's hard to argue that one system is objectively worse than the other when you're caught between entities avoiding taxes and licenses and entities that find ways to underpay workers that already don't make enough to live on. But I recognize that neither system is particularly constructive.
- gamblor956 6y agoThat's still better than what Airbnb host pay their cleaners, all of whom are independent contractors and not protected by labor laws like you were.
- save_ferris 6y agoMy employer was constantly violating labor laws while I worked there. Protection in my case meant an opportunity to spend months, or even a year, taking a case to my state’s Division of Labor over a few hundred dollars. Fortunately for me, my family had money so I didn’t have to worry about it. Had I not come from means, reporting a pay dispute like that might’ve cost me my job and possibly my reputation. Labor laws, although well intended, do not do enough to deter businesses from stealing from the poor.
- gamblor956 6y agoIf the dispute had resulted in damage to your reputation the resulting legal settlement would have guaranteed you would never need to work again. (Regular damages plus punitive damages, usually treble i.e. 3x). The reason labor laws don't work well is because so few people are willing to actually to use them.
- stainforth 6y agoThe realization that wage theft is the biggest economic "waste" as contrasted with the common belief that labor doesn't deserve much compared to capital was eye-opening for me.