Why do American employees allow themselves be exploited?

Also on government jobs: Military benefits are outstanding. Federal benefits are pretty good. State benefits are different though but still ok. However, be aware that any blowback that happens that might make any of those look bad in any way, they will be putting you in front of it and throwing you as far under the bus as they can like George Floyd.

a reply to: Cabin

I'll address some of your points as I have a pretty good main job but have occasionally picked up secondary employment just to have extra cash for stuff. These secondary jobs have ranged from department store to meat packing plant so those are lower paid jobs.

I am pretty sure because of the affordable care act all employers who have a certain number of employees have to offer health insurance.

I get 5 weeks of vacation at my main job however I never worked at the secondary jobs long enough to attain vacation time I did know from several coworkers they did get vacation time based on length of service. Honestly 35 vacation days for me is a lot I don't even use them all.

I also get a week of bereavement pay if someone dies that I am close to.

We have FMLA in America and if you have a doctor note you can have as much time off as you need for medical issues without losing your job. They also pay short term disability and pay 60 percent of your pay.
Unlimited sick time sounds silly as we saw how many people abused that during covid. People lie about being sick all the time. At my main job I can call in sick 9 times in a year before I get fired. That seems fair. Like I said there is vacation time and fmla and bereavement for other things that may come up.

At will employment benefits employees too as there can be no retribution for walking off a job. I have never seen anyone get fired for no reason. There is always some kind of misconduct or it is layoffs because the business isn't doing well. They don't just come in and say OK its at will employment you, you and you are fired. It doesn't work like that.

Also if an employer actually does fire you for no documented reason they have to pay unemployment even in at will state. They don't like that because it makes their unemployment insurance go up so there is big incentive not to randomly fire people unless they actually have done something wrong.

Bottom line its all about perspective. I dont even want all that vacation time. I dont use the health insurance I dont get sick EVER. and I am baffled by people who are supposedly constantly sick and calling in.

Just makes Europe seem lazy when you guys are like ya we get 600 days off for a baby hehe and 56 vacation days unlimited sick time. What's to stop people from lying about being sick? Nothing hehe.

I do not feel exploited. I feel very very proud and lucky to live and work in America. I think we have the best country in the world and I wouldn't change anything about my job or my life here.

Who needs that much vacation time or sick time? Must be a lot of sickly people in Europe. People there must not really care about their jobs that much. I'm pretty dedicated and can't imagine taking that much time off. I dont take vacation and they pay the vacation pay to me on a separate check its nice because I just save that and do whatever I want with it.

a reply to: Cabin

Vacation time should be mandated by law.

And it isn't?
Hell, here if you don't use all of the due holiday time in the current year, once the next year begins you're kicked out by force. Often in the middle of winter. There's no arguing. You have to use all of it. I had such forced vacation time in February. I didn't want to sit at home so I did some unplanned travelling.

It's a mixture of Pride, Fear and Greed. America's 3 biggest weaknesses.

People don't like to admit it when they're getting duped.

What's the first thing we ask when we meet someone. "What do you do (for work)?" A persons job is their identity and sometimes people want to show that off by bragging about how much of a wage slave they are.

"I worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week for 25 years. Never took a sick day. Made the company tens of millions per year."

And they're proud of that.

Instead of wage increases, wage ratios need to be regulated by government. A CEO and top company officials can't make more than 50X the average employee. As of now, CEO's are making 344X the average employee.

On the fear side, you have the threat of homelessness and death. You don't work, you live on the streets and die. People don't stand up to their employers because of the power dynamic.

If people really wanted to, they could organize a walk out and boycotts against their employer for better quality of life but that is a battle of attrition.
People got rent to pay and food to buy, so the companies win just by waiting you out.

A move like that needs to be well coordinated and big enough to grab headlines so it forces the employer to enter damage control mode to save its image.