by Jerry Curtis

Created on: February 03, 2008

The issue of employee exploitation begins and ends with a simple but vital indicator: compensation. If the company is making a mint but employees are receiving "chump change" for their dedication and efforts, employees are being exploited. If the company's managers have generous pay, bonus and stock option packages but require their workers to buy their own medical insurance, the employees are being exploited.

A sure indicator of employee exploitation can be noted in times of business slowdown or, in the case of the public sector, budget cuts. If the organization typically responds to these business cycles by firing the all the mailroom clerks and asking the supporting staff to sort and deliver mail, employees are being exploited. If these staff cuts never include anyone at the managerial level, those making cost-savings decisions are not looking out for the employees, rather they are exploiting them.

Another way organizations exploit their employees is through uncompensated overtime. Frequently salaried employees are told that overtime is needed to complete some emergency or unforeseen job. In the private sector this is frequently caused by when company bigwigs commit to work without considering unforeseen technical or other problems. Usually this work is on a deadline for completion, and employees are told to remain on the job until management feels overtime is no longer necessary. Even for well-salaried employees, a 70-hour week can drain that compensation package to levels nearing an hourly minimum wage.

Other insidious cost-cutting measures have a tendency to exploit employees. For example, an employee lured to join a company that has average salaries may have joined because of the good benefits package. A year or two down the road, however, the employee may find a notice in the pay envelope saying that the company can no longer pay the full share of benefits costs. The employee has no choice but to help out by giving up part of the salary package, or may lose a benefit completely.

In the low-skill area, other employee exploitation practices abound. In a recent press release by California's Office of the Attorney General announced that California was suing two janitorial services companies for "flagrant violations" of the state's wage and laws. It seems that the companies paid below minimum wage, paid no overtime despite 8 to 10 hour mandatory work shifts without breaks and failed to provide wages statements for their employees. All this was done under the

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