4/30/19: Hooray for giant corporations!
The Trump Labor Department has your back! This week the Department ruled that gig-economy companies may indeed classify
workers as “contractors.”
____________________
“Labor
costs,” as in, fair wages and benefits for workers.
____________________
This means that companies like Uber and Lyft will be able to pay less than minimum wage, will not need to grant overtime, and will not be required to pay a share of the “contractor’s” Social Security taxes.
Experts estimate that if gig companies had to abide by old-fashioned rules, their “labor costs” would increase 20 to 30 percent. You know, “labor costs,” as in, fair wages and benefits for workers.
If “labor costs” rose for drivers at Lyft, how could Lyft award CEO Logan Green almost $42 million in
compensation in 2017?
To give you some idea of how hard life is for giant
corporations, protected by phalanxes of lawyers, legions of lobbyists and
lawmakers who love them for their fat campaign checks, here are a few companies
that paid no federal taxes last year and, in many cases, got tax rebates too:
Yes, you are reading this chart right. Amazon had nearly $11 billion in profits and paid no taxes. Delta Air Lines made $5 billion in profits and received a rebate. General Motors (bailed out of bankruptcy by taxpayers in 2008) paid the U.S. government zero. And got a rebate! Ameren, the drug manufacturer, made a billion and paid less in taxes, probably, than you.
FUN FACT: The General Motors bailout cost taxpayers an estimated $11.2 billion in the end. In 2018, CEO Mary Barra had to clip coupons to squeak by on salary and compensation totaling $21.87 million.
FUN FACT #2: The U.S. Navy has confirmed that during VP Jesus’s recent visit to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Harry Truman, sailors were told to “clap like you’re at a strip club.” We doubt Mike Pence has ever been to a strip club; but I’m sure he’d approve of the campaign-style enthusiasm.
Because this is how Team Trump rolls.
No comments:
Post a Comment