Slave Labor is Alive and Well In the USA
Do it yourself has become the new slave labor.
Slave Labor is Alive and Well In the USA
Source:Bing
Slave Labor in the Good Old USA. Have you thought lately about taking surveys as a lucrative side-gig?
Do it yourself has become the new slave labor.
So you thought unions and legislation had banished slave labor? Think again.
One of the distinguishing aspects and victories of the Civil War was its end of slave labor in the U.S. No longer could a plantation owner buy slaves, and then make them work hard and long picking cotton in the hot sun without compensation. Freed slaves finally won the right and dignity to be fairly compensated for their contributions to their employer’s well-being.
Furthermore, the spread of unionization was geared towards protecting the rights of workers while keeping employers from unfairly benefiting from worker’s labor. The biggest component of these rights was focused on making sure laborers received fair compensation for their labors, thereby protecting workers from being unfairly exploited.
From there, legislation throughout the years piled on by guaranteeing workers a minimum wage. There are federal minimum wages that apply to all 50 states and U.S. territories, In addition, most states have their own minimum wage provisions. If State minimums aim to be more generous and are higher than the prevailing Federal minimum, the State minimum prevails.
On the other hand, if the Federal minimum is higher than the State minimum wage, the Federal rate prevails. So, whichever rate is higher, that rate in each individual state prevails.
With all these protections in place, you’d be forgiven from believing that slave labor has been extinguished.
Have you Bagged Your Own Groceries?
Source:Bing
Placing your items in your own bags has become the norm in most nationally run grocery stores. Store employees who used to perform this function have long lost their jobs. Now that this function has joined the list of activities, or DIY, these stores now employ you at slave labor wages. You perform this labor for the store and the store does not compensate you at all.
Scanned Your Items Recently?
Source:Bing
Who needs checkout people at the register when stores offer you the opportunity to check yourself out? With the promise that you can breeze through the checkout process by doing it yourself, these stores get to hire less labor at the register. At the same time, guess what you earn for your labor? Slave labor wages of $0 per hour.
Have you used a digital kiosk?
Have you ever taken advantage of a digital kiosk in a restaurant like Panera’s? Here, instead of going to the counter and placing an order and paying cash or with a credit card, you avoid this process by meandering over to the nearest kiosk in-store.
Log in with your user name and password to check in, place your order, and pay with your saved credit card method. Once your order is ready, receive an email letting you know you can find your order and the rapid pick-up shelf.
Result: The store employs less labor and saves on the labor cost. Instead of having paid workers work for the chain, you now work for Panera’s. Pay for your services? Slave labor rate of $0 per hour.
Have You Taken a Survey Recently?
As of this writing, there are hundreds of companies that purport to offer survey takers compensation for their time, simply by answering a few questions.
The list of companies include names such as:
· DataDiggers
· Vinova
· CTI
· The Digital Edge
· Proten International
· The Telemarketing Company
· AmeriCall
· TWC IT Solutions
Work for the U.S. in Federal Prison
The current amount paid to prisoners of federal institutions, making things like t-shirts and other assorted goods is as low as $.12 per hour.
As of January 2024, federal prison inmates earn between $0.12 and $0.40 per hour for maintenance and support roles, such as laundry, washing dishes, and mail delivery. Inmates working in Federal Prison Industries factories earn between $0.23 and $1.15 per hour.
Take a Survey, Earn Less Than Prison Labor Minimum
If you thought it might be worth your while taking surveys from the comfort of your own home, in your spare or leisure time, think again.
Companies like Poll Pronto tease you with offers to earn up to $.73 for five minutes of your time. If they truly paid this amount, the payout would work out to an hourly rate of $8.76.
60 minutes/5 minutes= 12X $.73= $8.76 per hour
Not great, but not so terrible for an at-home side gig to earn a bit of extra cash.
Here’s the rub, when you take the bait and think you’re accepting this rate for a quick survey, after you click the acceptance button you take a survey, blind to the actual compensation. It is not till several days later that you learn, from checking your account, that you actually earned just $.03 for 20 minutes of your time.
This calculates to an hourly rate of just:
60 minutes/ 20 minutes = 3X $.03= $.09 per hour
That’s less than Federal prisons pay!
So, what happened to the promised 5 minute survey and the promised $8.76 per hour compensation? Turns out, it was just a teaser rate. This company uses language like “This survey could take only 5 minutes and pay up to $.73”. “Could” is the operative word here.
The promised rate is simply a teaser to encourage click bate and is a bait and switch, plain and simple.
In addition, the amount you have to earn in order to receive said payout is a minimum of $20.00. And, the closer you get to that promised payout, the fewer and far between Poll Pronto offers you surveys to complete. It could take many days or weeks before you receive another offer to take a survey. And to add insult to injury, the payout for each survey grows smaller and smaller, like $.02 or $.03 cents. In other words, it takes many months to get to the Promised Land.
This obstacle frustrates most users, causing most to drop out of the program and simply give up the hope of ever getting paid for their labors. At the end of this rainbow most users earn a big fat goose egg for all their troubles and Poll Pronto and other survey companies that operate in this fashion get all their labor for nothing. They then sell the data you provided in the surveys, profiting from the slave labor they employed: You.
Some Survey Companies are More Reputable
If you’ve read the results of reputable surveys, on topics as varied as which presidential candidate is polling the highest, to what is the highest paying profession, to everything in between, you’ve surely come across the name of YouGov.
This company has no affiliation with any government entity though it has “gov” in the name of its title. It seems to suggest that their survey participants are the governing factor behind their opinion surveys, like “Go girl, you rule”. YouGov is one of the most reputable companies in the business.
YouGov Payout Factors
· YouGov also has a minimum you must earn to cash out your points. It is 25,000 points.
· They don’t pay in cash, but they pay in the form of hundreds of popular and nationally recognized brand name rewards cards, including Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, CVS, and Marshalls.
· 25,000 points translates to a retail value of $25.00 in most cases
· Rewards cards never expire.
· YouGov always tell you, upfront, how long each survey should take on average and the point amount you’ll earn.
· What they tell you is what you’ll get.
Example Payout
A short survey, expected to take 5 minute will be offered for about 500 points. A bonus survey after you finish that will take about 1 minute and be rewarded by another 100 points. This total survey will usually offer 600 points. Not up to $.30 as Poll Pronto suggests and disappears, but 600 points, for real.
60 minutes/ 6 minutes = 10X 600 points = 6000 points per hour
Minimum cash out for a reward card = 25,000 points
25,000 points/ 600 = 41.7 hours
$25.00 value in rewards cards / 41.7 hours = $..60 per hour
Choose Your Poison
$.09 per hour of $.60 per hour. Choose your poison. One company promises higher payouts than it actually pays.
The other company pays out exactly what it promises, pays 7 times as much as the other, but still pays a slave labor rate.
One company promises a lower minimum to achieve a payout, yet makes it almost impossible to achieve that minimum.
The other company makes it possible to achieve its payout, but pays not in cash, but in popular rewards cards.
Bottom Line
Decades ago, stuffing envelopes at home for mail-order companies represented the Holy Grail for stay-at-home moms to earn some extra cash for the family. This afforded them the opportunity to work at home in their spare time while still being able to take care of the babies.
Today’s most popular side-gig has evolved into survey-taking from the comfort of home. All it takes is a computer, tablet or smart phone and a good internet connection.
Stuffing envelopes paid small amounts, but today’s equivalent pays next to nothing and takes advantage of people’s gullibility and desire to make some extra cash.
Next time you’re tempted to pick up a side-gig, do thorough research and don’t allow yourself to work for slave labor.
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