I think… they should start with … paying the wages that got stiffed- with some steep interest. Then, the company gets fined to oblivion… and the individuals responsible for it go to jail.
The cost of the crime also needs to include the probability of getting caught for any business to consider the crime more than an overhead. For example, if the probability of getting caught and having to backpay + fine is only 5%, the backpay + fine needs to be at least 20x greater in cost than if they’d not committed the crime (5% x 20 = 100%), because they are likely to get away with the crime 19 out of 20 times. That’s only to equalize the financial* consequences. Then you need to multiply again to add significant financial damage.
When you realize the above, the absolute pittance of most fines is even more enraging.
yeah. Every time I hear about the SEC or somebody levying fines… you look at what they made in profits and it’s basically just a solicitation of a bribe. for financial crimes, the start needs to be surrendering all profit associated with said financial crime. then a fine that hurts.
for wage theft specifically, it’s usually happening to people who can’t afford to be stolen from, so I’m okay with a nuclear option.
I’d be all for a really high interest rate, plus a fee based on the size of the company.
An employer doesn’t send you your pay cheque and after months of fighting to get the case heard, they’ll eventually get told by a court to send you your pay cheque. That’s about it.
But if you walked into a store, grabbed an arm full of stuff and walked out, not interacting with anyone while there (no threats, violence, or weapons, just casual); you’ll definitely be fined far above the cost of what you took, while also likely being imprisoned from the moment police officers encounter you (be that outside the store, or later); for most of a day at minimum, possibly several days/weeks depending on sentencing.
I feel like… intentional wage theft should result in
- pay all the money back
- pay a steep fine to the victim.
- added to a blacklist. No longer allowed to work in whatever role they were in where this happened.
- repeat offenders are hanged in the public square
- their assets are seized by the state and auctioned off or something
The ultra wealthy do not fear for their lives, and they should.
It’s really hard to make “intentional” stick, especially when there are layers of bureaucracy and lawyers in between justice and the thief.
Only when it comes to rich people though
They should pay triple the wages owed plus fines. That will start making it hurt.
how is this a meme?
Replace the puffin with a circlejerk
can keep the fine, but it needs to be a significant percentage, not an insignificant flat value
company has 25 employees? after payment of lost wages, fine is 2% (?) of company’s daily income for as many days as they were in violation
In our world, restitution is directly proportional to the wealth of the entity stolen from, not the wealth of the entity who does the stealing. It should absolutely be the latter.
As the great 90s philosopher Alan Menken said, “gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, otherwise we’d get along.”
This is why unions put in grievance systems.
You don’t understand. See, corporations now enjoy all the same rights as an individual, but you can’t put a company in prison, that doesn’t even make sense. so instead we just fine them a small amount they won’t even notice in their books, and then we can call them “punished”, and still tax their ever-increasing profits. everybody who matters wins and all the losers (as judged by their wealth) lose like god intended them to.
it’s like you’ve never even heard of capitalism OR christianity. The bible spells it out: “blessed are the moneylenders, for they do not even need to inherit the earth because they already own both it and you”. Let’s not forget that Jesus kicked the meek out of the temple for not being wealthy enough to even comprehend god’s glory, amen.
Mmmhmm… tell it, lard…
Going to jail is the compromise solution.
“Someone needs to remind the rich unionizing is the compromise we came up with instead of taking them out of their home and beating them to death. They seem to have forgotten.”
—PickleJello (2019)
Hey look! It’s easy points puffin…
“You’ve been stealing wages. Pay me to make the problem go away.”
