Workers at Bottom of Food Chain Illustrate Growing Economic Disparity
The recent story in the New York Times about the loot taken home last year by hedge fund managers provides us with the starkest - and most obscene - evidence yet about the growing disparity between the rich and the poor in our country.
Topping the list was John Paulson, the founder of Paulson & Company. His payday: $3.7 billion.
Let's compare that to the pay and benefits of those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder - migrant tomato workers.
Their payday: about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. That comes to about $50 for every two tons picked. On average, these workers earn less than $10,000 a year.
As for benefits, these farmworkers are denied the fundamental labor protections and benefits that most U.S. workers take for granted.
They were excluded from nearly all major federal labor laws passed during the New Deal, and many exemptions remain today.
They are not covered by workers' compensation laws in many states. They are not entitled to overtime pay under federal law. Some aren't even entitled to the federal minimum wage if they work on small farms or during short harvest seasons.
And these farmworkers have few options when they stand up for better treatment.
They are not protected by federal law against unfair labor practices when they try to collectively bargain for better wages or working conditions. Although a handful of states have passed statutes extending such protections to these workers, most have not.
Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Labor has sharply cut resources to investigate and bring enforcement actions against those who abuse farmworkers. Even federal legal programs serving migrant workers are prohibited from bringing class action lawsuits, the type of litigation most likely to bring far-reaching change.
But these workers often choose to remain silent.
The fear of being fired, blacklisted or deported keeps many from protesting deplorable work conditions.
As one tomato worker in Immokalee, Fla., told us, "If you say something, they fire you."
The Immokalee workers, like many other migrant workers, suffer chronic abuse for the pittance they earn. Their mornings on the job often start with unpaid "waiting time" where they sit idle, often for hours, until the dew dries and the tomatoes can be picked. If it happens to rain during the day, that creates more unpaid "waiting time." Both practices are violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
And when they are paid, their pay stubs often don't reflect the wages they are owed.
Hurt or sick laborers work in the fields because they don't have paid sick time. Meanwhile, healthy workers are exposed to pesticides and unsafe transportation to the fields. Forget about any health coverage.
When these seasonal workers are between jobs, they don't receive unemployment compensation. The lack of pay for a day, a week or even a month can be devastating for their families.
We don't hear much about these workers from the mainstream media, which seems obsessed with trivialities like whether a presidential candidate wears an American flag pin. But there are some members of Congress who are working to bring the plight of farmworkers to the public's attention. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont traveled to Immokalee to see first-hand what these tomato workers endure every day.
"In America today, we have a race to the bottom," said Sanders, who attended a recent Senate hearing on the subject. "What I saw in Immokalee is the bottom. And if we do not lift that bottom up, every worker in America is in danger."
The shameful treatment of farmworkers is only one example of what's wrong with an economy that is based on the lunatic ideology that any government regulation of business, any tax on the rich, or any effort to help working people is an affront to capitalism and will destroy our way of life. Both low- and middle-income workers are, in fact, scrambling to stay afloat in an economy that is sinking fast. Our financial institutions are failing because of greed. Home prices are falling. Gas prices and bankruptcies are rising. And, in one of the richest countries on the planet, we can't even provide health care for everybody.
Yet we continue to coddle the super-rich. They get every advantage, and often bear little of the pain when things go wrong. Corporate CEOs walk away with millions when their bad decisions cost small investors their retirement savings. Big financial firms receive government bailouts when their greed trumps good sense.
And hedge fund managers pay only a 15 percent tax rate on their billions in loot, while middle-class working families pay a rate up to 25 percent.
The next time you open a can of tomatoes, think about the migrant workers who picked them. And think about what it says about the morality of our economic system when one man - who makes money by betting against a rising economy - takes home a paycheck equal to that of 370,000 tomato workers who labor in the hot sun every day to put food on our tables.
Blake Fleetwood: The $20 Billion Gamble: The Greatest Coup in Financial History
Paulson made his bets in late 2006 just as the sub-prime mortgage markets were starting to weaken. His timing was impeccable, as was his luck.
Henry Blodget: The Hedge Fund Business, Explained
Over the six years Capital Compensation Partners was in business, the firm made $261 million, and the firm's clients lost $203 million. All the risk was borne by the clients, who got obliterated in the end.
Gregory Bedrosian: We're Investment Bankers And We're Here To Help
Some advice for our fellow taxpayers in the great financial bail-out.
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Thank you Mr. Cohen for this post on behalf of working people. I'm old enough to remember when working people were the focus of the Democratic party. How times have changed.
For most, if not all of these tomato pickers, 10,000 dollars a year is a shitload of money.
Ain't that America, you and me. That is why you gotta wear your flag lapel pin, baby. Without it, America is going down. Wear them flag lapel pins, serious stuff !!!
While I agree that the treatment of farm workers and their pay is not good - there is no free lunch.
At some point a farmer won't plant crops if they cannot get at least "x" return on their investment. If you want to increase the wages and benefits for farm workers - great - I am all for that - but at some point the farmer will then either have to raise prices so that the economic cost of growing whatever they grow is still viable - otherwise they don't plant and do something else
So - we already have food prices going up and I see stories about how poor people are being impacted by these rising prices.
How much would we be ok with prices rising on food in order to pay and provide good benefits for farm workers?
Complaining because a hedge fund manger makes a bazillion dollars - sure it is outrageous, but we aren't going to somehow limit the money they make so bringing in how much money hedge fund people, etc... make is a silly argument.
So, yes I am fine with food prices going up even higher in order to provide good wages, benefits and conditions for farm workers - I just don't want to hear any whining about the price of food going up in order to provide those benefits.
There is no free lunch.
rh654; No free lunch.? Tell that tp the oil company big shots. They make many , many millions of dollars while the rig hands get no retirement packages and they work a lot harder than the good old boys at the top. If a rig hand is injured on the job the company will pay for some medical and a few months worth of workers comp, but if the manage to last 20 or even 30 years the only thing that they have to look forward to is poverty until they are old enough to draw social security. No free lunch. ONLY IF YOU ARE AT THE TOP.
Well said; ultimately it is a very simple economics problem. The comparison made between tomato farmers and CEOs in this article is ludicrous; although big ag is buying the tomatoes, I would guess that the majority of tomatoes are produced by small farmers who are not making that much more than their workers. They could raise the prices on their products, but that would increase incentive to import tomatoes, thus reducing the size of their market. It's strange to me that commodities, which require virtually no labor to produce, are subsidized. Thanks to our agricultural policies, a twinkie costs less than a tomato, which might help to explain the low wages of the tomato picker.
We have created a sub-poor level in this country. The poor couldn't afford to pay for food,shelter or healthcare. So how much worse is that for sub-poor? It all rolls uphill in that the middle class is stuck with the bill. Our healthcare system is falling apart because the middle class can't pay for it all,as we have in the past. Lets base your healthcare cost on your income. If you make 500 times the middle class,your bill is 500 times as high. Your auto and healthcare insurance are all 500 times higher. If you buy a vehicle any tax you pay is 500 times higher. The revenue from this would put the insanely wealthy in the right perspective. If we don't find an answer soon where will we be?
So if we deport all the illegals I can pick tomatoes for $10,000 a year and no benefits? Woo hoo! Where do I sign up?
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The point is that whoever works the fields gets a decent wage.
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They could double the field workers' wages and that would hardly make a difference at the grocery.
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They should triple them.
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Time for a "New Deal". Catchy phrase.
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Perhaps the saddest reality is that in fact slavery has not been abolished. In the richest country in the history of the world the rich get richer by using slaves directly as 'help' or indirectly by purchasing slave made or picked products. My definition of slavery is someone who has a job but cannot afford to do much more that buy food and lodging. That is what a slave is offered, food and lodging. The difference is that today the slave must buy their own food and find their own affordable lodging. I guess to some that makes him free. He is free to go to another minimum wage job. whoopee! What did Rev. Wright say? God Damn America! This is part of what he meant. He was right on.
It does seem more and more of us will be working for just "food and lodging". It is a rut that will increase and reduce many to a subsistance existence with few options to ever achieve the "American Dream" that once seemed nearly availaible to all.
It is far better to die standing on your feet fighting for true equality than on your knees like a slave.
This is exactly why we need a wealth tax INSTEAD of a payroll and income tax. Get rid of all this wealth disparity.
Work with impunity, thats an odd statement, because a lot of so called illegals do pay taxes.
The slave wages paid the farm workers amount to a subsidy to the agribusinesses that employ them.
It is the old dilemma in economics. If you take "something" without earning it, then there has to be someone who has "earned" it, but does not get the benefit. It is very corrupt, but the art of the paper gain is now the pride and allure of the emerging generation. There is money that is "earned" and properly represents income in a competing marketplace. But ask yourself this: How does the money you take "shorting" a stock that is falling constitute income? Anything earned? Who has the inside making these things happen?
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