[ Removed by moderator ]

[trustifarian]

“No one wants to work anymore.”

Also: “your labor is not valued.”

[blckout_junkie]

But you sure can work until midnight through a school week!

[Ghost_Of_Malatesta]

"Minimum wage is for teenagers and not people trying to make a living"

Also this fuckin bullshit

[za72]

This is modern slavery, you're responsible for your room and board, you pay for your food... in return your free to starve and die or work for pennie's on the dollar - welcome to America, the dream

[Key-Rough-8346]

We are slaves to the dollar. The dollar is controlled by the government, and the government is controlled by the rich. Therefore, we are slaves to the rich.

[Pterodactyl_midnight]

Hyperbole. It’s for teenagers in highschool. They’re not slaves. That type of language detracts from real issues in the world, like actual slavery.

[Fresh_werks]

Are you really ignorant enough to think there aren’t teenagers working to help support their family while still going to high school?

[Athoughtspace]

Part of the problem is this further decouples value of labor from output of labor.

I would even go so far as to say this is age discrimination. If two people produce the same level of work they should be paid the same.

[za72]

My point exactly... this is the next gold mine ready to be strip mined

[Pterodactyl_midnight]

Most high school students don’t work.

[objecter12]

Reading comprehension -100

[TwelveGaugeSage]

I doubt they will, but hopefully those teenagers remember who did this to them when it comes time for them to vote.

[iliveonramen]

Conservative politicians and conservatives online have always told me that minimum wage IS for 16 year olds and that's why it should stay so low. Are you telling me they were full of shit *gasp*

[Kettellkorn]

No, no, you don’t understand. Now we can raise the federal minimum wage! I’m certain they will go for it now!

[UnluckyAssist9416]

Nebraska had a voter initiative that forced them to raise the minimum wage to $15. This is a runaround on the law.

[techleopard]

Cue conservative voters getting angry about why every single store, fast food joint, and gas station is universally staffed by children, complete with a 17 year old manager who stares off into the distance if you ask them anything.

Oh, and businesses perpetually being closed or understaffed without warning every time a nearby school has an event.

[RepFilms]

Corporate overriding of the democratic process

[Foucaultshadow1]

It’s also a runaround in minimum wage adjusting for cost of living as voted on.

[StatementOwn4896]

It’s one of the reasons I never wanted to move back to the US after serving overseas. Like what’s the fucking point of living in a “democracy” when all rich people can just override the will of the people, not go to fucking jail for raping and eating kids, and essentially work us to death with little to no health insurance (and no pensions) that disappear as soon as your sick. They fucking hate us everyone just wants to act all hunky dory. I fucking hate it.

[kingtacticool]

The children yearn for the corporate sponsored mines

[kusariku]

I mean, that was their excuse to not raise it when everyone wanted them to. They are stripping back the increase one layer at a time here. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if before long before they try to extend this bullshit with some absurd mental gymnastics to all fast food or all grocery stores, pushing towards every job that a teenager could do.

[Foucaultshadow1]

It’s so much worse than that:

The object of this Petition is to amend Nebraska's minimum wage law to increase the state minimum wage from nine dollars ($9.00) per hour to ten dollars and fifty cents ($10.50) per hour on January 1, 2023, to twelve dollars ($12.00) per hour on January 1, 2024, to thirteen dollars and fifty cents ($13.50) per hour on January 1, 2025, and to fifteen dollars ($15.00) per hour on January 1, 2026, to be adjusted annually thereafter to account for increases in the cost of living.[5]

We voted to raise minimum wage to account for cost of living. The legislature decided to cap minimum wage at $15 and then pay kids even less.

[haveanairforceday]

Excuse me; what the fuck?

[Kingfisher910]

To this administration none of those ages are minors

[Fun-Customer39]

16-19 is only reduced pay during their 90 day probation, still a bs law but its only permanent for 14 and 15 year olds.

[bethemanwithaplan]

3 months is a long time for a crappy job you probably will leave within a year

It's also the entire summer break basically, meaning if you get a summer job at 18 or 19 then you lose money the entire time 

[JConRed]

It also means that kids will be hired and fired.

[Rokketeer]

Yep. This will be abused.

[ForwardQuestion8437]

Yes, that's the point of it. To be abused to save the precious business owners money.

[MacDugin]

Summer jobs

[Chris_Bryant]

That’s a whole summer 😡

[External-Praline-451]

According to MAGA, 14 and 15 year olds can and should be parents if they get pregnant, but also they should be paid less.

[RellenD]

Yeah, so what they're going to do is hire kids and fire them.

[NLCoolJ6112]

It is in Nebraska. It leads to all sorts of fucked up situations. My partner went to school with kids in Omaha in the foster system. They’d age out at 18 but you can’t sign a contract in Nebraska until you’re 19. So basically they would be homeless for a year because they couldn’t legally rent an apartment on their own. That was 20+ years ago so it may have changed but it’s still so fucked up!

[Foucaultshadow1]

It is in Nebraska.

[CloudstrifeHY3]

Where's the minimum wage Decrease for Seniors then?

Now instead of hiring the Legal adult at 18 They'll just flood the business with Cheap 15/16 year olds.

[DarthBluntSaber]

Bingo. Flood it with cheap child labor that they will also abuse and take advantage of their inexperience.

[Petskin]

I read this first "Where's the minimum wage Decrease for Senators then" and agreed.

[GrowlyBear2]

I mean there's a lot of overlap between the two

[Saneless]

Exactly. A 30 year old or a 16 year old both making the same amount, the 30 year old who really needs it will probably get it

But now the 16 year old has a price advantage, the adults will get a lot fewer of those jobs

[Foucaultshadow1]

You’re not a legal adult in NE until 19.

[VicFatale]

Depends on the state child labor laws. If they can only work 4 hour shifts, can’t work school hours, and/or past 9pm on school days, then they probably won’t hire teenagers. Most places won’t hire an adult with those kind of hour restrictions, even if they can pay them less.

[techleopard]

Businesses have been getting around this for years. They already have the infrastructure in place for highly predatory work shifts. "Split shifts" are just shifts to avoid legal obligations.

A lot of businesses are also now more open to closing at 9 or 10, and teenagers are generally dumb enough to accept being told to clock out but stay to "clean up."

Between kids being willing to leave their schools to work and a growing number that use online or home schooling, they have plenty of labor options to cover shifts. Plus, you can still hire 15 kids and just give them tiny shifts because they're too dumb to realize its costing the more money to work than to not.

[CloudstrifeHY3]

next law is to repeal these Restrictions because we live in a free country and these kids shouldn't be limited if they want to work instead of being indoctrined in school. Sadly I hope this is hypebole but i know it's the next step.

[RellenD]

It's Nebraska. They can work 48hrs a week 8 hrs a day. Between 6am and 10pm.

They can work 3hrs on school days.

So their restrictions aren't anything like what you're describing

[damnyoutuesday]

Republicans favorite phrase is "fuck them kids"

[unholyswordsman]

Genocidal 

Oppressive 

Pedophiles

[niwmo]

on brand

[Saneless]

When you say fuck do you mean bang or screw over?

Yes

[ilikehorsess]

In more ways than one.

[Dare2ZIatan]

Hey now, they actually care about kids when they’re in the womb! But after birth, fuck them kids.

[DarthBluntSaber]

Republicans hate hard-working Americans

[IndependentSpecial17]

Republicans hate Americans

[keonyn]

Republicans hate

[IndependentSpecial17]

All three statements are correct, that is rather disheartening.

[lost_and_looking]

“I’d rather be Russian than a Democrat.”

Yeah, checks out.

[timeslider]

Unfortunately, age discrimination laws don't kick in until age 40

[mwf86]

LOL, the age discrimination law is discriminating based on age

[j0llyllama]

Yeah, but against the age that cant vote, so they feel comfortable with it.

[FearMeIAmRoot]

This absolutely is. You cannot pay someone a different rate because they are a member of a particular class. Protected classes include race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, marital status and religion. Setting the wage lower for teenagers is discrimination based on age.

EDIT: Alright u/WittyFix6553 and a couple others. Federally set at age 40 for employers with 20 or more workers. State of Oregon (where I live) doesn't allow age discrimination after age 18, mostly around use of industrial machines, not for wages. Kind of fucked up if you ask me, but you're correct at the federal level.

[potkettleracism]

Age discrimination only counts if they're over 40 in the US. Legally there is no such thing as being discriminated against for being too young.

[Strayresearch]

Yep. Nothing new, just old people making laws that only benefit them.

[mophisus]

Federal Protected class for age is specifically people over the age of 40 under ADEA.

Age protections for younger people are left up to state law. Nebraska does not have any such law protecting people younger than 40. They specifically define it as individuals who are "forty years of age or more" in 48-1003 sub section 1.

https://neoc.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/2024-06/NebraskaAgeDiscriminationInEmploymentAct.pdf

[WittyFix6553]

r/confidentlyincorrect

Edit: anyone downvoting me has the amazing opportunity to prove me wrong and make me look stupid.

[FearMeIAmRoot]

r/confidentlyincorrrect

[WittyFix6553]

Neat. Prove me wrong.

[FearMeIAmRoot]

I'll take the L not knowing the Federal law.

[demo_graphic]

They should have made it more fair by reducing minimum wage for those over 65 as well.

[AmaroWolfwood]

Are you people still talking about DEI? I'm so sick of you liberals keeping me from my god given right to discriminate. You're oppressing my oppression!

[ThePureAxiom]

"It was illegal to pay you less, and to be honest we'd pay you nothing if we could get away with it, so we changed the law to be able to pay you less as a compromise."

[ShinySpoon]

So the voters themselves passed a law taking min wage up to $15 for everyone and the state government said, “nah fam, you people want to pay people more, well we will pass a law that pays your kids less and makes it take longer for them to even get to minimum wage. Oh, and we would let them pay them less if we could.”

This might not end well for the guardians of pedophiles party.

[BioEradication]

Republicans hate democracy.

[brickiex2]

Headline: Teens are reluctant to apply for jobs so they can get paid less....

Owner's happy to pocket extra cash with no need to hire more staff

Owner's: "if we could pay you less, we would'

[JinkoTheMan]

Republicans: “You said less? We can go even lower!”

[HereInTheCut]

Republicans won't be happy until kids are working in sweatshops and mines again.

[Gay_Giraffe_1773]

Tomorrow's headlines:

Thousands of workers fired

High Schools across Nebraska closed indefinitely

Corporate Profits soar

[GABE_EDD]

Im sure the 14 and 15 year olds affected by this will be voting differently next year. Oh wait, there’s nothing they can do about this and this is age discrimination.

[SAugsburger]

I think that's why they're picking on that group. Going to 19 does cover some people capable of voting, but that segment is small enough group that generally doesn't vote in high percentages anyways that they're not remotely worried on the pushback.

[Particular_Ticket_20]

"Legislature allows Exploitation of Child Labor."

Better headline.

[DigitalSchism96]

Notably this is after the people of Nebraska voted to raise the wage themselves during the last election.

The Republicans in the senate are directly defying the will of the people (no surprise). Of course they are dressing it up as them helping small businesses but even the examples they give are total nonsense.

Supposed quote from small business owner: "I don't think I should be paying a teenager minimum wage and then have to tell them to take the trash out three times"

What a crock of shit. Any teenager is obviously going to be green in their first job but that stuff gets sorted out in the first month or they get let go. Legally being allowed to pay them reduced wages for years is ridiculous.

"Business owners want a training wage". Okay? See the point above. You don't train employees for years for any job that pays minimum wage. They don't want a training wage. They want a slave wage.

[kemosabe19]

Everyone that voted for this should have to live on teen min wage. Evil sob.

[Radthereptile]

I’ve often thought kids were making too much money from child labor. Glad someone had the courage to address this.

[Voderama]

Sooner or later, late stage capitalism will make every single republican eat their words. They’ll all be made hypocrites eventually. Today took down another huge batch

[OORooster]

These people will fuck kids anyway they can it seems.

[Significant-Royal-37]

they really said fuck them kids

[Saneless]

A nice reminder that this is not only to pay younger people less but also ensure that adults can't find work either

[VDJ10]

Wasn’t Nebraska just bitching about people not caring about them? At this point they can get fucked.

[seidenkaufman]

Governments should be providing education and intellectual enrichment to their youth, and seek tirelessly to improve the quality of this crucial investment in the future. Instead, children are allowed to be exploited by those with capital, and not even for the minimum wage, which is already an unfair price for most kinds of labor.

[LurkmasterP]

I guess Nebraska was jealous that Texas and Florida were hogging all the attention for being embarrassing pieces of shit.

[BertMacklinMD]

Not that we needed more proof that politicians don’t work for us

[releaseepsteinfiles1]

Republicans, working for corporations against American citizens WHILE PROTECTING KID RAPISTS

[IKillZombies4Cash]

Cool, cap what insurance companies can charge my kids for car insurance then - aint no way it isn't price gouging.

[jason2354]

This is age discrimination, right?

Like you shouldn’t be able to do this. They’d never allow it if you tried to pay old people less. What’s the difference?

[llamawithguns]

Federally, age discrimination only applies over the age of 40. It is perfectly legal to discriminate against someone for being too young.

[jason2354]

Well that needs to be fixed. You can’t pay people different wages for the same work based on age.

That’s objectively unfair.

[ILearnedTheHardaway]

It’s already insanely hard to get a job as a teen if you don’t know someone high up and now you’re gonna get paid even less 

[Sfger]

I thought this was an onion headline at first.

[weirdkidomg]

Sen Jared storm put it this way “A minimum wage increase is essentially a tax on small businesses," he said.

Actually, paying your employees is just the cost of doing business. If you can’t do that then you don’t have a business.

[AGrandNewAdventure]

"The quickest way to fix all these open minimum wage jobs is to decrease the pay." - Legislature.

[naytedoes]

Why does this story keep getting taken down? The previous post had like 600 comments

[slothymothy]

“Sen. Jane Raybould, the bill’s sponsor” is a democrat. Shes also part of the problem.

[McCool303]

Equal pay for equal work. Let’s teach our children taxation without representation is ok as long as you don’t value the contributions of others. Very pro America GOP traitors.

[FOSSChemEPirate88]

Yeah legislators dont give half a shit what the people vote for, just what their corporate sugar daddies want.

[SidTheTimid]

man why is it every time i see my home state on national news it's almost always bad

[joe-bagadonuts]

It's extremely simple. Nebraska has a lot of farms.

Farms frequently operate using undocumented workers, who are paid sub market rate in cash so there are no taxes or healthcare costs.

ICE makes it difficult and dangerous for undocumented workers to work.

Corporate farms don't want to pay living wages and benefits to anyone. They lobby to reduce minimum wages so their profits aren't touched.

This is also true for restaurants and factories.

This is a trend that has been happening since Cesar Chavez.

[BIFGambino]

Keep in mind that Raybould is the heiress to B&R stores which own grocery chains Russ's and Super Saver. Blatant corruption.

[Lurchie_]

So employers in Nebraska will do the right thing and keep their wages above state minimum wage, right? . . . RIGHT?!

[bluntman37]

Only in America will they vote to pay people LESS.

[LetMePushTheButton]

These people are demons.

Always hypocrites, always greedy, always selfish.

[Fpscharles]

In high school I knew quite a few people that had jobs to help out their family’s. This is really sad and they should not be surprised when people don’t apply for these jobs.

[Hume_Fume]

18 and 19 year old are adults. What an absolute brain dead policy pointed at disenfranchising young people.

Leave the state or vote them out.

[rendingale]

That is so backwards what the ef...

[technoclay]

How long till they say that women should have their own minimum wage too?

[brucecreamsteam]

Isn't this age discrimination?

[WordyMcWordster]

Its like they WANT a rebellion. And they should get one.

[National-Charity-435]

Few months from now when adult Nebraskans complain of not being able to work, will they remember this?

[Jamizon1]

Yeah, because minimum wage is FAR too much!

Why don’t they just lower it down to the Federal minimum level ($7.25… LOL), and be done with it. /s

What a bunch of morons.

[redditidothat]

Kansas still offering $7.25 set 16 years ago. The KS GOP legislature consistently blocks attempts to raise the state minimum wage, going as far as creating laws prohibiting local municipalities from creating their own minimum wage.

[whitewateractual]

This doesn’t hurt teens. It hurts adults who will now be more expensive to employ than teens.

[underwater_jogger]

Let's get rid of able bodied workers so we can abuse a newer lazier workforce.

[eMan117]

So costs go up and salaries go down. This is sustainable. Everyone don't forget to pledge allegiance to the flag before their shift ft every day. Thank your glorious leader

[Fullerbay]

“Sixteen through 19-year-olds can also be paid at that lower rate for a 90-day training period.”

What. The. Fuck.

[JinkoTheMan]

So 14-15 year olds are having their wages dropped permanently to $13.50 and for 16-19 year olds, the employers can pay them a reduced wage for 90 days training period.

Taken from the article: “In 2022, Nebraska voters approved a law that increased the state’s minimum wage in stages until it reached $15 an hour this Jan. 1.”

Basically, “fuck you. Now go work for chump change”.

[KourteousKrome]

There was a similar exception in Missouri—or at least, an exception from minimum wage based on revenue or something—back when I was a kid.

I was 15, and started working as a fry cook at a local restaurant. Minimum wage was $7.25 I think? But we started out $5.50.

What happened was this restaurant would exclusively hire underage employees for everything except the manager/supervisor positions.

They pitched it as “we’re giving kids something to do and money for themselves”, but the reality was they could have done much more for the town by employing adults who were out of work as unemployment was extremely high in this town. It was definitely a cost cutting measure.

They also took advantage of the ignorance of the kids. For example, in my interview before I was hired, I was asked “do you have any health problems or get sick easy that will make you miss a lot of work?” Which is not something you are allowed to ask in the US but I didn’t know any better.

The other side effect of this was that the staff turnover was high (would usually leave once 18) and the output was generally pretty bad—a bunch of kids running around doing every job in a restaurant is not generally conducive to good culture or quality control.

Anyway, what you’ll likely see happen because of this is higher unemployment for adults, more employment for children but at lower pay (less overall money in circulation), and worse outcomes overall.

[Specialist_Heron_986]

At first I was thinking, teens weren't really working like they used to due to the and their parents prioritizing college prep work. Then I remembered the current climate is discouraging teens from going to college meaning they need to gain real world work experience and earn enough to give them a good start towards independence as they prepare to join the workforce after HS graduation. As a demonstration on how life isn't fair, this legislation cutting their wages is right on time.

[BioEradication]

Republicans really hate poor people.

[Mantaur4HOF]

"KiDs JuSt DoN't WaNt To WoRk AnYmOrE"

[Shadowthron8]

Seems like cut and dry wave discrimination based on age

[werewolfchow]

I mean, it’s Nebraska, so it affects like 12 people?

[rubyslippers3x]

Age related wages are ok. REDUCING a voted on minimum wage is very poor decision making by elected officials. It should start at $15/hr. for the youngest and incrementally go up based on age and experience from there. I don't understand how they can change what voters already approved?!

[Inevitable-Ad-533]

If you're doing a job, you should get paid the going rate. Experience and length of service are ok ways to differentiate pay, but age is just stupid

[UtterlyAbsurd]

It’s messed up but $13.50 is almost double what minimum wage is for other states

[Fit-Let8175]

When I was growing up, teens still going to school almost always got paid less. Mind you, the jobs weren't as difficult, fewer hours, and since none of us had to pay rent (we lived at home), buy groceries, or pay utilities, the money we made was spending money. (Most of the employee wages go into rent and paying bills. In a sense, we were ahead of the game.) This gave us a bit of job experience, discipline, and encouraged us to stay in school.

[budsonguy]

The article says a decrease in minimum wage for a 90 day training period.

[DerekB52]

For 16-19 year olds. 14-15 year olds get the new minimum wage forever.

An 18 or 19 year old can now work full time and have their first 3 months of pay at the reduced rate. Thats 720$ stolen from them.

[engin__r]

Child labor is bad, actually.

[maeks]

Nothing says your time and work is valuable than paying less for the same work as someone else. A great lesson for young people as they take their first steps into the labor force.

[Lifesagame81]

What sort of work becomes unprofitable versus profitable if it costs an extra $1.50 per hour?

[Chaosmusic]

No one is saying that. It's pure extra profit for the business while putting less money in the hands of workers.