"I deeply sympathize,"
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
_
But answer came there none --
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."
_
While the top 1% of those atop America's corporations have seen their incomes expand exponentially beyond 344 times those that employees earn, the average worker's income has been flat for the past three decades, barely keeping up with inflation, and, in many, many instances, falling behind.
This morning, GAO (Government Accountability Office) released a 35-page report, "DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Wage and Hour Division's Complaint Intake and Investigative Processes Leave Low Wage Workers Vulnerable to Wage Theft." (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09458t.pdf) Damned hardly begins to define how indicted the Labor Department ought to be regarded.The cabinet-level department is charged with protecting the rights and working place welfare and safety of this country's workers. Since Ronald Reagan, however, it has operated more like the federal arm of the Chamber of Commerce--suppressing wages, endangering employees, and actively working to snuff out the formation of unions while at the same time doing all it can to eliminate those unions presently in existence.
Have a peek into the report.
The report found the department had mishandled 90% of cases investigated by a team of undercover agents.
In direct contravention of Department regs, five of 10 complaints filed by the undercover agents weren't even recorded in the Wage and Hour Division's data base.
One of the recorded, monitored conversations between Division staff and an employer is included here as typical:
