Rebecca Galemba: How employers steal from workers -- and get away with it | TED

Rebecca Galemba: How employers steal from workers --...

CDAng

Wage theft: Wage theft: when individuals do not receive their legally owed wages and benefits, taking many forms such as paying below the minimum wage, withholding earned benefits, overtime breaks or tips, misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and outright non-payment.

Wages, Salary, and Pay refer to different forms of compensation for work, with slight distinctions in meaning.

工資、薪資、薪水 都指工作報酬，但有細微的區別：
• 工資 (Wages)：通常指按時薪、日薪或週薪計算的收入，常用於計時工或短期工作。
• 薪資 (Salary)：通常指固定的月薪或年薪，不受工時影響，適用於白領或專業職位。
• 薪水 (Pay/Salary)：較口語化，可指任何形式的報酬，日常對話中較為常見。

根據語境不同，這些詞可以互換，但在正式場合，薪資比薪水更正式，而工資更偏向基層勞工的報酬。

Independent contractors: people who work for themselves and are not employees of a company.

獨立承包人 （Independent Contractor） 可以是 SOHO（Small Office/Home Office） 族，但SOHO 族不一定是獨立承包人，因為 SOHO 也可能擁有自己的小型企業或團隊。

Auto theft: 是由 “auto”（automobile，汽車） 和 “theft”（竊盜，偷竊） 組成，字面意思就是「汽車的偷竊」。中文翻譯成「汽車竊盜」，主要基於語義和法律用語的習慣。Auto theft 不一定涉及暴力。

英語中的國名簡稱習慣：許多國家的正式名稱較長，但人們通常使用簡短的部分來稱呼它，例如：
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland → United Kingdom（UK）
• United Mexican States（墨西哥合眾國）→ Mexico
• United States of America → America

美國我還是習慣說 United States

． Limited English proficiency
． Compétence limitée en français
． إتقان محدود للغة العربية
(Itqān maḥdūd lil-lugha al-ʿArabiyya)

Opportunity cost: the cost of pursuing one option over another, such as the cost of spending time chasing unpaid wages instead of working another job.

Summary:

• Wage theft is a widespread problem in the US, affecting millions of workers in a range of industries.
• Wage theft occurs when workers do not receive their legally owed wages and benefits, and it can take many forms.

• Workers are losing an estimated $50 billion a year to wage theft, more than the economic losses to auto theft, robbery, and burglary combined.
• Wage theft not only impacts workers but also lowers wages across entire industries and robs communities of tax dollars.

• Day laborers, most of whom are immigrants from Latin America, are particularly vulnerable to wage theft due to their rapid pace of hiring, unstable work, and lack of regulation in their sector.