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Message no. 1
From: Richard Tomasso rtomasso@*******.com
Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 13:23:35 -0400 (EDT)
abortion_engine wrote:
> It's a fact I use a lot in SR; this security guard is probably making ten
> percent over minimum wage. He doesn't want to die. He just wants to feed
> himself and/or his family. And he really doesn't care a whole lot about his
> lousy-paying job.

Here's a question, is there a Minimum Wage in shadowrun?
If so, do the megas have to pay it for their ET sites?

Off-hand I'd say there isn't one anymore. Given the greater corporate
influence I'd think the law was repealed or at least it was never increased
and inflation took care of the value of such a wage, making it a moot point.
There's hints that the welfare system either collapsed or was thrown out,
which would also make me think the minimum wage was eliminated.

Then again, keeping it would serve to keep metas out of the job pool,
which I'm sure some pols would love to do. And some would see it as a way
to force the Megas to pay out a living wage to the constituency.
Message no. 2
From: Bruce gyro@********.co.za
Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 11:40:17 +0200
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Tomasso <rtomasso@*******.com>
To: shadowrn@*********.org <shadowrn@*********.org>
Date: 30 September 1999 07:24
Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)


>abortion_engine wrote:
>> It's a fact I use a lot in SR; this security guard is probably
making ten
>> percent over minimum wage. He doesn't want to die. He just wants to
feed
>> himself and/or his family. And he really doesn't care a whole lot
about his
>> lousy-paying job.
>
>Here's a question, is there a Minimum Wage in shadowrun?

I doubt they've gone into that kinda detail :)

>If so, do the megas have to pay it for their ET sites?

I'm still struggling with the whole "corp citizen" concept. The Megas
would certainly not have to obey any nations statutes regarding any
labour practices, since they are ET entities. However, if those folks
head back to the UCAS (or wherever) at the end of the working day,
then what? It's really a big mess and the question that was brought up
a few days ago about retrenchments is equally vaild IMO. This whole ET
thing needs to be thought through carefully.

>Off-hand I'd say there isn't one anymore. Given the greater corporate
>influence I'd think the law was repealed or at least it was never
increased
>and inflation took care of the value of such a wage, making it a moot
point.
>There's hints that the welfare system either collapsed or was thrown
out,
>which would also make me think the minimum wage was eliminated.

Looks like the welfare state is gone for good, that also seems to be a
trend in the real world at the moment. The advent of the SIN system
seems to have replaced SSN's in the current USA, so maybe thats where
the division lies.

>Then again, keeping it would serve to keep metas out of the job pool,
>which I'm sure some pols would love to do. And some would see it as a
way
>to force the Megas to pay out a living wage to the constituency.
>
>
>
Message no. 3
From: Iridios iridios@*****.com
Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 09:20:19 -0400
Bruce wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Tomasso <rtomasso@*******.com>
> To: shadowrn@*********.org <shadowrn@*********.org>
> Date: 30 September 1999 07:24
> Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)
>
> >abortion_engine wrote:
> >> It's a fact I use a lot in SR; this security guard is probably
> making ten
> >> percent over minimum wage. He doesn't want to die. He just wants to
> feed
> >> himself and/or his family. And he really doesn't care a whole lot
> about his
> >> lousy-paying job.
> >
> >Here's a question, is there a Minimum Wage in shadowrun?
>
> I doubt they've gone into that kinda detail :)
>
> >If so, do the megas have to pay it for their ET sites?
>
> I'm still struggling with the whole "corp citizen" concept. The Megas
> would certainly not have to obey any nations statutes regarding any
> labour practices, since they are ET entities. However, if those folks
> head back to the UCAS (or wherever) at the end of the working day,
> then what? It's really a big mess and the question that was brought up
> a few days ago about retrenchments is equally vaild IMO. This whole ET
> thing needs to be thought through carefully.

IMO, there are two types of corporate employees. The first is the
wage slave, they are the ones working the menial and/or less desirable
jobs in the company. They work in the stores as clerks, some work the
janitorial duties but all of them are paid an hourly wage. Then there
is the contract salaried "corporate citizens". They are the
executives, researchers, and related staff. They have signed
contracts that give them annual salaries (no overtime for them), and
the contracts also define their status as a "corporate citizen".

Now, if minimum wage is no longer a reality (as I think it might be),
then I would think the megas would offer a "competitive" but fairly
low hourly rate to the wage slaves. However they would need to stay
"competitive", otherwise the wage slaves would find work elsewhere.


--
Iridios
"Accept what you cannot avoid,
Avoid what you cannot accept."
Message no. 4
From: Andrew Murdoch toreador@***.bc.ca
Subject: Minimum Wage (was: Realism)
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 16:50:21 -0700 (PDT)
On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, Bruce wrote:

> >Here's a question, is there a Minimum Wage in shadowrun?
>
> I doubt they've gone into that kinda detail :)
>
> >If so, do the megas have to pay it for their ET sites?
>
> I'm still struggling with the whole "corp citizen" concept. The Megas
> would certainly not have to obey any nations statutes regarding any
> labour practices, since they are ET entities. However, if those folks
> head back to the UCAS (or wherever) at the end of the working day,
> then what? It's really a big mess and the question that was brought up
> a few days ago about retrenchments is equally vaild IMO. This whole ET
> thing needs to be thought through carefully.

While ET corps probably can set their own wages and suchlike, they'd be
governed by the same sociological laws that govern any nation: Mistreat
the citizenry, and you have a revolution.

--
Raven
Sometimes known as Andrew C. Murdoch
toreador@***.bc.ca
http://members.xoom.com/corvisraven

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