Unfortunately the US has comically weak enforcement of labor laws. I've experienced and heard many examples of this from over the years including managers asking employees to clock-out and finish their work. While that is illegal, the State is completely ineffective in protecting workers who file complaints.
Amazon itself is currently being sued for failing to provide required breaks. They are infamous for making it hard to even go to the bathroom. That would never fly at my shop.
Of course, that's just one example. I also love that management can't just shift more and more responsibility onto me to save money or arbitrarily increase the complexity of my work without an increase in pay.
> While that is illegal, the State is completely ineffective in protecting workers who file complaints.
I don't know which state you're in, but this is absolutely not true where I grew up. A complaint to the state labor board brought the hammer down ASAP.
The people who enforce these things absolutely love to have something to track down.
While true, this ignores how widespread wage theft is, especially among lower-paid workers.
Here's one example of unpaid overtime wages, nearly a million dollars worth, being stolen from workers:
> After receiving a wage complaint from a worker who failed to receive any money for his work, California Labor Commissioner Julie Su’s office began investigating contractor Tadros & Youssef Construction’s work on the Highland Oaks Elementary School construction project. Su’s office discovered that nine other employees earned below the prevailing wage and were not paid for overtime hours on this same project. The resulting settlement forced Tadros & Youssef to pay $877,876.64 restitution to the 10 workers. The contracting firm is no longer in business.
Filing a union grievance for overtime violations is a much simpler process than what you would have to do in a non-union shop. And comes with a fair amount of protection against retaliation.
