Modern Slavery: The Backbone of Family Business

Everyone wants the American dream; after all it's one of the things that this country has spilled much of his blood for in the past. When I mention the American dream I am referring to the basic right to start off making an honest living in a job you train for and then to progress with increased skill and ideally increased wages. Unfortunately, for the millions of Americans who work for family owned businesses this is not the case. The "Right to Work" act basically states that if you don't like the way your job is running itself, you have the right to leave. This generally becomes the means by which many family owned businesses justify the lack of regular distribution of raises. I personally have worked for several family owned businesses and the pattern has been the same, they start you off on a basic wage depending on your skill level; but then a few months go by, then a year, then you realize that you're working harder and getting better at what you do, but where's the reward? The dead end wage is not the only problem with family business nor is it isolated to just family business. I merely single out family run businesses because in all my experience with them (over half a dozen jobs not to mention the experiences told to me by others working in such situations), I am at the least appalled that our government has neglected to put any sort of working protection law in place for those hard workers who are lucky if they make enough to keep a roof over their head.

Problem number one with family owned and operated; they're always watching you. Mom and Dad get fat off of the main profits, son and daughter get prime position jobs in various departments, son and daughter in laws also get management and supervisor positions and the rest of the employees best watch what they say or do least a family member run to tell on them. Adding insult to injury is the fact that you might work 40 hours a week and only be paid $8.00 an hour doing a job that is worth $15 an hour in a major business corporation or government job while members of the family will get paid triple your amount and generally not do a fraction of the hard work you'll be sweating over; and thanks to "Right to work" if you don't like it you can just leave and start this dead end game again because Hell will freeze over before the rich man sends some reward-earned money your way.

Problem two which I've already touched on is the fact it generally doesn't matter how hard you work, how dependable you are, you won't get rewarded; conversely if you make a mistake, you can be pretty sure you'll get it laid into you. I've worked in places where it was made painfully clear, you were to work hard non stop and be grateful you had a job. The better you worked, the more work they gave you because you were dependable, however the more you did the more chance of mistakes you had which led to further criticism and asking for a raise may as well have been regarded as a seven deadly sin.

A word to employers out there, I'm sure in your handbook it says something along the lines of not talking about your wages with coworkers... Well you're fooling yourself if you honestly think that information stays confidential. In fact the less attention you pay to rewarding your employees, the more they talk about it, the angrier they get, and the lower their work ethic drops and many of them will ultimately quit.

Disregarding some form of routine reward to hard working employees has got to stop. It's a problem that is weakening our economy and hurting basic moral towards the working environment. I only hope that our government will soon realize this to be a legitimate problem and actions must be taken. It's neither fair nor just for anyone to have to work without the chance of ever being rewarded and to constantly have to deal with the threat of being fired on a whim.

Finally to all those job seekers out there, my advice to you; avoid working for family run businesses unless you plan for it to be temporary from the start. Most importantly, when you find yourself in a job interview, "What's the average rate of pay increase?" should be one of the first questions out of your mouth, if the person interviewing you gives you some sort of vague non specific answer or looks offended by the question; that's your cue to seek employment elsewhere.