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akuma587 on 02 November 2008
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SamuelRSmith said:
akuma587 said:
SamuelRSmith said:
akuma587 said:
A law of the biggest law firms in the U.S. expect you to work 60-80 hour weeks.

 

 12-16 hour long days? That's nuts! Seriously, the amount of people that moan about 8 hour days here. Considering that in the UK you're also entitled to 20 minutes break for every six hours work, 11 hours break between each working day, and atleast one day off a week. Again, these are minimum, and are usually considered bad breaks, especially the one day a week one.

What for minimum wage, national insurance, and long term illness in the US?

It is supposed to be $6.55, but I think I was only getting paid $5.75 once the raise took effect over the summer, but it is about to get bumped up over the summer to $7.25.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/

National insurance?  We don't even know what that is here.  We do get unemployment benefits though (if you qualify).

Long term illness coverage?  We don't know what that is either.

 

 National Insurance goes towards your pension, contributes to the NHS, contributes towards benefits, pays for sick pay, maternity leave, etc. Long term illness is basically covered by National Insurance. Long term pay pay essentially means that if you come under long term illness, you still have the right to full payment. If you become diabled whilst employeed, the employer also needs to allow them to work for as long as possible (no churning out of a factory because you've lost your arm, or something).

Minimum wage in the UK is currently £5.73 ($9.22)

We do have Social Security which helps protect people when they are old and if they are disabled (if they qualify, which is hard to do).  But if you are sick, you get screwed.  Maternity leave?  Yeah right.  We'd rather spend out money blowing up other countries.  Sick pay?  Maybe, but only if your job gives it to you. 

The state I am in has a right to work policy (which pretty much means right to be fired for any reason).  An employer can fire you for any reason and you can quit for any reason, as long as no federal laws have been violated.  Thank goodness for those federal laws, many of which are actually pretty helpful in cases of discrimination or sexual harassment.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson