Thats not how it works, you can pay out of pocket for a lawyer to help you, but people in this position can't generally afford a lawyer. Take a look at all the stories of Trump not paying employees, they didn't have a government hotline to call that got Trump to pay up.
> The WHD conducts investigations as a part of its enforcement of the FLSA and many investigations are initiated by worker complaints.
Not only that, but it can go beyond civil actions:
> Employers who willfully violate the minimum wage or overtime laws are subject to civil penalties of up to $1,000 for each willful violation. Willful violations of the FLSA may result in criminal prosecution and the violator can be subject to a fine of up to $10,000. A second conviction may result in imprisonment.
https://employment.findlaw.com/wages-and-benefits/how-to-rep...
Nearly 50% are denied after a 6 month process on average. Like disability claims or VA claims or immigration application...or any other administrative legal action, you generally need a lawyer to navigate through the process successfully.
But perhaps you have a personal experience you can share where you called and they got your unpaid wages from your employer.
Also, loss of wages accumulates over time and you're probably going to look for another job or quit if you're not getting paid. But you could easily invest several years of worth of salary in the stock market, and lose the majority if it crashes hard enough.
Not from a taxation standpoint. And investors shouldn't get better tax rates than workers because their is a non-zero chance of losing their investment, if nothing else the deduction of their loss is already built into the system so why give them additional lower rates?
>But you could easily invest several years of worth of salary in the stock market, and lose the majority if it crashes hard enough.
The only people who can "invest several years of worth of salary in the stock market" are independently wealthy people. Again 40% of the country don't have $400 in savings, the numbers speak for themselves the median savings of the top 10% is $170k (even that wouldn't be several years of salary for them).
Risk has nothing to do with capital gains being lower than payroll/income taxes.
Given the current market conditions, a person must risk $100 to get a return of about $3 max. The capitalist needs to put about 30 times as much at risk for the same reward.
That $100 that you lost betting on $LOSER gets to be offset against the $100 you made betting on $WINNER.
Laborers are putting something much more valuable at risk: their time. Those at the lowest rungs of the social ladder are also putting their literal bodies at risk.
The consolidated US government already collects 33% of GDP in taxes: how about consuming the worst performing services of the government? I'm sure there's at least 5% of spending thats a no-brainer pure loss to society.
Fine, but how do you do that without keeping the carried interest loophole that just won't go away regardless of which party is in power.
Its a luxury to have wealth you can invest and grow without actually having to work for a wage. Plus you are overstating the downside, because if they lose their $100, its a tax write off on their next bet they win. If passive income is such a burden because the taxes you are paying, then don't invest and get a job and pay the higher payroll/income taxes, believe it or not no one really cares, just the same as investors don't really care that the rank and file employees who are making them returns don't have healthcare, don't have pensions and are living hand to mouth.
> But people in regular jobs don't put any capital at risk.
You are justifying taxing the working class at a higher rate for being poor.
>They don't put any of their savings at risk.
Because they are living hand to mouth and don't have savings...and thats not because of "foolish bets" at the poker table. The US doesn't have the lowest social mobility rate in the World for nothing or because people are going out and blowing their wealth on bad decisions. The system isn't just stacked against social and economic mobility...the capitalists are actively trying to indebt the working class for life, and the numbers suggest they have been winning for decades now.
You can't take the same rules from Vegas and apply them to health care and human rights.
But here, "justice" seems to mean the opposite. No matter how the poker game works out, the dealer redistributes the winnings to everyone including those who made foolish bets.
For what it's worth, I think that capital gains should be taxed at a lower rate because people are putting their own wealth on the line. Someone who buys a stock with $100 could lose the entire $100. Yet if that person gets a dividend of, say, $3 in return for the investment, the authors want this $3 to be treated like ordinary income. But people in regular jobs don't put any capital at risk. The worst that can happen is that the boss cheats them and they don't get paid. In other words, they don't get the $3. They don't put any of their savings at risk.