[HN Gopher] Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising
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       Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising
        
       Author : batmaniam
       Score  : 125 points
       Date   : 2021-02-18 19:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | pb7 wrote:
       | It's unfortunate that people have to split their time between two
       | separate jobs but these stats never mention the number of hours
       | worked which is the key metric. If you have a job that is only
       | 10-20 hours a week, picking up another job with equal hours,
       | while less ideal than holding one with twice the hours, is not
       | worthy of the headlines.
        
         | diob wrote:
         | I'm not sure I agree that it's not worthy of headlines.
         | 
         | One of the big trends I see with those 10-20 hr a week jobs, is
         | that they are automated in terms of scheduling to try and
         | optimize profit. In other words, they call you in for an 1hr on
         | Monday, but then another 2 hrs later in the day. It's so
         | chopped up that it's hard to coordinate a second job.
         | 
         | And part of the automation is to also ensure employees don't
         | accidentally hit full time, to avoid benefits.
         | 
         | So now they hold two jobs, each chopping their day into tiny
         | bits of unusable time (commute, prep, etc.). And neither has to
         | pay any benefits.
         | 
         | It's a win win for companies, and a lose lose for everyone
         | else.
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | Are such short shifts legal in the US? Last time I worked
           | retail in Canada the law was that if you were called in to
           | work you had to be paid for at least 3 hours even if you were
           | sent home.
        
             | diob wrote:
             | It's state by state, and at least in Arizona (where I'm
             | from), there is no minimum.
             | 
             | Link to our laws:
             | https://www.employmentlawhandbook.com/wage-and-hour-
             | laws/sta...
        
           | renewiltord wrote:
           | This is why Uber/Lyft were so good. They allowed people to
           | dodge the bin-packing problem by allowing someone to convert
           | time and an asset smoothly into cash flow.
        
           | pb7 wrote:
           | I agree that companies should be disincentivized/punished for
           | doing that. The overhead of an additional job can't be
           | overstated.
           | 
           | I would still like to see the total hours, but ideally the
           | hours spent at each job, to see the depth of the problem. It
           | would also help draw attention to the exact thresholds that
           | businesses are abusing to draw up better legislature.
        
         | TheAdamAndChe wrote:
         | I disagree. Generally working 40+ hours at one company brings
         | significant benefits like health insurance or retirement plans.
         | Working two part-time jobs wouldn't do that. Plus there's a
         | significant cost with context switching. 40 hours at two jobs
         | will have more overhead than 40 hours at one job.
        
           | pb7 wrote:
           | Agreed with all points and that's likely the case for the
           | majority of these people. But there is probably still a non-
           | trivial number of people that are working 32+ hours at one
           | job and 10-20 at another that would fall into these
           | statistics that would receive benefits. More data can't hurt.
           | Existing laws are clearly being gamed.
           | 
           | Edit: Also, these stats will exclude people that are working
           | just one job but still under the benefits threshold which is
           | not good either. "Working two jobs" is just too broad of a
           | statement to be actionable.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | doggodaddo78 wrote:
       | It implies cheating workers out of healthcare and benefits,
       | causing them more stress, and costs and time commuting.
        
         | throwaway0a5e wrote:
         | Or it implies skilled people who would have had under the table
         | side gigs are getting gig economy jobs because it's so easy and
         | turnkey even if the pay is lower.
         | 
         | Yeah people working part time are getting screwed out of
         | benefits, but it's hard to tell whether that's rising or more
         | side work is moving above the table.
        
         | dantheman wrote:
         | Really, you're saying there are unintended consequences to
         | laws?
         | 
         | Perhaps instead of trying to extract as much money out of the
         | rest of the economy we should reduce medical costs.
        
           | humanrebar wrote:
           | I'm not sure it's fair to call them unintended consequences
           | when this exact thing was predicted by skeptics when the law
           | was passed.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | It's not always that nefarious.
         | 
         | At a past company we had certain manual labor tasks that had to
         | be done by end of day, so work schedules were flexible. We
         | offered full time with benefits, but there was still a lot of
         | demand for part-time work. There are a lot of people out there
         | who simply want to use extra time in the day to take on paying
         | work. You get college students looking for a few hours after
         | work, or parents who have to work around their kids school
         | schedules, or older people who simply want to have something to
         | do but aren't up for full-time jobs.
         | 
         | There are also plenty of jobs where companies simply can't
         | afford to pay someone 40 hours per week plus benefits. Hiring
         | someone for 20 hours per week with no benefits is arguably
         | better than not having that job in the economy at all.
         | 
         | I'd love as much as anyone for the US to separate health care
         | from employer-provided health insurance, but it's not really
         | fair to blame companies for the failures of our politicians.
        
       | minikites wrote:
       | A reminder that wage theft is endemic to the types of jobs that
       | people who work multiple jobs have. We absolutely need stronger
       | worker protections in the form of actual punishments for business
       | owners who shortchange workers, stronger labor union protections,
       | and government-provided healthcare so people aren't held to their
       | jobs at metaphorical gunpoint.
        
         | judgemcjudgy wrote:
         | "wage theft" - I think for those jobs the wage is known
         | beforehand. If it is too low for you, don't take it. If
         | somebody refuses to pay you the promised wage, that would be
         | theft and a case for the law.
        
       | glasss wrote:
       | To be fair, I know a significant amount of people who work
       | multiple jobs but they only really put in a few hours on the
       | weekend. They are the minority though, and most 2 or 3 job
       | workers I know do put in a significant >15 hours a week at each.
       | 
       | I think the bigger thing beyond hours worked is commute and
       | decompression time. I don't know anyone who, after working 6
       | hours on a Saturday, is ready right away to go out and have fun
       | with their friends. Everyone wants to come home, change clothes
       | if needed, and relax a bit before moving onto to something else.
       | That extra hour or so, not even including the commute, is a
       | pretty big hit to your weekend time.
        
       | ryanSrich wrote:
       | We do this at my startup. Instead of hiring FTEs, we hire people
       | for 10-30 hours per week. This is great for people that want to
       | make more money than they could as an FTE, or for people that
       | want to work more on side projects.
       | 
       | It helps that we have no bullshit meetings, everything is async,
       | and we take advantage of automating almost every aspect of the
       | business.
       | 
       | I've found that hiring contract devs for say 20 hours per week
       | yields the same output as an FTE at 40. Why? Because we don't
       | fill the rest of their week with bullshit.
        
       | CivBase wrote:
       | I wonder what the Census Bureau counts as a "job" here. Does
       | having a monetized YouTube channel, Twitch stream, or OnlyFans
       | account on the side count? What about monetizing a hobby you
       | might still otherwise be doing with something like Etsy or
       | Patreon? Driving for Uber or DoorDash on the side? A school
       | teacher taking a part-time job over the summer? Hosting an
       | Airbnb? Going door-to-door for the Census Bureau itself? Many of
       | these are not necessarily indicative of economic turmoil.
       | 
       | A data point missing from the article is how many _hours_ workers
       | are committing to their jobs. I 'd consider that to be more
       | important that just the number of jobs people have. The article
       | clearly attributes the rise in multiple jobs to wage stagnation
       | while the cost of living continues to rise - which does seem like
       | a reasonable explanation. However, it's possible that at least
       | some of the rise can be attributed to greater economic
       | opportunity as people dip their toes into new markets without
       | completely abandoning their traditional jobs which they may
       | already have.
       | 
       | EDIT: Others have pointed out that many employers have also
       | stopped offering full-time work to avoid having to provide their
       | employees with benefits. That would also contribute to a rise in
       | multiple jobs without necessarily increasing the number of hours
       | worked.
        
       | mjfl wrote:
       | This will certainly be made worse by raising the min wage, as
       | suggested in the article, not helped. Contrary to the apparent
       | popular opinion, companies aren't bottomless pits of money and
       | many are barely surviving. How do people get away with having
       | this fantasy as one of the central "truths" of their universes?
       | 
       | Many of the barely surviving companies are those that employ
       | "vulnerable people", think grocery stores- laser thin margins,
       | managers that aren't actually making much more than employees.
       | Nuking those businesses will improve the health of the job
       | market? are you kidding me?
        
         | bluntfang wrote:
         | I think you make a good point here that a lot of people miss:
         | we have things like cheap groceries because as a society we
         | prey on vulnerable people. When do we accept that the reason we
         | get to have avacados and limes year round everywhere in the
         | country is because we are all collectively taking advantage of
         | people? And we have to accept that if we want to take advantage
         | of people less, our day to day will be more expensive.
        
         | dudul wrote:
         | Maybe going on a tangent here, but it's really the idea of a
         | _federal_ minimum wage that doesn 't make sense to me. Cost of
         | living can literally be an order of magnitude apart between 2
         | given states.
        
           | chickenpotpie wrote:
           | Because it's literally the minimum wage. States are free to
           | raise it higher if their cost of living is higher, but it
           | makes sense for the federal government to say "there is
           | nowhere in the country where you can support a family on less
           | than this dollar amount so everyone should have to pay at
           | least this"
        
           | calvinmorrison wrote:
           | And differences can be a magnitude apart living in different
           | parts of the state! I live in a major east coast city, where
           | a small rowhome in my neighborhood is 200k+ in good
           | condition.
           | 
           | new houses in the state capitol 2 hours away? No problem
           | coming in under 100K.
           | 
           | So COL varies wildy even within a state, as is no surprise.
        
             | dudul wrote:
             | I don't disagree, this is just making my point even more :)
             | And reinforces the original comment that a minimum wage
             | that doesn't take these disparities into account may simply
             | be a death blow for a lot of small businesses in low CoL
             | areas.
        
         | nathanvanfleet wrote:
         | I love how Americans just think there is no other country that
         | might have, say, higher minimum wages or socialized medicine.
         | It's just impossible they say. Not sense in comparing or seeing
         | other places approach, America is just too exceptional.
        
           | jacob2484 wrote:
           | Note that in Europe the economies are not as dynamic and has
           | lower GDP growth on average. There are costs to higher taxes
           | and more regulations. We're not exceptional, things are done
           | differently.
        
             | sand_castles wrote:
             | > lower GDP growth on average
             | 
             | Europe is the largest surplus region on the planet.
             | 
             | I don't get where this idea came from, Europe does the most
             | impressive technology, but doesn't constantly market
             | themselves as well.
             | 
             | US is the largest deficit ( needs to constantly import
             | capital to just survive ) country on the planet.
             | 
             | If your GDP growth comes from debt, then you are doing it
             | wrong.
        
             | pirocks wrote:
             | This may have more to do with the US not getting blown up
             | during WW2, and the US being the largest single market(in
             | the sense that everyone speaks the same language, has same
             | culture, comparable laws everywhere etc.). And less to do
             | with good policies.
        
               | throwaway0a5e wrote:
               | >This may have more to do with the US not getting blown
               | up during WW2
               | 
               | It's been 80yr and Japan and Korea are doing fine.
               | 
               | The USSR basically force created a large single market
               | over the course of its existence. If it was such a net
               | win for prosperity the economic would have stuck around.
        
             | naebother wrote:
             | I always have to remind myself of our glorious GDP growth
             | as I use food stamps to buy groceries after clocking out of
             | a 12 hour shift at Walmart.
        
               | mjfl wrote:
               | Well, that GDP growth technically means you have a better
               | opportunity to trade up in the USA than anywhere else in
               | the world, if you apply yourself, get yourself trained,
               | etc. you want to make people believe that these career
               | choices are impossible to escape and they really aren't.
        
           | rayiner wrote:
           | Nobody says it's impossible, just that there are trade-offs.
           | France has a monthly minimum wage that works out to under
           | $12/hour on a 35 hour week. It also had 8.5-9.5% unemployment
           | over the last few years before COVID, while the US was half
           | that at 3.5-4.5%.
           | 
           | Same thing with socialized medicine. Nobody says that
           | socialized medicine is impossible, just that it requires a
           | level of taxes nobody wants to pay. Again to use France as an
           | example, health insurance is paid for with a 20% tax split
           | between employers and employees: https://www.npr.org/template
           | s/story/story.php?storyId=924192.... America could easily pay
           | for socialized medicine with such a tax. That's not how any
           | proponents of socialized medicine in America have proposed to
           | pay for their proposal.
           | 
           | Ironically, that's just a different form of American
           | exceptionalism. "We can have high minimum wages and
           | socialized medicine like Europe without having higher
           | unemployment and higher middle class taxes like Europe."
        
         | anonAndOn wrote:
         | Nuking, how? Where do you think you are going to get your cheap
         | bananas? Your bananas are going to go up from $0.29/lb to
         | $0.39/lb and the grocery clerk is going to have a little more
         | rent money.
        
           | cobookman wrote:
           | You assume the store wouldn't replace the grocery clerk with
           | self-checkout machines or install an amazon go like-system.
           | 
           | Robots & specialized technology solutions are year-over-year
           | going down in cost. If labor continues the upwards cost
           | trajectory we'd simply be accelerating the replacement of
           | unskilled labor with robots.
           | 
           | Great example is Knightscope. It's able to meet security
           | guard compliance & insurance needs at an hourly rate cheaper
           | than humans. And given enough time, I'm sure it'll end up
           | more reliable. https://www.knightscope.com/
        
             | anonAndOn wrote:
             | The incremental cost of labor is not going to slow the
             | arrival of a robotic Aldi. Fortunately, I have other
             | grocery stores in the area and can spend my money at the
             | one with the best quality AND service.
        
               | csharptwdec19 wrote:
               | > The incremental cost of labor is not going to slow the
               | arrival of a robotic Aldi.
               | 
               | No but it could speed it up. I'm certain plenty of big
               | enough retail operation has a spreadsheet somewhere
               | tracking the ROI on potential automation endeavors.
               | 
               | > Fortunately, I have other grocery stores in the area
               | and can spend my money at the one with the best quality
               | AND service.
               | 
               | Agreed, but are you in the majority with that? There's
               | people who don't care about the long term impacts of,
               | say, buying from an online retailer versus a local bike
               | shop, but there's also a decent portion who's incomes
               | mean it's either take the choice that's a little
               | destructive to society, or not have any even-close-to-
               | nice things for yourself.
        
               | anonAndOn wrote:
               | If you want to know what a race to the bottom looks like
               | in the US grocery biz, just ask Tesco.[0] At the end,
               | they were practically giving food away with ridiculous
               | coupons and it still wasn't enough to keep people coming
               | to their "fresh & sleazy" stores.
               | 
               | [0]https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-did-tesco-fail-in-
               | the-us/
        
             | frockington1 wrote:
             | The automation in ordering at fast food places was visible
             | immediately after several cities uped the minimum wage.
             | Hurt the workers but my orders accuracy has gone up
             | compared to the previous human system
        
             | noahtallen wrote:
             | Indeed, this is a great argument for UBI, since it will not
             | be possible to maintain a job supply which can provide
             | everyone with a life. :)
        
               | klmadfejno wrote:
               | That's a pretty terrible reason for UBI imo. If UBI is
               | built to offset the lack of jobs, more people will choose
               | not to work. If people choose not to work, the price of
               | labor will go up. If the price of labor goes up, more and
               | more labor will be outsourced to countries without UBI.
               | It will create an underclass of non-citizens who don't
               | get the luxury of UBI but live in an economy built for
               | people who do.
        
               | calvano915 wrote:
               | People just choosing not to work in a thread about about
               | ever-increasing numbers of workers with multiple jobs.
               | Really??
        
         | stu2b50 wrote:
         | They would raise prices? Which would disproportionately affect
         | me, who makes a good bit more than minimum wage, since I still
         | buy from those vendors but my wage is not increasing.
         | 
         | While lower income workers would have the prices raise on them,
         | but less than by the amount that their page is rising (because
         | the cost is also spread on people who won't have their wages
         | increased).
         | 
         | Which is fine by me. It can present a problem to positions
         | like, say, academic adjunct, since those are budgetary and
         | can't simply increase prices. But for the most part I don't see
         | anything apocalyptic about a minimum wage increase.
        
         | rland wrote:
         | Raising minimum wage leads to efficiency gains, because
         | companies automate their processes to remove labor from the
         | equation.
         | 
         | We can take care of those people who cannot sell their labor at
         | above minimum wage. It's _not_ a law of the universe that they
         | need to be exiled to starvation or eviction. (American
         | corporations would _love_ to have you think so!) Of course,
         | this means that if you own a big company like McDonalds and put
         | all your workers out of a job by automating, you need to do
         | your part to take care of them.
         | 
         | When jobs are automated, overall revenue doesn't go down. It
         | often goes up. It's a misallocation that the increased revenue
         | doesn't go to displaced workers in the form of welfare.
         | 
         | Groceries are already adapting: they employ fewer people than
         | they did prior, especially in high-cost areas. They _already_
         | are removing cheap labor: self checkout. The increase in
         | productivity goes to the worker who still remains, in the form
         | of a higher wage.
        
           | sand_castles wrote:
           | Raising the minimum wage in a vacuum is not doing to do much.
           | 
           | The problem with the US is monopoly corporations, monopoly
           | landlords, monopoly banks, monopoly educational institutions
           | and monopoly governance, while the individual and the family
           | unit is left to fend for themselves.
           | 
           | Automating jobs does not always work out.
           | 
           | Self-checkout counters are a nightmare if you are blind or
           | cannot read the local language.
           | 
           | A society that would value the wellbeing of the blind and
           | weak would not try to automate everything.
        
         | petermcneeley wrote:
         | https://www.workforce.com/news/labor-and-benefits-expenses-i...
         | If you doubled the employee wages the prices would increase
         | less than 10%.
         | 
         | If minimum wage went up these businesses would not disappear;
         | prices would just simply increase.
         | 
         | Most modest increases in minimum wage would simply result in
         | income transfers from higher to lower.
        
         | cambalache wrote:
         | I suggest to decrease the minimum wage to 1 USD/h like in
         | Mexico. Other option is that the bosses may give the employees
         | a tract of land in rent as payment, they can keep a small
         | portion of their production for themselves.
        
           | chickenpotpie wrote:
           | What's the point of doing that? That's $2000 a year at full
           | time. No American can even come close to living on that and
           | frankly I would rather be unemployed
        
             | cambalache wrote:
             | Sarcasm
        
           | flyinglizard wrote:
           | Some Nordic countries, which usually come up at some point
           | when discussing employment dynamics, do not have a minimum
           | wage and yet no one earns only $1/h.
        
             | chickenpotpie wrote:
             | Correlation not causation. They don't have minimum wage
             | because they don't need minimum wage. This is like saying
             | that antibiotics give you an infection because only people
             | with an infection have antibiotics.
        
             | radus wrote:
             | Those same countries have very expansive social safety nets
             | that are non-existent in the US.
        
               | rayiner wrote:
               | You mean like universal healthcare for low income people
               | (Medicaid)? Or retirement security for low income people
               | (Social security)? What exactly are you referring to?
        
               | chickenpotpie wrote:
               | If you have to put a qualifier in front of "universal
               | healthcare" it's not universal healthcare
        
               | cambalache wrote:
               | Free college education
               | 
               | 4-6 weeks of mandated paid vacation
               | 
               | Substantial paid parental leave
               | 
               | Option to opt in for half-time working and the companies
               | are mandated to comply
               | 
               | Universal healthcare not related to your job situation
               | nor to the whims of the coverage of your health policy
               | 
               | Option to join an union with no repercussion
               | 
               | Any other question?
        
               | bhupy wrote:
               | Nobody doubts that Nordic countries have generous social
               | safety nets, but I think rayiner is scoffing at the
               | notion that the US's social safety net is "non-existent",
               | which is laughable.
               | 
               | The US spends close to 80% of its Federal budget on
               | social programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social
               | Security, EITC, SNAP/EBT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
               | nited_States_federal_budget#/...
               | 
               | And that's not even including State-level welfare. Each
               | State has its own unemployment insurance, welfare
               | programs, and subsidized state university. In Georgia
               | (where my alma mater is), university is essentially free
               | if you can maintain a GPA > 3.5.
               | 
               | On top of all that, the government is currently debating
               | another big round of welfare and stimulus. A _Republican_
               | has proposed a massive overhaul of welfare to provide up
               | to $15,000 a year in cash for parents:
               | https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22264520/mitt-romney-
               | chec...
        
               | dualthro wrote:
               | > In Georgia (where my alma mater is), university is
               | essentially free if you can maintain a GPA > 3.5.
               | 
               | Why do I always see that the GA Tech OMSCS is ~$10,000?
               | This is a serious question. If it's essentially free with
               | a good GPA I might actually enroll.
        
             | cambalache wrote:
             | No, they earn substantially more than in America, which is
             | exactly the opposite of what OP is proposing.
        
               | bhupy wrote:
               | No, they do not. Norway is the only Nordic country that
               | has a higher median adult income, and it's not by a whole
               | lot.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_pe
               | r_c...
               | 
               | These numbers are _after_ taxes and transfers, so they
               | encode all of the welfare programs in the respective
               | countries.
        
       | mdip wrote:
       | The devil's in the details. Last week, my wife started doing
       | DoorDash. She's loving it. I accompanied her on one of the trips
       | and _I_ enjoyed it. I thought, ya know, I like people, I enjoyed
       | this a whole lot more than some of the other things I do for
       | entertainment, I 'd do this with free time occasionally. Boom,
       | second job.
       | 
       | But then, I look back on my history as a developer. I've
       | occasionally taken on some work. I sell things on
       | e-bay/craigslist. I've always sort-of had a second income source,
       | mainly to pay for things I would just go without -- phone
       | upgrades, an extra vacation, etc.
       | 
       | I don't _need_ it ... well, depending on how you look at the
       | numbers, maybe I do, but is it all that strange?
       | 
       | I'm a bad example, though. My wife has told practically everyone
       | she knows and many of her friends/family have decided to start
       | doing it. None _wanted_ a second job, though some surely needed
       | it. None could take on a second _scheduled_ or _full time_ job
       | but all had a few hours a week, a need for some extra cash, and
       | found doing  "gig work" to be a great fit. Many of them are
       | simply making idle time more productive for themselves and they'd
       | have _never_ gotten a second job if it these specific types of
       | "second jobs" (frequently first[0]) didn't exist.
       | 
       | [0] And I don't mean that as a "tragedy", either. Though there
       | are stories of people barely scraping by, there are areas where
       | the pay is far higher than other unskilled jobs (and many skilled
       | in my area).
        
         | calvano915 wrote:
         | I'm curious of you and your wife's age. Seems as if those in
         | late 40s to 60s have no hobbies except for working, and
         | therefore are continually working jobs next to me throughout my
         | 20s and 30s. Many in that older age bracket have benefits and
         | retirement through other means, therefore not caring about lack
         | of benefits from work and possibly being part of the no votes
         | when my coworkers vote to unionize, not to mention occupying
         | spot from a younger person who instead is a few rungs behind.
         | 
         | This is not meant to be personal or attacking, but I'm curious
         | how much of this applies or not to you and your wife.
         | 
         | This is meant to demonstrate my general frustration with
         | younger folks having many barriers to stability or opportunity
         | by being crowded out politically and in the workforce by those
         | who've had years more in better economic situations and just
         | can't seem to develop a life that isn't revolving around
         | consumerism and lacking in signifcant social/familial time
         | investment.
        
           | PragmaticPulp wrote:
           | I'm not in the age bracket you mention, but I have noticed
           | that as I get older I simply enjoy accomplishing things
           | alongside others.
           | 
           | In my early 20s I worked hard, but I also couldn't wait to
           | get out of the office and hang out with my friends. As I get
           | older, I still hang out with my friends when I can, but I
           | also really enjoy interacting with work peers and getting
           | things done at work.
           | 
           | Even in my off time, I find myself preferring to do projects
           | around the house or yard rather than watch yet another show
           | on Netflix or waste more time scrolling social media.
           | 
           | > This is meant to demonstrate my general frustration with
           | younger folks having many barriers to stability or
           | opportunity by being crowded out politically and in the
           | workforce by those who've had years more in better economic
           | situations It's interesting to see this in contrast to
           | complaints on HN that older developers are crowded out of the
           | workforce by companies that prefer to hire younger
           | developers. Perhaps it's more likely that breaking into good
           | jobs is just hard in general, and it's easier to blame your
           | older or younger peers.
           | 
           | > and just can't seem to develop a life that isn't revolving
           | around consumerism and lacking in signifcant social/familial
           | time investment.
           | 
           | Someone in their 50s or 60s is likely more interested in
           | securing their retirement than simple consumerism. That's
           | about the age it becomes obvious that you physically can't
           | work forever, and you need a decent chunk of money in the
           | bank if you want to do fun things in retirement.
           | 
           | As for social/family time investment: Someone in their late
           | 40s through 60s might have raised kids to adulthood, who are
           | now off doing their own thing. It can be a shock to go from
           | constant family time at home to having nothing to do. Not
           | uncommon for them to return to work to fill the void with
           | some activity, a way to continue getting things done, and to
           | simply socialize with coworkers.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | I've never had what I'd consider a "second job." But I've had
         | side streams of (a bit of) income whether one-offs or something
         | more long-term. It's always something I've done mostly because
         | I found it interesting and I haven't needed the extra money but
         | I've never exactly minded it either.
        
         | andrekandre wrote:
         | > making idle time more productive for themselves
         | 
         | this may be me projecting my own sensibilities (and sorry if i
         | am misinterpreting) but.... why cant people just hang out, take
         | some time off and relax with friends?
         | 
         | why does everything have to be about "productivity" ?
        
           | adkadskhj wrote:
           | For me everything i do is about productivity, but that's
           | because i have more things i'm interested in than i have time
           | or energy.
           | 
           | My play time is 100% about maximizing my enjoyment and
           | regeneration, to get me back to doing the things i really
           | enjoy doing. Even my casual, lounge time is a calculated
           | effort at that.
           | 
           | Now hopefully i have a healthy balance. I don't work myself
           | too hard because i don't want to burn out. I'm also less
           | productive if i'm burning out.
           | 
           | But yea. I just enjoy building things. It's who i am. If i
           | had one wish it would be to not need sleep. With those extra
           | hours i'd learn to woodwork or something physical, but still
           | build - create.
           | 
           | My only regret is that my ability to build (software) is
           | limited per day, and i give a significant portion of that to
           | the necessities of life. Aka work. It's not making me rich,
           | nor is it things i truly want to solve. But hey, i still
           | enjoy it - and for that i am truly fortunate.
           | 
           | After seeing what my wife went through working retail; I
           | can't imagine having to work retail. It was awful.
        
           | missedthecue wrote:
           | It's the only way to increase the net standard of living, and
           | richer, healthier, more comfortable conditions is generally a
           | common human interest.
           | 
           | We could have stopped increasing our productivity in 1820,
           | but I doubt most people today would like living at an 1820s
           | standard, and in 200 years time, I think people will be glad
           | they aren't living at a 2020's standard.
        
           | syntaxing wrote:
           | I totally agree with this. The point of being productive is
           | to integrate and contribute to society, not dedicate your
           | life to society. It shouldn't be about squeezing every last
           | ounce out of an employee but somehow, that's what the
           | American dream has become.
        
           | PragmaticPulp wrote:
           | Nothing wrong with that.
           | 
           | However, after spending almost a year hanging out at home and
           | relaxing, it's actually kind of nice to get out and _do_
           | something.
           | 
           | And of course, to each their own. Some people just enjoy
           | accomplishing things and don't like sitting still. Others
           | prefer to spend their idle time relaxing as much as possible.
           | Neither is inherently wrong, and there's no reason to shame
           | either group.
        
       | dcolkitt wrote:
       | US wages have reached an all-time high, powered by strong growth
       | during the Covid recession[1]. With higher compensation it makes
       | sense that more people would trade off leisure to work additional
       | hours at attractive pay. Including getting a second job.
       | 
       | [1]https://www.bls.gov/news.release/eci.nr0.htm
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > US wages have reached an all-time high, powered by strong
         | growth during the Covid recession
         | 
         | Translation: employment losses were strong at the bottom and
         | light at the top, leaving the average wages of the remaining
         | employed workers much higher.
         | 
         | > With higher compensation it makes sense that more people
         | would trade off leisure to work additional hours at attractive
         | pay. Including getting a second job.
         | 
         | I would be very surprised if the distribution of who is getting
         | second jobs is consistent with that "a sinking tide lifts all
         | boats" fairy tale rather than it being concentrated in the same
         | segments where unemployment has gone up the most and
         | representing instead people who would otherwise be
         | underemployed due to limited hours available in the primary job
         | backfilling with a second, possibly lower-paying-per-hour job.
        
           | dcolkitt wrote:
           | Although labor market recomposition plays a role. There's a
           | major shortage of semi-skilled blue collar labor, leading to
           | some of the strongest wage increases of any sectors in 2020.
           | This includes construction[1], manufacturing[2], and
           | logistics[3]. These workforces tend to skew older, and hence
           | were more affected by workers dropping out due to Covid
           | fears.
           | 
           | Unlike traditional white collar professions, these are
           | industries where workers are likely to take a second job.
           | Particularly during boom periods when pay is attractive. It's
           | very likely that at least some of the increase in second jobs
           | is driven by rising secular wages in semi-skilled blue collar
           | jobs.
           | 
           | [1]https://www.tradesmeninternational.com/news-events/the-
           | const... [2]https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/11/ma
           | nufacturing... [3]https://www.joc.com/port-news/us-
           | ports/warehouse-worker-scar...
        
         | alacombe wrote:
         | Given the sheer unemployment numbers and the amount of forced
         | closures, this doesn't make _any_ sense...
        
       | judgemcjudgy wrote:
       | Isn't that statistic misleading without mentioning working hours?
       | Maybe some of those "multiple jobs" are just one day a week.
       | Perhaps a stay at home mother earns some extra money on Tuesday
       | by taking her neighbors dogs for a walk, and on Thursdays by
       | cleaning at a shop.
       | 
       | This "multiple jobs" headline suggests people are working more
       | than one shift every day, which may be completely misleading.
       | Maybe some people actually do that, but if they had hard data on
       | that, I think they would have explicitly mentioned it, instead of
       | their suggestive writing.
        
       | l72 wrote:
       | Having multiple family members and friends that work in retail or
       | the food industry, this is very common among them. From what I
       | can tell, this happens for two major reasons:
       | 
       | 1. The pay is too low, so a second job is required. If you are
       | making $12/hour (which is pretty good for retail), that is only
       | $25k/year at full time, which is not enough to support yourself
       | and certainly not a family. Raising the minimum wage, providing
       | health insurance, and paid time off could definitely help here.
       | 
       | 2. So many companies refuse to have employees work full time. It
       | seems like it is impossible to get a job at any big box retail or
       | food company that will actually work you 40 hours per week. I
       | assume this has to due with not wanting to pay out benefits for
       | full time work. It seems like most of my family members and
       | friends hover just under 30 hours per week. Even if they were
       | making $15-18/hour, at less than 30 hours per week plus no
       | benefits, this doesn't cut it. So they end up with a second job
       | where they are also part time. And balancing two part time jobs,
       | both with schedules that constantly change, is incredibly
       | difficult and stressful.
        
         | missedthecue wrote:
         | I would rather work 40 hours without benefits than 29 hours
         | without benefits and then trying to fit in an extra 11-20 at
         | another place every week(also without benefits).
         | 
         | What a short sighted rule enacted by the government. I don't
         | see how they didn't recognize what would invariably result.
        
           | l72 wrote:
           | I think most people would agree. The federal government had
           | good intentions, but of course, large businesses found a way
           | around it, which just screwed over the employees even more.
           | 
           | But even 40 hours at $12/hour with no benefits is not
           | something you can survive on in the long term. It's not like
           | there are very many advancements or raises either. You might
           | be surprised to learn, that the manager at many of these
           | retail stores only earn about $2 more than their floor
           | employees. So that's where you cap out, unless you some how
           | have connections and get into regional or corporate hq.
           | 
           | I am not sure what the government can do. It seems like any
           | rules they make, business will find loopholes. In my opinion,
           | retail workers and food industry workers need a union. That
           | is the only way they are ever going to get full time work,
           | benefits, and better pay.
        
             | Gustomaximus wrote:
             | > I am not sure what the government can do
             | 
             | Obviously a bunch of detail but broadly it doesn't seem
             | that hard if govt bases off solutions that work in other
             | countries. For example these 3 things could make a huge
             | change for the positive;
             | 
             | 1) Universal or similar health care like rest of Western
             | world so this is not tied to a job.
             | 
             | 2) Better minimum wage
             | 
             | 3) Casual minimum wage loading at X% premium vs full time
             | minimum wage so there is a business cost to flexible
             | scheduling.
             | 
             | I think gig economy is the harder one to deal with going
             | forward. You need some freedom for people to sideline in
             | markets but not have companies abuse this. Maybe something
             | is needed like if X amount of people do more than X hours
             | in a month companies response are responsible to ensure
             | their minimum wage. So a small gig environment can operate,
             | but if.you have thousands of people doing 15+ hours a month
             | the company needs to step up... there'd be lots of cracks
             | in that though.
        
       | matz1 wrote:
       | With the rise of remote working its becoming easier for tech
       | worker to collect multiple full time salaries too.
        
         | tudelo wrote:
         | I hear a lot of people saying they want to do this or that they
         | could do this but... I would love to hear more stories about
         | how it works in practice. Like, isn't there some level of legal
         | liability, whether justified or not, that you would be opening
         | yourself up to by doing this? Especially if the companies are
         | in any way related, which could probably be hard to quantify.
        
           | matz1 wrote:
           | I know at least 1 friend doing this. Of course you don't tell
           | the company know you are doing this. It require good time
           | management for sure. The risk are low.
        
           | mnouquet wrote:
           | > isn't there some level of legal liability
           | 
           | I technically have 3 jobs, two unrelated "full-time" SE
           | roles, and 1 mom&pop store where I handle all but day-to-day
           | operations (handled by the gf).
           | 
           | To be cold bloody honest, unless you are SE for a serie-A
           | start-up a 40h weeks is probably 20h work, 20h bs. If you
           | were SE for a serie-A start-up, a 40h week would probably be
           | 80h-paid-20h anyway.
        
             | rjbwork wrote:
             | >I technically have 3 jobs, two unrelated "full-time" SE
             | roles,
             | 
             | You mean to say that you are collecting two paychecks under
             | the pretense of each company thinking you are working full
             | time?
        
           | PragmaticPulp wrote:
           | I worked at a company where a remote worker tried this. It
           | only lasted a few months because the decline in his
           | performance was more obvious than he thought. He also
           | suddenly become more difficult to schedule meetings around
           | because he was pulled between two companies.
           | 
           | Corporate counsel said it wouldn't be worth pursuing anything
           | against him. He won't get any positive references from
           | anyone, because he tried to make the two-job situation work
           | by shifting more work to his teammates and doing the bare
           | minimum to not get fired.
           | 
           | The real risk is that the companies find out about each other
           | and you lose both jobs. This is a real possibility if your
           | new employer does a background check and calls the old
           | employer to confirm start and end dates, which I suspect will
           | become standard practice in any remote company going forward.
           | 
           | The only way the two-jobs scenario works out for anyone is if
           | you can find two companies where both managers aren't good at
           | managing performance. Either that, or if you're a superhuman
           | developer who can actually put in the equivalent of two
           | 40-hour workweeks with the same energy for both companies, in
           | which case you're better off getting a single 40-hour FAANG
           | job that pays as much as two normal jobs anyway.
        
         | dominotw wrote:
         | Weird to downvote this. I know atleast 2 ppl in my group who
         | have 2 tech jobs.
        
         | mnouquet wrote:
         | Strongly agree !
        
       | trts wrote:
       | When I was in college and early 20s, I usually had 2-4 different
       | jobs at any given time.
       | 
       | There's a demographic component to this that seems missing, given
       | that we have two big baby booms behind Gen Xers (millennials who
       | I guess are old now) and Gen Z.
       | 
       | Is the share of workers 20-30 today higher than the share among
       | 20-30 year olds in 1996?
        
       | john_moscow wrote:
       | Companies offer part-time jobs instead of full-time ones because
       | then they don't need to offer benefits that are required for a
       | full-time job. In other words, the current rules of the game are
       | directly incentivizing this behavior.
       | 
       | The incentive can be very easily removed by legislating that a
       | part-time job would need to offer a fraction of the benefits
       | proportional to the amount of hours the employee works per week.
       | 
       | Ideally, there should be some sort of a credit transfer
       | mechanism, where an employee working multiple part-time jobs that
       | combine to 40+ hours a week could get benefits equivalent to a
       | full-time job at one of the workplaces, proportionally covered by
       | all employers.
       | 
       | Another option would be to crack down on monopolies and large
       | chains. If you employ 10000 corporate drones, who are expected to
       | follow the same corporate instructions day-to-day and can be
       | swapped out by a fresh hire without any loss of productivity,
       | they by definition don't have any economic leverage. On the other
       | hand, if the same market niche is occupied by 1000 independent
       | 10-employee companies, the overall efficiency is lower, but the
       | leverage of each employee (and the salary they can negotiate
       | through supply/demand) is higher. Because in a smaller company
       | you are someone the owner trusts to delegate part of their
       | business, and not just a line on the spreadsheet.
        
         | AshWolfy wrote:
         | or if those 10000 workers were in a union we could maintain
         | productivity while putting workers on a more even playing field
         | in negotiations
        
         | grecy wrote:
         | > _Ideally, there should be some sort of a credit transfer
         | mechanism, where an employee working multiple part-time jobs
         | that combine to 40+ hours a week could get benefits equivalent
         | to a full-time job at one of the workplaces, proportionally
         | covered by all employers._
         | 
         | There's actually a much simpler solution - divorce basic human
         | rights (healthcare) from the employer.
        
           | FlownScepter wrote:
           | And preferably from insurance companies too.
        
         | foolmeonce wrote:
         | Why not just get rid of the connection between employer and
         | benefits? Employer pays cash, tax system allow people to manage
         | roth/health/etc accounts based on caps and percentages of
         | earned income.
         | 
         | If the free market was supposed to handle the distortion of
         | employer benefit programs, then every employee would need to
         | monitor their employer's yearly benefit negotiations such that
         | 10-20% of them would be giving notice on the basis of any
         | negative benefit change. That isn't happening.
        
           | wizzwizz4 wrote:
           | Ah, but that would be socialism. Sure, many other countries
           | are doing it, and it's working quite well, but it's
           | socialism, and we all know that socialism is bad, so this
           | must be bad.
        
             | creddit wrote:
             | Not only is the snark in your reply annoying and take away
             | any point you wanted to make, but also it's not socialism
             | so it's an even worse take.
        
             | john_moscow wrote:
             | Socialism creates another bunch of perverse incentives. If
             | you let a central system manage everyone's funds without
             | competing against dozens of other parallel systems, the
             | management's incentive would be to appropriate as much of
             | the funds as possible as management expenses, as long as
             | they won't be called out and fired/jailed.
             | 
             | In the current climate, they would create numerous equity
             | and social justice committees, making sure that everyone
             | gets a personalized pat on the back and 10% of the
             | population will get a small bonus, while 50% of the funds
             | will be spent on the friends of the management sitting in
             | the committees. Anyone trying to call out the corruption
             | will be immediately called racist/sexist by the media, and
             | the economic state of an Average Joe will continue
             | declining at even faster pace.
        
               | AlexandrB wrote:
               | > If you let a central system manage everyone's funds
               | without competing against dozens of other parallel
               | systems, the management's incentive would be to
               | appropriate as much of the funds as possible as
               | management expenses.
               | 
               | How is this different than the current US situation
               | across _multiple industries_ , especially in the medical
               | field? Except that in the case of socialism you can
               | actually vote the leadership out while under the current
               | oligarchy your only recourse is to complain on Twitter.
        
               | spamizbad wrote:
               | That's completely unfair: In addition to Twitter US
               | capitalism also gives you the option of GoFundMe. You can
               | utilize both at the same time too!
        
               | john_moscow wrote:
               | >How is this different than the current US situation
               | across multiple industries, especially in the medical
               | field?
               | 
               | The current mess with the medical field happens because
               | the hospitals can charge you whatever they think you can
               | afford to pay. You can't compare quotes, pick a
               | reasonable bidder and pay what you were quoted for. Sure,
               | each case is unique and sometimes there are unforeseen
               | circumstances, but currently the majority of out-of-the-
               | network medical billing is just outright extortion. And,
               | of course, it's done in the name of a great cause. "We
               | are doing it out of necessity to pay for those poor folks
               | that cannot afford healthcare". Except, most of this
               | money is landing in the pockets of administrators [0].
               | 
               | >Except that in the case of socialism you can actually
               | vote the leadership out while under the current oligarchy
               | your only recourse is to complain on Twitter.
               | 
               | In the current situation you could vote for someone that
               | would offer to bring more transparency and competition to
               | medical billing. Except, you won't get a chance because
               | people benefiting from the current system and people
               | owning mainstream media play golf together and intend
               | doing it for years to come.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.athenahealth.com/knowledge-hub/practice-
               | manageme...
        
               | nobody9999 wrote:
               | >In the current climate, they would create numerous
               | equity and social justice committees, making sure that
               | everyone gets a personalized pat on the back and 10% of
               | the population will get a small bonus, while 50% of the
               | funds will be spent on the friends of the management
               | sitting in the committees.
               | 
               | Huh? We currently have a "single payer" health insurance
               | system in the United States. It's called Medicare[0].
               | 
               | And the administrative costs of that system are ~17 times
               | less (~2% for Medicare and ~34% for private insurers[2])
               | than that of the administrative costs of private
               | insurers[1].
               | 
               | As such, I'm not really sure how you're assessing this.
               | I'd add that administrative expenses for other national
               | healthcare systems are also much lower (Canada ~17%[2])
               | than private insurers.
               | 
               | Please provide examples and data for your assertions. I'd
               | certainly like to see such data and information, as it
               | doesn't comport with the data and analyses I've seen.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/your-
               | medicare-...
               | 
               | [1] https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/sep/20/ber
               | nie-s/c...
               | 
               | [2] https://www.healio.com/news/primary-
               | care/20200106/a-third-of...
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | onetimeusename wrote:
           | I would like this. It would simplify how I manage my own
           | finances. For example, my 401(K), healthcare, dental, and
           | insurance plans are all tied into poorly made apps I have to
           | manage through an employee dashboard.
           | 
           | On the other hand, my personal finances are pretty easily
           | managed through much better apps and services I selected
           | myself.
           | 
           | If I just received cash compensation, I could manage my own
           | finances much more easily.
        
             | nickff wrote:
             | Companies often select benefits providers based on ease-of
             | use for the corporate customer rather than the end user.
             | Shifting the purchasing decision to the end user will
             | change incentives for the benefits providers.
        
               | munk-a wrote:
               | Unfortunately moving that bargaining to the individual
               | level would also result in a lack of negotiating power.
               | What with forced arbitration and restrictions on class
               | action suits being a thing the legal system can't
               | properly serve a large number of individual bargainers
               | that all individually suffered small damages in a just
               | manner.
               | 
               | Collective bargaining comes with a lot of benefits -
               | doing it at the employer level is just extremely
               | unfortunate for jobless persons.
        
               | nickff wrote:
               | Collective bargaining is most useful when the 'little
               | guy' has few options, or the switching costs are very
               | high. Consumers seem to do well when purchasing other
               | types of insurance, and I think they'd do well to get rid
               | of the principal agent problem (if they can keep the tax
               | benefits).
               | 
               | I think the biggest problems with employer-provided
               | benefits come at the 'employment transients' (i.e. the
               | time just after leaving jobs and while getting new ones).
        
           | OldHand2018 wrote:
           | There's been only garbage replies to your question, which is
           | really unfortunate. In reality, we aren't that far away from
           | being able to do this.
           | 
           | If you are a 1099/gig worker and file your taxes with a
           | schedule C, you're almost certainly eligible for a SEP-IRA
           | (1). This is way better than a 401k; you can contribute up to
           | 25% of your income (max $57k per year) pretax with all the
           | same investment options as any other retirement plan. Sure,
           | it could be made easier to setup, but it's been around
           | forever and works. What we need to do is say that if you have
           | an employer who does not provide a [baseline] retirement
           | plan, you are eligible for the SEP-IRA on all income from
           | that employer.
           | 
           | The Covid-19 relief legislation established unemployment
           | assistance for 1099/gig workers with federal backing and
           | administered by the states. This should be kept around,
           | improved, and made sustainable (add a line to the Schedule SE
           | for paying the same kind of unemployment taxes that
           | businesses pay on behalf of employees).
           | 
           | Obamacare allowed for association-based health plans and the
           | Trump administration approved one of them. I don't recall the
           | details or the current status, but that's a start in the
           | right direction. Employers pay a lot of money for health
           | plans and their size allows them to negotiate better deals.
           | We need that leverage outside of employers and plenty of
           | other improvements, but at least we have the basics.
           | 
           | This is achievable!
           | 
           | (1) https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-
           | faqs-r...
        
             | jschwartzi wrote:
             | The other component is decoupling health care and dental
             | insurance from employment. Because that's a far bigger
             | problem than retirement. A lot of people lost their jobs
             | last year and suddenly had to pay full price on their
             | insurance to keep going to their doctor.
             | 
             | The whole insurance system in the US is best described as a
             | real-life re-enactment of The Trial by Franz Kafka.
        
               | ghaff wrote:
               | Dental insurance isn't really insurance. It's a benefit
               | that exists mostly because it's tax advantaged. [1]
               | Health insurance is, of course, really insurance. With
               | Obamacare the biggest issue is probably that it's really
               | expensive to pay for a good insurance plan (or even a not
               | so good insurance plan) on your own. Though, honestly,
               | not so cheap even with employer participation.
               | 
               | [1] By not really insurance, I mean that most people with
               | it (especially older people) may consider it a nice perk
               | but it doesn't really protect them from out-of-pockets
               | they can't afford.
        
             | dillondoyle wrote:
             | What is the average yearly take home of people working
             | multiple part-time jobs though?
             | 
             | Most people live bill to bill, probably more-so those less
             | advantaged.
             | 
             | How many would really be able and or willing to save like
             | that?
             | 
             | Isn't the more simple answer getting rid of this crazy
             | system and profit incentives by nationalizing healthcare?
        
               | OldHand2018 wrote:
               | There is nothing simple. You just have to accept this.
               | It's really appealing to create the perfect system, but
               | it is just not going to happen. I'm sorry. It's not going
               | to happen.
        
             | pmiller2 wrote:
             | Even just eliminating the whole 401(k) shit show by
             | converting them to IRAs and raising the contribution limits
             | for IRAs to ~$25k (roughly the sum total of what a W2
             | employee can contribute to an IRA + 401(k) combined) would
             | solve the retirement account problem fairly efficiently.
             | I'd be willing to bet that could be accomplished with
             | approximately a page or two of legislation.
             | 
             | Edit: The problem is "lack of political will," _i.e._. lack
             | of people or corporations willing to hire lobbyists to make
             | it happen.
             | 
             | Edit 2: While we're at it, why not just let everybody make
             | Roth contributions, at least up to the amount one could
             | contribute to an IRA? Let's just get rid of the whole
             | "backdoor Roth" shenanigans and let people contribute
             | directly.
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | This right here. Benefits shouldn't be tied to employer. Pay
           | me more and let me control my money.
        
             | munk-a wrote:
             | If folks are losing their jobs (assuming they don't have a
             | nest egg which the majority of Americans do not have) how
             | will they be better off being personally unable to pay for
             | health care instead of losing access to their employer
             | provided insurance to pay for healthcare?
             | 
             | Also - a lot of these benefits are things we'd generally
             | consider "necessary" - if that's the case why would we open
             | the door wider to allowing folks to continue being paid
             | 7.25/hr and now not even have a chance at ever seeing a
             | doctor?
             | 
             |  _Or_ , if that money is personally controlled is it going
             | to be secured against debt repayment? Will individuals have
             | a guaranteed right to pay for medical care before any
             | paycheck garnishing?
        
               | nightski wrote:
               | I don't mean to speak for the parent but I'm pretty sure
               | it's implied in this scenario that you'd move to
               | universal health care.
        
               | munk-a wrote:
               | I don't think so - the implication I read from "Pay me
               | more and let me control my money." was an entirely
               | private individual insurance market. If I misread the
               | comment my apologies.
        
         | bumby wrote:
         | > _legislating that a part-time job would need to offer a
         | fraction of the benefits proportional_
         | 
         | I mean, I think you're spot on with the incentives but but I
         | worry that your proposed solution would just take what is
         | already a complicated system related to benefits like
         | healthcare and just turn it into a bigger rats nest. It's hard
         | enough for people to navigate providers for in-network
         | services, then haggle with insurance companies etc. I can't
         | imagine if this was fractured along different more complicated
         | means.
         | 
         | I know it may be a pipe dream in the US but it seems like a
         | better solution would be to divorce benefits from employers
         | entirely through a single payer system
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | threwaway4392 wrote:
         | What benefits are we talking here? I presume mostly healthcare,
         | though I may me missing something. What you suggest is overly
         | complex compared to untying health care from work. In many
         | countries healthcare is not tied to work.
        
           | 908B64B197 wrote:
           | ...including the US when you look more closely at Medicare
           | and Medicaid.
           | 
           | At least that holds true for a lot of peoples.
        
           | maxerickson wrote:
           | Making the cost of healthcare visible to everyone that
           | currently thinks their employer is screwing them with $100
           | premiums isn't exactly going to get in the way of a better
           | system.
        
         | pmiller2 wrote:
         | Or, we could just realize that when you say "benefits," what
         | you're mostly talking about is stuff like health insurance,
         | which can be handled more efficiently by moving to a single
         | payer system. I don't have a reference immediately handy, but
         | there was a study done a little before the 2016 elections that
         | pointed out how single payer (essentially Medicare for All)
         | would reduce costs throughout the healthcare system, while
         | still providing an excellent quality of care.
        
           | nobody9999 wrote:
           | > I don't have a reference immediately handy, but there was a
           | study done a little before the 2016 elections
           | 
           | A more recent survey of studies looking at single payer
           | healthcare plans found[0]:
           | 
           | "The evidence abounds: A "Medicare for All" single-payer
           | system would guarantee comprehensive coverage to everyone in
           | America and save money.
           | 
           | Christopher Cai and colleagues at three University of
           | California campuses examined 22 studies on the projected cost
           | impact for single-payer health insurance in the United States
           | and reported their findings in a recent paper in PLOS
           | Medicine. Every single study predicted that it would yield
           | net savings over several years. In fact, it's the only way to
           | rein in health care spending significantly in the U.S.
           | 
           | All of the studies, regardless of ideological orientation,
           | showed that long-term cost savings were likely. Even the
           | Mercatus Center, a right-wing think tank, recently found
           | about $2 trillion in net savings over 10 years from a single-
           | payer Medicare for All system. Most importantly, everyone in
           | America would have high-quality health care coverage."
           | 
           | [0] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371
           | /jo...
        
             | pmiller2 wrote:
             | Thanks for backing me up on this.
        
         | the_only_law wrote:
         | Years ago I worked in retail as a night stocker. When I was
         | hired, I was hired part time. Most other new employees were as
         | well for the reason mentioned in this comment.
         | 
         | Eventually, the company underwent a large merger with two other
         | regional retail chains. After this, they decided to go back to
         | the grandfathered full time employees outside management and
         | gave them an ultimatum: be dropped down to part time or take a
         | small severance package and leave. Well, most decided they
         | would take the severance. I decided since I was finally
         | starting my software career, working some part time contracts,
         | that I would take the opportunity to demand and wage, reduced
         | hours, and control of my schedule. It worked at the time,
         | probably because of their inability to hire and retain
         | employees, albeit the raise was pathetic. Eventually however,
         | they started shifting more and more responsibilities on us and
         | the work was taking much longer because the newest hires we're
         | not very good. I started spending more time there and often
         | wouldn't go home till mid morning. I decided I didn't need it
         | and just quit on the spot. A few months later, the company
         | ended up filing for bankruptcy.
        
         | doanerock wrote:
         | Or actually solve the problem and stop making companies offer
         | health care. This is a stupid system. So many people worry
         | about losing their job in fear of loosing their health care. So
         | many people do not have healthcare because they do not have a
         | job. A job and healthcare should not be connected is any way.
        
       | dotdi wrote:
       | > They also noted that multiple-job holding occurred at all
       | levels of income
       | 
       | Ok, I LOL'd when I read this one. Of course it occurred at all
       | levels of income, how else are some people going to pay for their
       | second private jet if they aren't sitting in multiple boards of
       | directors?
        
       | tboyd47 wrote:
       | > Those juggling more than one occupation earned less, on
       | average, than people who had only one job.
       | 
       | I would like to see a more detailed breakdown on why that is. I
       | thought that perhaps there would be more information in the
       | source paper, but these journalists at Reuters have shared
       | neither the title nor the names of the authors with us.
       | 
       | I haven't found anything similar to what's being reported on
       | either the U.S. Commerce Dept. or the U.S. Census webpages.
       | 
       | Where is the source paper?
        
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