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Labor Day is a delicate subject and I wont get all comprehensive and thorough here but I will point out that I do agree with the following, limited, remarks by Kenyan born Obama in Milwaukee on Labor Day 2014:

“…something that sometimes the American people take for granted:

“the 40 hour work week

“overtime pay

“a minimum wage

“Weekends like this one

All that didn’t happen by accident…”

I too believe that many Americans take the above cited luxuries for granted.  Some even seem to believe that the above cited specific luxuries are somehow inherent facets of capitalism.

Over a period time luxuries such as minimum wage became a part of the legal framework in our capitalistic state (US).  However, just because you are a capitalist state doesn’t imply that you have a minimum wage law(s).

Having said that I also want to point out that business owners, or employers, don’t usually provide those luxuries to employees out of compassion for their fellow man, they provide the said luxuries because its law in the United States of America.

It should also be noted that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina do not have minimum wage laws of their own.

Once you leave the United States, western Europe, New Zealand and a few other select places on the globe this is what you will find (and I have personally worked under these conditions) in other capitalist states:

1.  Minimum wage does not exist.

2.  IMPORTANT (read carefully): Minimum wage may exist but is not, not even remotely, by any interpretation or inference, sufficient to sustain life.

You might ask, “If it’s not enough to sustain life then how do these people survive?”

Answer:   They supplement their income by hunting elephants for their tusks (cruel in the minds of the fat and overfed Americans and western Europeans), they cut down their forests, they overfish the river and seas (I’m serious, I like to fish and I know places where you can’t catch anything due to overfishing), they liter (being trendy and saving the earth doesn’t mean much to a person who is hungry, on a tight schedule and living in a place where you can’t even drink the water from the faucet), they use others and lie to family and friends to get ahead, they skim from any source available (e.g., Coca Cola delivery driver skims 3 bottles from each crate and clients consider it normal that each crate is always missing 3 bottles), they lie to their boss or employer, they allow their daughters to marry at age 14, they allow their children to work at ages as young as 6 rather than go to school, they commit crimes, they murder for very small sums of money.

3.  Minimum wage may exist but in practice, regardless of how the law reads, does not exist outside of exceptional places of employment.

4.   IMPORTANT (read carefully):   Minimum wage exists but in the form that Americans are not familiar with.   Many undeveloped or developing countries do have a minimum wage but they are calculated by weeks or months, not hours.   Yes, I know, you call it a salary.  But in the United States when you think salary you think professional job.  Not here, salary is for all jobs, even scrubbing toilets.  Most minimum wages are a monthly minimum, often paid twice a month.   An example may be $200 US Dollars (or much less) per month.

There is no stipulation of how many hours may be lawfully worked per day.

There are no stipulated days off.

An employee may work 10 to 16 hours per day, and 6 or 7 seven days per week and take home $100 US Dollars every two weeks.

5.  Overtime (mandated by law) does not exist.

6.   Overtime (mandated by law) may exist but in practice, regardless of how the law reads, does not exist outside of a exceptional places of employment.

7.   A very large majority of the population does not earn more than the minimum wage.

Now, having noted the foregoing 1 thru 7, please also consider the following:

About a month ago I was having a discussion with some Americans about work in the Dominican Republic.

I told them that some people in the Dominican Republic refuse to work because when they receive their pay check (when they’ve worked in the past) they basically or essentially earned just enough to be reimbursed for what they’d spent for their lunches (or whatever meal fell within work schedule) and the money that they’d spent on public transportation and private transportation.

I stated that they worked 10 hours days and then came home tired and then woke up to it all over again and that it just wasn’t worth it.

A couple of the American women who were listening made faces and rolled their eyes and made comments to the effect that the account that I was giving sounded normal to them and they wake up to it every day in the United States.

Inside I was a little upset but I kept a level-head and, a few minutes later, politely excused myself from the discussion and made myself forget them and I quickly got back to working on my goals and enjoying time with friends and family.

I will, however, share my thoughts with readers here regarding the group of Americans.

This group of Americans were well-fed, they eat very well and apparently everyday and at anytime they desired.

They drove nice cars with air conditioning.  They have memberships at gyms to keep in shape. They have plenty of food in their refrigerators. They have electricity 24 hours a day. The water in their houses (the water faucets) can be used for drinking water.  Their houses are much larger than one-room-like-house divided into a bathroom, kitchen, two bedrooms and a living room.

When they wake up in the morning it isn’t to 90% inside-weather and they don’t have to squirm around between the bed, the kitchen stove, the dresser, make their way to a barrel of water, fill up a bucket, then wiggle over to the bathroom, use an empty “I can’t believe it ain’t freaking butter” container to dump water over their body and brush their teeth, then dress themselves with cloths that were washed by hand, then unlock the padlock on their front door, walk quickly down out down the street where the “non-workers” often woke up early (it’s strange, not an American thing) only to meet and ask (insist) that the “workers” loan them a 50 cents or a dollars (and if you don’t…you may get a lip busted), then you hop into a old minivan with doors torn off and then squish your body between 30 other bodies in a van designed for 9 or 10 bodies.

Then there’s work part: at very least 9 hours a day, and typically 10 or 12 hour a day, no less than 6 days a week, and earn the minimum wage of $200 US dollars per month.

Then they make their way home, and if its dark outside in becomes all the more dangerous.  They make it home and then dump a few more buckets water, and one for the toilet because that’s how it flushes.   They smack several mosquitoes to their deaths and maybe if they have a wife or a husband they make love and then they falls asleep and get a 4 or 5 hour sleep and then wake up and do it again.

The workers age quickly (inward and outward) and many die of old age at around 50-55.

AND THEY DO IT ALL WITH A SMILE AND UPLIFTING MUSICAL SOUNDS!

I don’t think that this particular group of Americans whom I was having a discussion with, last month, could handle more than a week of that above referenced way of life and wouldn’t be surprised if they took their own lives (i.e., suicide) if they were ever subject to an everyday life of the above referenced way of life.

Btw:

Obama also closed with a good joke, and it was true:

“Every gray hair (Obama’s) is worth it…and at least I (Obama) still got some hair”

If you are a bald guy, its pretty hard to call someone else out for their gray hairs.

United States Department of Labor: Minimum Wage Laws in the States January 1st 2014

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