dragonlady7

I remember now what I was going to post about, earlier, in the mobile post. wtf lol I just hit "enter" and this posted. Apologies to anyone who sees this before I finish editing it.

So NYS passed a law a couple of years back, that they're increasing the minimum wage in the state in gradual steps, with an aim toward making it be $15. In recognition that the cost of living is wildly different in different regions of the state, it's stepping up faster in NYC, and is $15 this year. In the region near the city, it'll be $15 the year after next. Up here... well, it's not on the chart, and the law says it'll be scheduled later.
Anyway, it went up two years ago, and I pointed out, a little tersely, that I would be legally mandated to get a raise. I also pointedly took some time off right near the holidays, because my sister was paying cash at that point for making holiday decor, and so she actually was paying more than my day job. I figured it made a point, to tell them I could make more money at my other job.
It did make a point; they gave me almost a dollar raise, and I was satisfied, if a little bitter.
Last year the minimum increased so that all the newbies were making about fifty cents less than me. (I started in 2008.)

I noticed, with grim amusement, that this year, minimum was increasing again, and would overtake my current salary. So I'd either be given a raise again, grudgingly and because they had to, or they'd be violating state law.
Last year, they were caught by surprise-- the bosses live in Pennsylvania, where minimum wage is significantly lower, so they didn't know about the change, and the payroll company doesn't check for them. There was a bit of scrambling when it turned out they were in violation of the law for several employees.

So this year, my supervisor called them to remind them, because nobody else was going to. I was there, and overheard that he didn't get a chance to talk about it much, and didn't hear anything back, but I knew at least he'd pointed it out.

I was out of town on this past Friday, the first payday of the year, so I wasn't able to find out right away whether they were on top of things or not.
Last night I dreamed that I'd come back and gotten my first paycheck of the year... and they were still paying me my old rate, which is now less than minimum, but to make up for it they'd put a gift card and some grocery store coupons into the envelope. It was hilarious, and plausible, and in the dream I was annoyedly like "hey my landlady doesn't take grocery store coupons" and it was only when I remembered that I don't have a landlady now that I semi-woke-up enough to be like, "wait," and like... there's a payroll company that takes care of all of this for them. So. But. It was still funny, and frustrating at the same time.

I got to work and forgot about it until the store manager came up with my check from last Friday.
I opened it, and sure enough, they did give me a raise. More than the minimum legal amount. I'm making forty cents an hour above minimum; they gave me a fifty cent raise.
Which is honestly better than it could have been. But no, I don't do this job for the money.