Question
Please find a recent news story on the Employee Free Choice Act. How might this affect union membership? Is this good or bad for workers and employers? Why?
Classmate
This is a recent news story on the Employee Free Choice Act: Employee Free Choice Act – Employment – LAWS.com. The Employee Free Choice Act might increase union membership since it gives employees the right to form, join, or help with labor organizations’ unions without being discriminated against by employers. Which will punish employers who do discriminate against union workers. It also edits the National Labor Relations Act to only hold one voting ballot for employers to recognize a union, which helps the process of obtaining bargaining agreements from employers. Employers would be unable to hold another ballot once a majority of employees have already signed their names for authorization to be represented by a union. Another side of this Act is it will get rid of privacy for employers and employees who vote for and against a union. Also, it may focus too much on the negative responses from employers than unions who may commit similar acts like threatening, coercion, or intimidation. These may be good for workers more than employers since it is to protect union organizations in which managers and supervisors may not participate.
Chapter 11
Some companies have “open compensation” plans where everyone can find out what anyone else in the comapny is making. What are the advantages to this? Would you want to work for a company with an open compensation plan?
Classmate
I love the idea of having open compensation plans, I do believe that employees should be able to choose whether or not they want to participate or not though. By comparing pay with your fellow co-workers, there is a reduced chance of discrimination. If a company has nothing to hide, it should feel comfortable explaining the reasoning behind pay differences between co-workers. I have many friends who because their company had open compensation plans, got a pay increase by calling out the sexism within the company. This unfortunately happens in a lot of different careers. I would absolutely work for a company with an open compensation plan, and would actually prefer it.
Chapter 12
Why are some car sales companies like CarMax paying their sales associates a salary when most of the industry pays their sales associates a straight commission?
What might be some drawbacks of this plan?
Classmate
Some companies with consistently high sales, like CarMax, choose to pay their employees a salary rather than commissions because salaries will be a less investment for the company than commissions. Also, since sales are high, more commissions would be given which means less money for the company. Some companies also provide salaries as a way for the employees to have consistent income. However, this method has its drawbacks. When the sales are low or if the sales fall quickly and drastically, this could cause a lot of issues for the sales associates who rely on commissions for a living. Low sales also play a factor in how the company would lose money on employee pay.