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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

One employer was reportedly considering cutting caregivers’ salaries by 20 percent to compensate for an anticipated drop in productivity.

If a company I worked for did that I would immediately start looking for a new job. I'm not a caregiver, I don't have kids, and it wouldn't affect me as a policy, but the idea that the company I work for could be so completely unfeeling and unreasonable, and would choose to ignore the reality of what's happening in people's lives, means it would instantly become a place I wouldn't want to work at any more.

The fact is most people, especially in tech jobs at large companies, put in way more time and effort than they're actually supposed to. For the company to think that's OK but then to cut wages or fire people as soon as that person isn't able to put in 100% for a short time due to a global pandemic is just a dick move. And the number one rule in life is really simple: don't be a dick.

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I once declined a job offer after someone in management discussed their “greening” strategy, which was structuring the company so that older and (more expensive) employees wouldn’t be able to stay.

He must be on the fast track to senior management.

IANAL, but from what I have heard from lawyers here in Canada, cutting %20 of your salary all other things being equal is considered a "constructive dismissal" and you can sue your employer for that.

> In employment law, constructive dismissal, also called constructive discharge or constructive termination, occurs when an employee resigns as a result of the employer creating a hostile work environment. Since the resignation was not truly voluntary, it is, in effect, a termination. For example, when an employer places extraordinary and unreasonable work demands on an employee to obtain their resignation, this can constitute a constructive dismissal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal

100% Agreed. My employer has refused to comply with state mandates and has had us working from the office the entire pandemic. For those that eventually talked the owner into allowing WFH (in November) took a 20% cut.

I would love to hear the owner try to make a justification.

I would think caregivers are less prone to turnover, but that may be an erroneous assumption. That said turnover is a drag on productivity.

> reportedly considering

Why would they make such 'considerations' public to employees, so they can take a hint an find another job?

From the context I think maybe the company was considering the pay cut and sought legal advice from the quoted lawyer. They probably weren’t public about their considerations and this attorney was just offering up an anecdote about an unnamed client as an example of the type of employment law-related questions he’s been asked during the pandemic.

> anecdote about an unnamed client

then how do we know this was wayfair. really confusing.

It almost certainly wasn't Wayfair. FTA:

> In addition to working parents seeking legal counsel, employers have been trying to figure out their legal obligation to employees with school-age children during the pandemic. One employer was reportedly considering cutting caregivers’ salaries by 20 percent to compensate for an anticipated drop in productivity, according to a Boston employment lawyer.

> I'm not a caregiver, I don't have kids, and it wouldn't affect me as a policy,

And that's probably why you can say "Ah, my employer is being a dick, time for me to quit!"

People who are parents, caregivers, and breadwinners might not so easily be able to walk away from 80% of their current salary and risk having 0% for the foreseeable future while they look for uncertain future employment during a pandemic.

I'm curious why this comment has an antagonistic tone — it seems like you and the OP are on the same page?

Yeah I think they might have missed that the leaving was in solidarity rather than exercising their freedoms.

risk having 0% for the foreseeable future

I didn't say I'd leave. I said I'd start looking for a new role. Leaving before you have a new job to go to is a terrible idea in this situation.

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