The day after Thanksgiving has traditionally been the start of the holiday shopping season. But this year, many retailers plan to open their doors with special sales on Thanksgiving itself. One Democratic State lawmaker says mandating employees work on that day is not right.
And in an interview with Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles, Democrat Mike Foley explains he is introducing a bill that would require employers to pay much more to workers who work during that time.
Foley – It really bugs me. There’s already all of these pressures that we have around the holiday time for families and communities and these pressures that consumerism puts on us kind of adds to the burden. So I think if any retailer is going to open up on Thursday now and on Friday, you know from Friday before their normal opening hours, that they should pay more. They should pay at least triple what they normally pay. If they are going to put the workers who have to deal with craziness, messes when thousands of shoppers come for the Black Friday sales, that workers who have to put up with all of that stuff should be paid much more than what they are being paid on an hourly basis normally.
Ingles – Some retailers already pay time and a half for working on those days. Is that not good enough?
Foley – Yea, I’m assuming they do but I don’t think that’s good enough. I think that if retailers are going to try to encroach on Thanksgiving, a day that traditionally families get together to thank all of the things we are grateful for in our society and culture and democracy, if retailers are going to force people to come in to work, then they ought to pay more than a time and a half….maybe three times what they pay and maybe that’s not even enough. But if retailers are going to try to exploit the consumerist culture that exists in Ohio and America, then I think the people who have to take the burden and brunt of this should be paid a lot more than what they are.
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