—u/brenconnnn Some states enacted laws that force employers to pay out triple damages for violations of several wage laws. Most states will fine the company $1,000." —u/adimwit To top it all off, once you complete the course, you get a free certificate of completion from Harvard. Very few online courses offer free certificates nowadays, especially from top universities. You can take the course for free on Harvard OpenCourseWare. (Note that you can also take it through edX, but there, the certificate costs $150. On Harvard OpenCourseWare, the course is exactly the same, but the certificate is entirely free.)" —u/manocormen “There are two programs, Lifeline and the Affordable Connectivity Program. If you’re approved for the Lifeline application, you’ll automatically be approved for ACP (ACP would just need a quick consent form e-signed). Both of those benefits combined can get you up to $39 off per month, free equipment rental, and free installation. Checklifeline.org. Depending on your provider and their pricing, that could even get your internet bill to $0. Your internet provider can also apply additional new/existing customer offers in tandem with those offers, which can bring down prices significantly as well.” —u/bbqchickpea
—u/mynameismulan —u/Insecurity-Guard If you opt out, debit card charges that would send you into the red are declined instead. Anyone living paycheck to paycheck should seriously consider opting out. The flip side is that important bills may not go through. Missing a mortgage payment is a lot more expensive than an overdraft fee. It may be worth setting up a different account for important bills." —u/Ajreil —Failing to pay overtime—Failing to pay the agreed-upon salary—Requiring workers to work off the clock—Requiring workers to work during lunch or break times without additional compensation—Forcing workers to pay for a uniform instead of taking uniform costs out of wages—Failing to pay a final paycheck to a worker who has left Wage theft affects millions of people every year, and results in billions in wages kept from workers who earned it, and much of it goes unreported." —u/ButtholeBanquets For more information on how to deal with and report wage theft, check out the full post. —u/flightylady In other words, relying on company loyalty (i.e., your company rewarding your work with more money) is the least effective way of earning a higher income. If you need a raise, get your resume ready and start looking for jobs." —u/ButtholeBanquets —u/notyourmom111 Simply search ‘[name of hospital] financial assistance’ and go to the hospital’s financial assistance page. Somewhere on that page, there should be a document called ‘Financial Assistance Policy,’ and inside of that, it will tell you the qualifying income for total coverage, as well as qualifying income for partial coverage. Please read it thoroughly to understand what you may or may not qualify for. For the most part, this only applies to emergency, non-elective, and catastrophic care… otherwise known as ‘medically necessary care.’ As an example, the hospital closest to me covers my entire hospital bill if I make under 200% of the FPL, which would mean I have to make less than $25,760 if I was a one-person household, or $53,000 for my family of four. In addition they will offer partial coverage if I make under 600% of the FPL." u/Bovinius__Cudd —u/APennyPinchersGuide The employer is totally prohibited from confiscating or dipping into tip money. They can deduct card fees used to send tips, or if they operate a tip pool they can pool all tips and pay them out later, but overall 100% of tips have to be paid to workers. It’s illegal for employers, managers, supervisors, HR, to take any tip money or use tip money to pay for property damage, stolen meals, uniforms, PPE, missing cash from registers, etc. Tip pools can’t be used to pay managerial staff, but they can be used to pay backroom workers like cooks. If the employer takes your tips or introduces policies or conditions of employment saying that they can take your tips, file a complaint with the Department of Labor." —u/adimwit It’s illegal for employers to tell you that you don’t have labor rights. The NLRB has been fining employers who distribute memos, handbooks, and work orientation materials that tell workers at-will employment means workers don’t have legal protections." —u/adimwit —u/Procrastin8rPro Some basic stuff you can do to protec’ ya’ neck: — Shut your computer down after work. A device that’s off has very low risk of snooping during time you don’t even get paid for — Reconsider having personal side chats with your coworkers on company hardware — Cover your webcam when not in use — Get your own headset with a hardware mute button and leave it muted until you need to speak — Move your mouse if you are idle during a listening task like an all-hands call — Type things frequently — Don’t browse anything that isn’t 100% work related on company hardware — If your router has a “guest” network option activate it and ONLY connect your work computer to that guest network. A guest network essentially just lets said machine access the internet and blocks them seeing other machines and devices on your network. Do NOT use an Ethernet cord for your work computer." —u/Bovinius__Cudd —u/elijahbeck To understand this let’s use a simplified example. Let’s say there are two tax brackets and rates. Up to $50,000 in income is taxed at 10%, and anything over $50,000 is taxed at 30%. Let’s say you currently earn $50,000. As you’re in the 10% bracket, you have to pay $5,000 in taxes, so your take home, or net, pay is $45,000. (Again, greatly simplified.)This year you get a $10,000 raise. You’re now earning $60,000, putting you in the 30% bracket. Does that mean you’re now going to pay 30% of $60,000, or $18,000 total, and have a net income of $42,000? In other words, did your raise mean you earn less this year?No. You’ll pay 10% of the first $50,000 ($5,000) and 30% of the next $10,000 ($3,000), for a total of $8,000, leaving you with a net of $52,000.So, even if your income has increased and put you in a higher bracket, you’re not going to have a decrease in net income." —u/buttholebanquets When they serve you with a bill saying how much money they want from you, ask them for a fully itemized list. This will often significantly reduce the price they’ll ask you for. Next, if there’s anything on that list you’re certain you didn’t get, tell them that and ask for it to be taken off the list as you didn’t receive it. Lastly, if the price is still outside the range of what you can afford to pay without ruining your finances, you can ask the hospital if they have any payment plans to accommodate that, they almost always do. Even in the rare event that the hospital refuses to budge on any of this, you haven’t lost anything but a bit of time. There’s no need to hire a lawyer for this, and the hospital will never charge you more than the initial bill anyway." —u/Remote_Romance —u/bateman34 u/Camjw1123
