Edit: I appreciate everyone who took the time to read this, I feel a lot better after some sleep. To anyone facing similar struggles, best of luck and I hope you get to take some time to relax soon.

I work 40 hours a week and I'm paid double the minimum wage in good ole Merica, this is a joke and I feel that people like me are the punchline.

I woke up at 1pm yesterday, it's nearly 1pm un my timezone and had time to take out the trash, do laundry, help my parents with their chores (I cleaned floors and drive back home to cook a "meal" (Hamburger Helper) then clean the dishes. That's all before I had to leave for work at 8pm.

Currently I'm mowing lawns before another overnight shift just to afford gas to get to work until payday. Maybe I'm just ignorant to my options or I don't have any knowledge to develop a less taxing side hustle. We're punished for being born.

My boss told me today that my self reported time sheet needs to match my login to a program we use, but I have been logging my time in as when I start my computer as it can take 5 to 10 minutes for the computer to boot up, sign in to windows, and connect the VPN. Shouldn't I be paid for the time it takes my work equipment to start up? Every other hourly job I've had, my time started when I punched the clock, not when I was logged in to my workstation. Maybe it seems petty but work time is work time. Anyone else in a similar scenario?

The labor negotiations in LA/B are so enormously important. Nobody has more power than the workers in that port right now.

TLDR on bottom.

There are some things to understand that people find very confusing about pay for teachers. They are NOT paid for days they don't work. They don't get paid holidays or breaks. The only time they get a paid for a day they aren't at work is if they're using a PTO, of which they get very little. To explain:

The way the contract works is that teachers are paid a day rate. So, to make it simple, I'm going to say that a teacher gets hired to work 180 days of the school year at $100/day. This makes their yearly income $18,000. Again, using these numbers on purpose to make the math easy. They're not realistic.

Different districts in different places will divide out that $18,000 in different ways. Some places let you choose to get paid only the 10 months you work, telling you to set aside money to pay bills in the summer. Most places have stopped doing that, though, because it's more work for them. So, instead, that teacher will get a set amount every month, even in the summer, of $18,000/12 or $1500 a month.

So, let's say this teacher gets 5 PTO days. Then let's say the teacher discovers a lump. They spend those 5 days going to appointments, getting tests done, then having follow-up appointments. Well, those 5 days are completely used up and they just got word that they do, in fact, have cancer.

They find this out in January, so the doctor says they have to take January, February, and March off because chemo is the plan and no immune system around kids is not good (not to mention the side affects). Ok, so....

In January, they would normally work 20 days, which is $2,000 of earned income. That is the $100 a day x 20 days. But the paycheck they would've gotten was for $1500. $500 of that paycheck was supposed to go to the summer months, but they lost all $2,000. They're $500 in the hole.

In February, same thing. Now they are $1,000 in the hole.

In March, there's spring break, so they were only supposed to work 15 days anyway, so it works out to break even.

They return in April, but now they owe $1,000. What does the district do? I worked at one district where they made the teacher write them a check for the missing amount plus their part of the premium for their health insurance since there was no paycheck for them to take it from, making the check equivalent to a whole month's income while they've earned $0 the last 3 months.

However, the most common thing is that they evenly take out from the rest of your checks. In this case, April's-August's checks would all be $200 less than before they had cancer, making them only $1300.

This puts it in perspective when teachers in Detroit had a "sick out" in 2016 because the district said they won't give them paychecks for June on. Those paychecks were for days/hours those teachers already worked.

TLDR: Using smaller numbers to make the math easy, if a teacher got cancer and couldn't work for 3 months starting in January while contracted to earn $18,000 a year, the most likely scenario is that they'd get:

September $1500
October $1500
December $1500
January: $0
February $0
March $0
April $1300
May $1300
June $1300
July $1300
August $1300

California- Joann Fabrics again.

I am a key holder at my job and have been recently hired. Today was my 1st shift to close without a supervisor.

The problem is that I was given they keys assigned to the person opening in the morning because there are not enough keys for all of the key holders.

The person the keys are assigned to was supposed to pick them up at closing today and didn't.

I'm not sure if I will be but if I'm asked to bring the keys to work in the morning so that he can open. Am I entitled to pay?

My understanding is that if I am entitled to 2 hours if I have to show up for work at a minimum in California regardless if I actually work the full 2 hours. Is that correct? Does anyone have a legal source for this?