Today I had a very interesting conversation with Zoila during lunch. She was talking about how Nicaragua does have a minimum wage law- and yet everyone working here is working below minimum wage. I said, “well, isn’t that illegal since there’s a law for minimum wage?” and she responded, “well it’s almost illegal”. I don’t exactly understand how something can be “almost illegal”- I’m pretty sure things are legal or illegal- that’s kind of one of those black and white sort of things. I tried to explore this whole, not enforcing minimum wage here at the Hogar, and here is my basic understanding:
The government does not support or fund this elderly home. Therefore, the benefits that the government provides companies, such as minimum wage, insurance, paid vacation- those things aren’t enforced here. I think that technically the laws still apply, but the government doesn’t check in or anything. I thought that all Nicaragua was facing the same problems in the work place- I didn’t realize that only some received the support and therefore the protection of the government. This system needs work- lots and lots of work.
It really stinks for the employees here- but they have no other option- they can’t just leave and get another job, because there are no other jobs. So they face decision of whether to accept unfair work conditions and payment or be unemployed. And everyone here would rather be underpaid than unpaid.
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