With respect to earned income there are at least several things that can,
and should be done, by regulation:
1. A full work year should be defined in statute as comprising 2000 hours
of labour per calendar year. Full time employment should be defined as
comprising at least 1800 hours of labour per calendar year.
2. Except in an declared emergency, no person, having the care, custody or
control of another person, or performing any duty that presents a danger
to the heath or safety of any other person, shall work more than eight
hours in any twenty-four hour period. Except in a declared emergency, no
person shall work more than ten hours in any twenty-four hour period
regardless of circumstance.
3. The minimum hourly wage should be set by statute at ( 1.1 X the
nationally averaged poverty income level for a family of four in dollars /
2000 hours) and automatically adjusted on January first and July 1st of
each year.
4. Any person engaged by a public or private enterprise for more than 600
hours in a calendar year, whether directly or indirectly through a third
party, shall be entitled to all of the employment benefits available to
any other employee.
5. With the exception of health and legal benefits paid to an individual
in consequence of a legitimate claim, the value of all salary, wages,
bonuses, all incentives, and all benefits, whether taxable or not, from
all sources whether domestic or not, paid to an individual or disbursed to
their benefit by a public or private enterprise and any related entity
shall be considered their earned income. Unearned income paid from
investments made to the benefit of an employee by their employer is also
considered earned income.
6. No person shall be remunerated for work in excess of 2100 hours per
year from all sources and remuneration of work in excess of 2000 hours per
calendar year shall be made only upon the basis of documentary evidence
for every hour paid (including the first 2000) and verified by a
independent third party audit.
7. The maximum annual remuneration of any employee or officer of any
public or private enterprise shall be no more than seven times the annual
earnings of the lowest paid employee of that same enterprise or any other
enterprise related by ownership or investment, adjusted to a standard 2000
hour work year. Persons engaged on personal service contracts or through
third party employment agencies for more than 600 hours in a calendar year
are deemed employees of the engaging enterprise for the purpose of maximum
remuneration.
These provisions allow enterprises to pay their top exceutives as much as
they wish, provided that the lowest paid employee gets no less than 1/7
the same amount on an adjusted hourly basis and that all people that work
for a firm for a significant period of time in a year are counted as its
employees. They also go a long way to ensure that there should be no
"working poor".
This sidesteps the issue of unearned income from things like personal
investments. Therefore, great care would be required in the crafting of
the legislation to prevent "creative" use of investment instruments to
"pay" top executives. Finally, lone wolf entrepreneurs can work
themselves into an early grave as much as they like for as much money as
they can garner. However, once they hire somebody then the world changes
for them as well.
It will never happen of course. Greed will see to that.
--
*** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel ***
James B. Byrne mailto:[log in to unmask]
Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca
9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241
Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757
Canada L8E 3C3
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