Elizabeth Dwoskin, New York Times editorial writer, had an interesting piece online today. In it, she discusses the difficulties two freelance workers, one a construction worker from Ecuador, and another a computer consultant from right here in the USA, in actually receiving their paychecks from employers. In Saldana, the foreman’s, case, his boss simply refused to pay him, or promised that the money would come later. Saldana couldn’t afford to pay his bills, and he took his former boss to court. However, he couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer and ended up only receiving $10,000 of the $32,000 he was owed.
Jason Windham, the computer consultant, is owed over $20,000 from an employer who has been claiming his checks are being lost in the mail for months. Unlike Saldana, he has lived in America all his life, and knows his rights. However, it doesn’t do him any good, as nothing has helped, and he is now deeply in debt.
The author then describes her own situation. 28-years-old, struggling to pay off student loans and rent on a beginning writer’s salary, freelancing on the side, but rarely getting paid when promised, sometimes months late. It seems very possible that I, or any journalism student, could end up in this situation fairly easily. The student loans I’ll have acquired after graduating UMass will be fairly significant… I can’t even imagine what an education at Boston University or Columbia could do to a student’s bank accounts.
