As the title states, my (5 month pregnant) gf works at a daycare taking care of 3-8 month old children 40 plus hours a week. She was promoted a few weeks ago with a promise of a small .40 cent wage increase to go along with it. However, this increase has yet to reflect on her hourly pay since she took on the new role.
She is annoyed and knows that this is a problem but feels hopeless in trying to correct their “mistake”. She figures there's nothing she can do about it. According to her, she's the only one who the babies actually like compared to her co-workers; the babies love her lol.
I'm just wondering if this grounds for the Department of Labor to get involved? We live in Kentucky and she's worked at several other daycare facilities and most if not all like to dabble in sketchy labor practices including wage theft. What's messed up is that the parents of the children pay a hefty price tag every week to send their kids there, while the daycare spends nothing on supplies for the children since parents have to provide all the child's necessities (diapers, wipes, food, etc). I feel like this field of work deserves 20$ plus an hour at least but she's grinding through at $18 and some change while the company makes bank and cheats her out of the pay they said she would get.
Did I mention that she's pregnant? She should be off work with pay for the next year like she could in most developed countries to rest and keep from unnecessary stress. But no. In a state with abortion now being illegal, lower income moms are forced to birth their child and keep working to make capitalists richer. Her job also doesn't provide maternity leave so she'll have to go back to work soon after our baby is born. We're both stressed about how she and I are going to get through it by December and give this child the best life we can.
Any suggestions of recourse would be appreciated, sorry for the rant lol.