Some of the highest paid employees in the country relative to their skill, education and knowledge are service workers that regularly receive tips. Dancers, waiters, waitresses, and bartenders often earn more than professionals including nurses and lawyers. It is not uncommon for a bartender to earn $80,000 a year or a dancer to earn $200,000 a year.

Like the rat in the cage we are driven by rewards. It's only human and also perhaps rat nature. Suffice it to say it's nature.

So when compensation, the reward, becomes stagnant so does productivity. If like rats we are paid by the time we spend in the cage, then the expected level of productivity is simple compliance.

By focusing on minimum standards employees tend to get there and stay there; a comfort zone or twilight zone or Bermuda Triangle whatever else it can be called.

Among company benefits, more often than not employees rank health insurance as the more important. It is estimated that more than 60% of American who have health care receives it through some type of employer sponsored group plan. While various state regulations differ, there are certain benefits to having coverage through an employer. This makes the offering of health care plans a strong bargaining tool.

Recently the California Supreme Court rendered a decision in interpreting California Labor Code Section 226.7.

The issue was whether Labor Code section 226.7 provided for payment of one additional hour of pay when an employer failed to provide a meal break after five hours of work or a rest period after four hours of work and therefore it was pay and subject to a three year statute of limitations, meaning the employee could bring a claim three years after the fact, or if it was penalty and subject to a one year statute of limitations.

Have you ever been involved in an accident at work? Hopefully the answer is no, but please realize that accidents at work do happen and more often than you may think. Most of the time it's a matter of a specific hazard but there are a number of procedures that can prevent an accident at work from occurring in the first place.

Your Personal Safety Around The Workplace

Your employers have to make sure that adequate safety measures are in place in and around the whole of your workplace.

Being an employee of any company allows you to receive some perks, fringe benefits and privileges aside from the salary that you regularly receive.

One of the most important benefits that you should get at work is a health benefit or medical plan. Especially for jobs which present risks on your health or on your life, make sure that you are always adequately insured.