>

Do the volunteer workers get $$ from the fines?
I worked for a large coffee chain and there was an issue with employee pay all around. During a district meeting the manager sat there with a calculator totalling up the free coffee we get and how much our pay "actually" was. Needless to say I don't work there still. >

My employer does the same thing. They give you a paper with the cost of your benefits (insurance, meals, etc) and call it "total compensation". At least the paper specifically mentions how much of that is base wage, bonus, and benefits. >

They shouldn't even be allowed to call health insurance a "benefit" anymore. All it does is imply that they gave it to you and you aren't paying for it yourself with premiums. btw, my premiums are REALLY up there. >

In all but the smallest businesses your contribution to insurance is generally no more than 50%. If you’re paying $700 a month, they are too, and likely more than that. For a person with dependents on their plan this can be multiple thousands a month. 
The problem isn’t employers passing it off as compensation. The problem is employers footing $3,000 a month for you, your spouse, and a kid to have health insurance the government should be providing to begin with. >

Yep - employers being the gatekeepers/providers of healthcare was an anomaly to begin with and not one we need.  Time to move to tax-funded healthcare for all like the rest of the developed world already has. >

*like the elderly in the US already have. For some reason we continue to believe that only people who have had five decades or more to accumulate wealth are worthy of socialized medicine. >

There are also a lot of dirt poor elderly that need and use it >

What you said. Medicare and Social Security are designed to disproportionally help impoverished elderly without being a formal transfer of wealth tp that group. Both are transfer of wealth.
Including those above the poverty line improves political resiliency, even if the numbers are worked to effectively still be an elder pension and healthcare hand out.