Kollel Incorporated

Mishpacha (Hebrew newspaper) mentioned an interesting idea being floated as a response to the attack on the yeshivas - the canceling of budgets, and the canceling of various benefits that have been given until now but in the future will/might be linked to a persons employability, such as arnona discounts, subsidies for day care, discounts in housing purchases, etc..
The idea is that the yeshivas and kollels will all become businesses. The kollels and yeshivas would all register as research institutions specializing in ancient Jewish texts and Judaic research, or something like that. Instead of paying the avreichim a stipend, they would pay the avreichim a salary. It also mentioned as part of the plan, though I am not sure why this is necessary, after 9 months the yeshivas/kollels would fire all the "employees" who would then go to the Unemployment offices to collect unemployment.
I think it is an interesting idea, and definitely something worth considering.
the problems I can think of are:

• as businesses with employees, the avreichim would all have to be paid minimum wage. that is far more than what the yeshivas would have to pay in the current system. if they are worried about the finances of yeshivas with the current level of stipends, how will they deal with salaries that are considerably higher?
• there might be overtime issues - by law, employees must be paid extra for overtime. will that happen? businesses can often find ways around that, usually at risk of a lawsuit, but I rarely hear of such suits. Maybe this would not be a problem.
• Going to the Unemployment offices might be a threat of a way to get government money for the avreichim, but it is not a very good part of the plan. First, It would mean wasting a morning of learning Torah every week. You have to go to the Unemployment offices, wait in line, meet an agent, go through lists of available jobs, and it is limited in how much time they give it to you. Second, it would be risking being forced out of kollel - to collect unemployment you have to accept any job they offer you. If you are an academic (meaning you have a college degree), then they can only offer you jobs in your field, but that would not apply to a kollel guy. They would be forced to take a job in a factory or a bakery or whatever or forgo their unemployment money..

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