Kinnakeet
Well-Known Member
I do not think some of those jobs,wal mart,target,McDonalds...etc..where meant to be a career? But I could be wrong!
$15/hr minimum wage
- Thread starter vraiblonde
- Start date
All of the above is one of the several reasons I left civil service engineering for the private sector. In my office/group were several who were "maxxed out" and had been so for many years. No thanks...decided the higher risk private sector offered me the chance to get compensated for succeeding and I took that chance.
black dog
Free America
Most walmart hourlys earn $17.50 and up in the stores, distribution center pickers and skilled trades can make twice that.
Asst and store managers easily earn 80 to 200 grand.
Kinnakeet
Well-Known Member
Wow I did not know that
I pretty much did the same thing and am glad that I did. The pay and time off were so much better, plus it was a hell of a lot more fun!
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SamSpade
Well-Known Member
I did too - LEAVE government service after many years. Found myself laid off after two years, and honestly, through no fault of my own. Well I had a lot more to lose, then, and government was offering a lower but comparable salary and essentially NO LIKELIHOOD of ever being laid off. Job security was worth more to me than any salary bonanza. It's what used to piss me off when Rush or others would say, when they'd respond to the lower pay of government with "if it's lower, why do they stay?" as if that was sufficient argument to DISPROVE it.
The other lure of government is, of course - benefits. Every private company offered health care - but it was almost always ONE choice, take it or leave it. Vacation - leave time - wasn't able to be metered out by the hour. And the combination - never very much. Schedules weren't anywhere near as flexible as government. They did offer CWS - but taken on the day offered. I get to pick - and MOVE it as needed.
The downside? In the private sector, you can get a HUGE salary increase if the boss wants to give it to you - or close to zero. Some companies offered profit sharing - just, free money if the company does well. Of course, UNLIKE the government, you're also subject to the boss's whims - if he just doesn't LIKE you, he can still withhold things. In the private sector - if you're good - they can CREATE a section just for you. Many years ago, when I delivered pizzas, I was offered the management job of the new store - which I turned down. That kind of thing happens rarely in government - the only time I know it happens is when they form new teams to explore technology or develop huge in house tools or the like. Government typically doesn't "grow" the way a business does.
Everything you have stated is true more or less, and there is one way to get around it. Start your own company then YOU are the boss.
HemiHauler
Well-Known Member
If you think YOU and not CASH FLOW will be your boss, you’ve never run a business.
You know nothing John Snow!
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Walmart / Target Jobs != McDonald's Jobs. The first two never paid minimum wage, not even for door greeters.
Google says 1.4% of the workforce makes the federal minimum wage or below (most below, because they are servers who actually end up making quite a bit more than minimum wage after tips).
But "WHAT ABOUT STATE MINIMUM WAGE", you say?
Most states that have a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage actually have fewer people making their state minimum wage than states that match the federal rate.
So much attention paid to something that affects so few people.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
you know, it just occurred to me, if they raise the minimum wage to $15 a great deal more people will suddenly be making minimum wage. Then they can say "umpteen times as many people make minimum wage now than they did x number of years ago. We need to raise minimum wage!"
Interesting statics from a source I trust - Mike Rowe.
7 million able body "persons" are not working and are not seeking work. That 7 million helps the unemployment number significantly, because the government only counts those who are looking for work.
There are 4 million new jobs since 2019 largely going unfilled because we have 7 million able bodied <> doing nothing.
7 million able body "persons" are not working and are not seeking work. That 7 million helps the unemployment number significantly, because the government only counts those who are looking for work.
There are 4 million new jobs since 2019 largely going unfilled because we have 7 million able bodied <> doing nothing.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Plus it keeps getting regarded as a static population of minimum wage earners - but that population changes. A few years and almost all of those make more and are "replaced" by newly minted minimum wage earners.
And the overwhelming bulk of them are youth.
Bare-ya-cuda
Well-Known Member
Seasonal workers, you know going in. I did the same thing while stationed in Maine, worked at LL Bean during the Christmas holidays at night. Mainly did it for the employee discount. LL Bean give employees a very good discount, at least back then they did. Paycheck went right back ti them for hunting and fishing gear.
black dog
Free America
Just as its been planned, more folks on
The Government Plantation.
black dog
Free America
This is the slow time of the year for all distribution centers across America.
All have cut hours and layed off.
Clem72
Well-Known Member
Actually the stats I looked up said about 45% were under 24, so it's not really overwhelming. But keep in mind that a lot of these earners are wait staff which I can't honestly say was mostly "young people" in my recent memory.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Most states have laws that require tips and compensation to AT LEAST reach federal or state minimum wage levels, so even though their wage is allowed to be LESS, none of them make less. (When I delivered pizzas for a living, I made really good money - around 30k in the late 80s).
I can look it up later - the problem is the wording and which universe intended (and I don't mean the one we all live in, but the scope of the wording). For instance, VERY FEW workers work for FEDERAL minimum wage or less, because so very many states have their own minimum wage that's a lot higher. From memory (because I honest to God don't want to look at five in the morning) it's under a million and around half of those are kids and another fifth are young adults.
Since those working for federal minimum wage are already a tiny fraction of the whole, we're dealing with possibly 300-500 thousand at best working for a pittance, and even some of them are probably not the head of a household. Whenever the talk somehow is of some harried parent working three jobs to support his/her family - it's really a sliver of the whole, and the sensible solution is to direct help to that person.
Overall - most workers working at the bottom of the wage scale - federal minimum wage or state minimum - are kids. As such - the population is fluid - in ten years, they're not kids, they're making more money and the ones making minimum wage are the next group of kids. We refer to strata of income earners as though they are static, and they're not.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Actually, writing that last post brings up something I've been thinking - Maryland just raised ITS minimum wage to 13.25. How does this affect workers making a little MORE than that? Because I know a lot of people with experience and/or degrees making only a little more an hour than that, and it chaps my hide to think some lazy schmuck leaning on a broom makes the same as someone with a lot of experience and education, who lost any wage advantage due to legislation.