Deans Job program

[MtnBiker]

It tells me the same thing you know, speculation.
Starting wages in retail are never going to be very high.

 

[r3volut!on]

Here is an interesting link on the subject of minimum wage, and Wal-Mart is one of the topics of discussion:

http://marshallbrain.com/etq-double.htm

 

[Annie]

I worked in the meat department at our local supermarket change for a couple of years to keep insurance. I started at $7 something and got up to $9. It was a union job with great benefits. Not the best job, but most of the others were high schools grads or less.


It's all a matter of supply and demand. I needed the benefits, so was willing to work part-time for less than I could make tutoring, but with no benefits. If I didn't have education, I'd be even more limited.

It's not an easy place to live, but the benefits are great for those that work at it.

 

[r3volut!on]

Good point, Kathianne. However, according to the article found here, "High insurance premiums and deductibles keep more than two-thirds of Wal-Mart workers—that's nearly 700,000 workers—from participating in the Wal-Mart health plan."

It may be justifiable to offer a lower wage with compensation in the form of health benefits, but if the health benefits are too expensive to afford because the earned wage isn't high enough, we have a problem.

***correction***

somehow i pasted the wrong URL originally. I've fixed that, now the correct URL is hyperlinked. sorry about that.

here it is again.

 

[Annie]

I really don't know about Walmart, haven't been hearing good things lately, to say the very least.

I didn't have to pay much for $10 co-pay; vision; dental; mental health; no deductible on hospital. Cost I think was about 25$ a month. Now of course I was working full time in insurance industry, ironically with no insurance benefits. But that's what was paying the mortgage. As acknowledged, 9$ an hour isn't much.

However, if I was in the position again, I would go to grocery or UPS, or wherever in order to do the best I could.

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by Kathianne

However, if I was in the position again, I would go to grocery or UPS, or wherever in order to do the best I could.

I have to hand it to you Kathianne, understanding the oppurtunities and choices you can make to do best for yourself.

 

[r3volut!on]

Starting wages in retail are never going to be very high.

But why not? Isn't retail one of the largest and most profitable sectors of the United States economy?

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by r3volut!on
But why not? Isn't retail one of the largest and most profitable sectors of the United States economy?

A couple of things, I do not know how profitable retail may be, do you? And is there anything wrong with a company being profitable? A starting wage is just that (in any sector) it is not meant to be a carrer salary.

 

[Annie]

"Isn't retail one of the largest and most profitable sectors of the United States economy?" posted by revolution

Not really. If they could sell everything at full price, sure. How many items have you paid full price for lately?

Besides, retail jobs do not require any great skills or education. Now if you are working at Nordstrom's or Sak's, you better be able to afford the haircuts and clothes, but if you are working there it probably isn't an issue.

Sear's has ok benefits, used to be a whole lot better. Wal-mart gives you a smock, so you can wear a t-shirt. So there, you can get by without expensive clothes or education. I think a great job for a kid in school or for someone who wants very part-time, pick your own hours job. Also probably great for a retiree. Not the place to go if you're trying to keep a roof over your head.

 

[r3volut!on]

Besides, retail jobs do not require any great skills or education. Now if you are working at Nordstrom's or Sak's, you better be able to afford the haircuts and clothes, but if you are working there it probably isn't an issue.

Good point, however, you reveal an interesting conundrum. Education is expensive. Even more so in recent years, particularly under the Bush administration. I know, I'm a struggling college student myself. I'm also fully aware of the fact that the good jobs, the higher paying jobs, are reserved for skilled and/or educated persons.

Unfortunately, if you can't afford an education, you basically don't have as many opportunities to break into the higher wage brackets, and you find yourself with no choice but to work jobs like retail.

 

[MtnBiker]

Originally posted by r3volut!on
I know, I'm a struggling college student myself

I hope you do well in school. There are millions of people who have worked and struggled through college for an education. I know I'm one of them.

 

[DKSuddeth]

Originally posted by MtnBiker
9 dollars an hour is not a huge wage but I wouldn't call that very little more than minimum. I'm curious DK, do you know if the meat department cuts its own meat or if it comes to them already cut and packaged?

already cut and packaged, I believe.

 

[MtnBiker]

Thanks DK, I certainly would not down play your mothers importance. But I suspect the people cutting meat are being paid a higher wage than $9 an hour. But that is also why Wal-Mart evolved their system, instead of paying skilled meat cutters in every store now there is a distrubution center that cuts all of the meat for several stores, lowers the costs of opertation.

 

[Moi]

It's always funny how our own personal situtations can influence what we think should and shouldn't be the norm in the world. No one wants to pay more for consumer goods, housing, transportation or food but then people complain that the wages paid to people who produce and/or sell these things isn't high enough. But what's high enough? What should people be able to afford? What is the responsibility of government during all this?

Someone who makes the kind of money I make but lives in, say, Kansas has a much higher standard of living than do I. They can afford many more luxuries. I am barely making ends meet because I live in a very high cost area of the country (NYC). But I still pay the same taxes they do, more even if you count local and state income and sales taxes. I bet the person in Kansas would complain if if I suddenly didn't have to pay the same rate as they because of this.

I, for one, do not believe that the government owes anyone a certain standard of living, rather they owe the citizens a level playing field- not a level final score. If people don't want to make minimum wage or anywhere close to that, what is their solution? A company has the right to pay what they want for services performed just as consumers are free to puchase or use services that they want according to the value they get in return.

It may not be fair that some people make more money than others, but we're not all going to end up the same in a republic and it didn't work for communism. I'm not sure there is a solution out there for the people who aren't making the kind of money they want except pursuing education and opportunities.

 

[MtnBiker]

From revolution's link

I would like to suggest that the answer to this question is, "no". I would like to suggest that it is time for We, The People, to recognize what is happening and demand an equitable distribution of the wealth of this nation. The United States is looking more and more like a third world nation in many respects. We have an immensely wealthy and powerful elite class and tens of millions of people living in or near poverty.

One way to handle the current imbalance would be to double or triple the minimum wage. However, in an economy where the number of employees is shrinking because of automation and robots, this approach has problems. We could also institute a maximum wage.

Another way is to heavily tax executives and shareholders. In other words, we actively reverse the concentration of wealth in this nation, instead of letting it accelerate. Those taxes would not go to the government, but instead flow to every American citizen through a central account. In this way, every citizen shares in the wealth of the nation.

 

[nbdysfu]

Sad to say, there are some people who believe that that kind of garbage isn't trying to screw them over.

 

[r3volut!on]

re: MtnBiker

hehe, yeah, that's a little extreme. A little communistic. I was mainly concerned with the ideas about wal-mart that were pertinent to the discussion.

I guess I should go on the record and make sure that there isn't any question about whether or not I'm a communist, eh?

I'm not a communist. I don't agree with communism.

And I don't agree with very many of the ideas contained in the latter 3/4 of that article.

 

[MtnBiker]

Cool.

 

[Annie]

Unfortunately, if you can't afford an education, you basically don't have as many opportunities to break into the higher wage brackets, and you find yourself with no choice but to work jobs like retail.

I have 2 kids in college and a 3rd entering next fall. I cannot pay tuition or room and board for any of them. Sure I buy food at Sam's and send it to them. Give them $50 bucks when I can. I do pay their auto insurance, only 1 has a car at school and she makes the car payments.

My income is under 30k. My kids qualify for Pell grant and max on subsidized loans, which will be their responsibility upon graduation. They have applied and received scholarship, some on merit, some on need, some because of weird scholarship availability-which they sought out and applied for. My daughter receives something like 30 scholarships, which she has to reapply for each year. They range from a couple hundred dollars, to a couple thousand.

All of my kids were working by 16, the two in college are working a minimum of 25 hours a week in order to stay in school. My son has a cart that he wheels to the bar area of town on Wed and the weekends, selling hot dogs. They go for $2.00, he keeps 1 and the other goes to the cart owner/hot dog provider. It's a great job in the fall or spring, but pretty cold right now. Yet, he does it, because he wants to go to school.

You do realize that when they graduate, regardless of GPA, their resumes will reflect their work ethic? Something that will get them further than if I was paying the bills and the son was in the bar instead of waiting on the patrons?

 

[DKSuddeth]

Of course, some of us never went to college (like me) and have done pretty decent with respects to field advancement in their chosen profession.

I started in the early 90's learning how to build PC's and since that time, with no schooling whatsoever, have now made it to the network engineer/administrator level.

It can be done. I have to admit, though, that having a degree would open up a lot more doors for me and would also elevate my income level, however, its my perception that if a company refuses to hire me based on my education credentials instead of my work history and experience, then its their loss....not mine.