Moonglow
Diamond Member
I pay bricklayers more than you do your degreed staff.As someone who employs people, I like knowing that the people who work for me want to stay working for me. Salaries at my companies are considered generous compared to others. That's because it's better to pay someone well over a prolonged period of time than it is to keep having to retrain new people because employees keep leaving for a better paying gig.
When someone is hired by one of my companies, if the person has a college degree in the area in which he (or she) is being employed, that gets reflected in their pay. Someone who's hired working with electronics will get paid more if he has a college degree in, say, electronic engineering. If you get hired by me, you're going to make at least $23.85 an hour from the start, and that goes up after 90 days. After six months a person's record is reviewed and, if warranted, pay is increased again. As a company owner, I can see a definite value in a college degree. In lieu of a degree, if someone has some protracted experience in the field, that will also see the same result and pay will be affected similarly.
I came across as ad today that just makes me shake my head. A company is hiring for a position (what it is isn't really important). The requirements are not very different than you would find in many ads: "the successful candidate will have a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree and a minimum of four years experience" is pretty much how it read. I've seen that a lot.
The problem is that the employer is only offering a starting pay of $15. The high school drop out flipping burgers at Jiffy Chef is making that. This particular employer, though, wants a four year degree and an additional four years experience working in the field.
This is astounding to me. If I hire someone with a degree and four years experience, they're flirtin' with $30 an hour right from the start. I can't imagine telling someone with a college education and experience that he's only worth $15 an hour.
Everyone wants to talk about giving people a "living wage". Well, for someone who's college educated, with experience, $15 an hour isn't a living wage. Employers need to realize that...