$7.25 is a starvation wage.

So you figured out a way to attract talent and to keep them....AMAZING!~

 

I had an interesting conversation with a very good friend. He is a gay businessman and owns a basket factory. It is a sizable factory and provides baskets to farmers in three states. He has thirty factory workers and another dozen that are higher compensated management type positions…… He cannot get his factory employees to come to work. His starting wage is ten dollars an hour. His employees earn fifteen an hour staying hone and collecting the federal unemployment perk….. But you may say that ten bucks an hour is chicken feed. Well, we live in a rural area and our cost of living is quite moderate here…… My friend is very liberal and has quite the issue with a $15.00 an hour mandated minimum wage. It isn’t just the the fifty percent increase in his expense will have to be passed on as much as it is that his management positions that do earn $15.00 an hour will have to be increased as well….. that’s fine you say. Well, we aren’t talking about New York cost of living here. This is rural America…… My buddy is meeting with a local center that houses mentally handicapped folks tomorrow to see if they could come to work for him. The farmers will need baskets soon and he simply has nobody to make them.

I didn’t fabricate this. It’s a conversation I just had with a good friend. If you want to mandate fifteen bucks an hour, consider what you are doing. Rural America does not have the same cost of living as Chicago or New York. The fed needs to get out of the way of business. It’s been six months and the economy is falling to pieces already. Imagine what another 3 1/2 years of this will do to us.

 

meanwhile those people don't have insurance, and aren't contributing to their 401ks or social security. Not too bright. their unemployment benefits were earned though, just like the medicare and SS you whine about but want. how long does unemployment last where you live? here I think it is 6 months.

 

so how is it you can keep workers but he can't? I live in every bit as rural part of the country that you do.
you said 7.25 an hour is a entry level teenager job. but 10/ hour isn't??

the signs here are saying 17 hr to start.

 

Cherry-picking again?

 

I saw something fascinating in Northern Minnesota this week. There was a sign advertising for open position at a McDonald's. It literally read:

Now Hiring:

14-15 year old workers $11 per hour
16-17 year old workers $13 per hour
18-20 year old workers $14 per hour
21 and up $15 per hour.

I couldn't believe that I was reading. This is the very definition of age discrimination. I wish that I had taken a picture of this sign. You can't pay people different wages to do the same work based on age. I wonder how they got away with this?

 

just observing what's outside my truck window as i drive by and read posted signs

 

So what was the lowest you saw? What do you think the average is in your area?

 

That does smack of age discrimination..... However it also seems to be a reasonable compromise to the question of minimum wage requirements.

 

Yeah, it's kind of strange to see it in print.

 

You could pay someone less to do a lesser job. That isn't unusual. What is unusual is posting the wages as a function of age. That you don't see very often.

 

maybe in the teens. 11 is around the bottom

 

What kind of business? Is it possible they're being hired for different jobs by age?

Like:
14-15 -- cleaning
16-17 -- cleaning + cashier
18-20 -- assistant manager
21+ -- supervisor

 

McDonald's

 

Yeah, take age out of it . . . If employers truly want to advertise scaled wages, they should do so as a function of demonstrable productivity in the offered position.

 

I think they call that probation.

On another subject, The New York Times has a exposé about Amazon workers in New York. They apparently have a 150% yearly turnover rate. Amazon isn't interested in long-term employees. There is zero upward mobility because that is the way the work environment is structured. They don't want to have employees that want to build careers. They want to use employees and then get rid of them and hire new ones. This is the very definition of disposable employees.

 

Probation is monitoring one's ability to perform in the absence of a proven track record.

Order fulfillment in Amazon warehouses, Walmart warehouses, Nike Warehouses, etc . . . all are jobs designed for commoditized workers. Attract low-skilled workers with high pay and wear them out . . . rinse and repeat.

 

Wouldn't be a big issue if some small company practiced this type of worker exploitation but Amazon is about to eclipse Walmart as the largest private owned employer in the country.

 

read this comment in another forum

"
There is a corporate employment model of burning out your employees. Churn through them, fire them, and hire someone new. The management technique is unending hostility. This gets people running on adrenaline, which is good fuel in the short term.

This is what minimum wage people experience. About a year ago I was working at Walmart — that is the setup I experienced. Harass people until they get injured or leave.

This morning I read an article in The Wall Street Journal about dead peasants insurance. Corporations buy life insurance on some employees. If the employee dies, the corporation gets all the benefits — tax free. Bereavement benefits are tax free.

No point in keeping your employees alive, if you can make a buck off of them…."
------

I notice the "burn through them" approach even in my office. we have had a 100 percent turnover rate if you count it as multiple people being replaced. Only a few people here have 5 years, I have 13

 

Walmart Sued For Collecting Life Insurance on Employees | WFSU News