Archived pay raise at our store
- Thread starter K AA
- Start date
- Status
B
Barcode
Guest
Why get angry at the top 1%? Many (but not all) of them worked to get where they are and/or took a huge risk on something. I'm perfectly fine with them making as much as they are. If we take that away and normalize wealth, it won't give people something to work towards.
The rich/successful life is a carrot dangling in front of peoples head to motivate them. If we take that away, people won't take the same risks, innovation will starve, and people will settle for being "average".
I wouldn't have been as eager to finish College if i was making over $15 as a GSA. Is that a good thing?
But in all honesty, how many of us could hope to get that carrot? 100, 1,000, 10,000 at most? And better yet, do you mean to tel me that if instead of making 30 million, you wouldn't settle for say 15 million? Seriously? What does one do with that kind of money? And if you can make 15$ without going to college then why should you go? Really?! To make more than that clearly. 15$ is still barely livable, but at least you could afford to spend money. BTW, to be a college graduate, you clearly don't know much about economic theories. In order to make money, you have to spend money. If people can't spend money, you're not making it. That's why government assistance is so lucrative to business...so they can get away with pay shit wages and have the financial return viapublic. Speaking of assistance, you do realize if the amount of taxes that get spent on government assistance and war profiteering were spent directly on the public, we could all have decent livelihoods?
Naw...its much easier to attack your fellow worker who is willing to fight for their rights. Imvsorry, but if being able to afford groceries would be enough to prevent you from going to college, maybe you shouldn't have gone in the first place.
B
Barcode
Guest
There's a fair number of people who break the million dollar mark. The hope of becoming wealthy is what fuels people to become educated, take risks, and be creative. Some of the richest people took a risk that could have ruined them, and it paid off for them in the end.
Invest it, start a business, spend it (and pay taxes).
It's not the only reason I went of course 😉 But it would be one less reason to finish college for many people.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
Then of course you can finish college, hell even get a couple of degrees and still make less than the average TL.
My friend was a college professor for years had multiple degrees and yet didn't make enough to keep from loosing his house.
He also didn't get health insurance.
For every tenured professor there are a dozen adjunct professors who are barely getting by because colleges have become like retail and are cutting corners like you wouldn't believe.
There was one last year who died of malnutrition and she was a leading expert on Greek Lit.
It's bad for teachers too.
A profession that was once respected is being treated like garbage.
My wife had a degree in Mathematics and could have worked as an actuary making six figures, as a teacher she made a third of that.
College, the trades, they aren't a magic solution.
What was a hot job one year, a couple of years down the road can become obsolete or glutted.
If someone is working a full shift they should be able to afford a roof over the head, food, electricity, heat. water, clothes, communication, and health care.
If they have kids they should be able to send them to school.
Now there are ways we can do this.
Support them through the government, which currently spends 10% of the federal budget on working and non-working poor (which includes some of your TMs) which of course would make all the "I don't want to pay more taxes deficit arglebargle." people very unhappy.
Tell the people who control rent, food and health care costs that they can't charge as much... right, that's going to work in AMURICA!!!!!
Or ask the companies who have been making massive profits and sucking off the government tit by paying their people starvation wages so the workers have to go on welfare to survive (not to mention the tax breaks the companies get from states and cities as incentive to set up -- which we pay for) to start keeping pace with the level of inflation and production.
Door number three sounds like the best option to me.
tl:dr Screw em, people deserve to get paid.
Last edited:
B
Barcode
Guest
In Minnesota 15/hr is a pretty good wage.
High school and college kids would go unemployed here if the wage went that high.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
I don't have a problem with a lower minimum wage for kids still living at home like they do in Australia.
College kids should be paid the same as anybody else, they often are trying to pay more bills than some folks who aren't going to school.
B
Barcode
Guest
Like I said in another thread, lower minimum wages for younger people would cause imbalance the opposite way. Target would exclusively hire only younger people for positions due to the cheaper labor.
You can't make the minimum wage different for certain age groups, it would be discriminatory to say the least.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
Not at all because the other laws and circumstances that keep them from hiring nothing but kids would keep it from happening.
They can't work past certain hours, during certain hour and only so many hour a week because of school.
They can't sell alcohol, they can't operate certain machinery, etc. etc.
So no Target couldn't hire just kids.
We currently have a lower minimum wage for restaurant workers, farmers, family members, etc. so doing it for younger workers is not a problem.
I also say get rid of tipping and go to the full wage for restaurant workers.
Screw begging as a way of making a living.
B
Barcode
Guest
Target already hires mostly kids as it is for most N03 paygrade positions. If they get to hire kids at a cheaper labor rate, they will obviously do it more than they already do.
Regardless of whether it works or not, it would be highly discriminatory reducing someones hourly wage based on their age. Also in violation of EEOC regulations might I add.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
As I said there are already tons of exemptions in the minimum wage law.
Having one that gives a slightly lower wage to teenagers wouldn't be hard or discriminatory considering that it would be across the board.
The store isn't discriminating so there is no EEOC problem, they are following the law.
Now would the law pass the Supreme Court?
All the other exemptions have been challenged at one time or another and passed, so considering the makeup of the court most probably.
redeye58
Hasta Ba Rista, Baby!
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2011
- Messages
- 21,614
...which is why my store stopped hiring minors years ago - because of what they COULDN'T do.
During my last two years they hired a couple of minors, kids/siblings of several TMs.
Half washed out pretty quick because they thought their relative's status would protect them: it didn't.
Minors are now considered on a case by case basis & usually have to have a referral from someone within.
Full time, that would be about half of median income for the state, which is about where it should be.
Minnesota is top 10 in country for median income. Yeah, there are local differences in income (and cost of living), so they should set a lower state minimum wage (say 11 or 12) and big cities should go higher.
$15 per hour would be bad for a state like...Mississippi, their median income is 35k.
Like I said before, $15 wouldn't work everywhere. Federally, I would phase it in to $11 or $12, then index to inflation.
Current federal minimum wage is 37% of median income which is pathetic. In Australia, their national minimum wage ($17) is pretty exceptional among developed nations, but their unemployment rate has bounced around between 5 and 6 percent for last decade and they didn't have a recession in 07-09.
Last edited:
thetargetman
I am a Guest once again!
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1,191
Maybe if the Big shot corporate people took a pay cut maybe we workers could have a better pay.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2015
- Messages
- 941
10.50/hr would be amazing. I live in an area with a pretty high cost of living but most TMs still seem to make between 9-9.50
B
Barcode
Guest
Why do people who make less want to punish those who make more? I don't get it.
thetargetman
I am a Guest once again!
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1,191
maybe because Target refuses to give us a livable wage!
B
Barcode
Guest
Or you could like get a job that pays a livable wage. Like the rest of us did.
thetargetman
I am a Guest once again!
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 1,191
yea I did do that.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
Punish?
I don't think it has anything to do with punish.
It's clear that that most people clearly recognize that those CEO's wouldn't be making that kind money except for the fact that the people on the bottom are being squeezed down to nothing.
How about that evil prick that bought the rights to Daraprim and jacked it up from $13 to $750 overnight?
A drug that had been around for sixty years, worked fine, all the research was done, and this hotshot CEO decided that he had to make more money off of desperate AIDs and cancer patients.
And even after being called out on it, he hasn't changed the price.
You think we don't have every reason in the world to punish people like that?
All the countries in the world that have a higher standard of living than we do (and I mean for everybody, not just the rich) tax the rich more heavily.
They also have something else in common, they have a higher happiness index than we do.
Make of that what you will.
(edited for clarity)
Last edited:
B
Barcode
Guest
I might not agree with a CEO who would do something like that, but they have every right to do that considering it's their product. We could change pharmaceutical regulations I guess, but would have to be careful how we do it. There can be some high research and development costs for a lot of drugs, and if we make the drugs too cheap it will lower incentive for companies to spend money on research & development for life saving drugs. Patents already expire after a certain number of years and then generics can be made for cheap. I know they were only $6 at Target for a while -- pretty reasonable.
Also you can't compare two different sides of the world like it's black and white, there are cultural differences to say the least. Our problems aren't just as easily fixed by copying what other countries do. Also I think it's silly to let some study dictate what your happiness level is. If you aren't happy in your current life situation you should be doing something to remedy it, not complain that other countries have it better than we do (they don't anyways).
EDIT: Just realized this isn't in Off Topic and we're going in that direction ... I'll just leave my opinion at that on the matter.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2011
- Messages
- 20,175
Cornell, is that you?
- Status
