How do you think wage levels should be determined?
How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Yawper
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/13/04
#1How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:21pm
I'm curious about how people think wage levels should be determined across various jobs and industries. The reason is I have seen wage levels in some jobs that are out of this world and others that are little more than subsistence. Sometimes the wages are driven by collective bargaining, other times by being a field that's in demand in a bubbling industry, other times just by a good business culture that allows company profitability. Education level seems to have little to do with it, other than if you pick the wrong field you could be screwed from the start. What sparked my question was seeing a report that bought out autoworkers (and others, I'm sure) are retraining as nurses and stepping into jobs earning $60K+ while most people can't even afford medical insurance anymore.
What do you think?
#2re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:32pmBy lack of bigotry.
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#2re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:48pm
This is such a sprawling topic that it can hardly be covered in an internet posting.
I think you have to think about what is needed in a society. There is a reason why a garbage collector with no high school diploma makes more than a librarian with a PhD.
I think you have to think about supply and demand. There is a reason why a person making rotary phones makes less than a person making cellphones.
You have to take into account how many people are out there that can solve an employer's problems. The reason fast food pays so little is because almost anyone can do the job. The reason brain surgery pays so much is because a person with steady hands and a large intelligence is needed.
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#3re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:53pm
1: Your knowledge of the job
2: Your lack of whining
Yawper
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/13/04
#4re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:56pmand the high school diploma holding owner of a cellphone store can make more than a PhD holding librarian
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#5re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 1:58pm
"and the high school diploma holding owner of a cellphone store can make more than a PhD holding librarian"
According to Bill Gates, that is a definite YES!
#6re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 4:57pm
"I think you have to think about what is needed in a society. There is a reason why a garbage collector with no high school diploma makes more than a librarian with a PhD."
I view a garbage collector as much more necessary to society than a librarian. No contest. Pay the garbage man more than a librarian.
If the tax payers are instrumental in determining salaries, as in education, well, we're out of luck. They don't value education enough to vote for higher salaries for teachers. I think teachers are THE most underpaid workers in the US.
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#7re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 5:03pm
Taxpayers have no rights. Their sole job is to stand there & be fleeced.
It has been reported in a NYC local today that shortly NYC will be paying more to retirees than current employees. Unions have refused to make concessions & scream bloody murder when their are layoffs. Where do they think the money comes from? This could not be maintained even if Wall St had not gone belly up.
It should prove interesting how Bloomy will handle negotiations when the municipal unions want more money and the cupboard is truly bare. I do not think Bloomy has a clue. If reelected, he will spring it on us than.
Yawper
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/13/04
#8re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 8:13pm
"It has been reported in a NYC local today that shortly NYC will be paying more to retirees than current employees."
That's happening everywhere and it's not just unions. Salaried defined benefit pension plans are usually much more lucrative, especially for politicians and other public servants.
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#9re: How do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 8:19pmNo, the reason the garbage man makes more money than a schoolteacher is mob connections. Uh, at least that's how it was where I grew up. (And the cops in those suburbs make obscene amounts because any municipal official who thinks about lowering police staff or freezing their salaries suddenly finds themselves getting pulled over, harrassed, and ticketed a whole lot more than before. Good times.)
#10how do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 8:31pmwages should be set the same way everything else is: i will tell you what you get, bitches!
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#11how do you think wage levels should be determined?
Posted: 3/29/09 at 8:51pmI trust Papa's judgment to pay me what I'm worth.
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