I'm gonna rant, cause I have a rant and this is the only place I can really post it and actually get responses to it from a few people who know shit about the subject. So leggo.
People and articles talk and debate and go on about "wage inequality", but nothing really gets done about it. Sure lately there have been legislation here in Seattle about a Cost of Living Wage which has widespread support. The act would demand companies to increase their employee's minimum wage up to $15 an hour by the end of the next three years. Of course though, many people are pissed about this, complaining that slackers working low end jobs are demanding too much, instead of trying to climb up the ladder themselves. That may be true to a point, but then again, the market is shit in this age. It's a horrible experience to try and find a higher end job. I know personally of people who just cannot get hired because of their age and or gender, and are always passed up for younger workers. And even then, the applicant to position ratio is disgusting. Here in Washington there's usually five hundred applicants to one open position. When a Target store opened near downtown Seattle, five thousand people applied for work there.
And then to my more specific point, when people DO actually land a job, the wage is so shit that they either don't bring in enough to support themselves, or just barely earn enough. This forces people to try and work a second job, thus overworking them just so they can pay bills. And in this kind of economy, companies can choose how much to pay someone on a case by case basis. In my personal position, my company determines your wage based on both your pay grade, and the amount of prior experience you're applying with. Now I'll give you an example. I was hired on last year with no experience at all at $9 an hour, while my coworker, who was younger, but had held a job previously at another retail chain, was given a wage three dollars more than me. The two of us were working the same exact position, doing the same work, and a lot of the time I even went above and beyond his ethic. But in the end he still earned more than I did. This is my number one reason why I believe America needs a Fair Wage Law.
When I say "fair wage", I mean that companies should be forced to assign a single base wage for each position in their company, thus paying every employee the same amount in their respective title regardless of their prior experience. In my view of things, prior experience has no effect on the current work a person does compared to a coworker that has no prior experience. Employee A and Employee B work the same job, doing the same effort and the same work, therefore they should be earning the same amount, thus increasing equality and removing the risk of internal disputes based on pay.
Ugh. Finally have that out.
People and articles talk and debate and go on about "wage inequality", but nothing really gets done about it. Sure lately there have been legislation here in Seattle about a Cost of Living Wage which has widespread support. The act would demand companies to increase their employee's minimum wage up to $15 an hour by the end of the next three years. Of course though, many people are pissed about this, complaining that slackers working low end jobs are demanding too much, instead of trying to climb up the ladder themselves. That may be true to a point, but then again, the market is shit in this age. It's a horrible experience to try and find a higher end job. I know personally of people who just cannot get hired because of their age and or gender, and are always passed up for younger workers. And even then, the applicant to position ratio is disgusting. Here in Washington there's usually five hundred applicants to one open position. When a Target store opened near downtown Seattle, five thousand people applied for work there.
And then to my more specific point, when people DO actually land a job, the wage is so shit that they either don't bring in enough to support themselves, or just barely earn enough. This forces people to try and work a second job, thus overworking them just so they can pay bills. And in this kind of economy, companies can choose how much to pay someone on a case by case basis. In my personal position, my company determines your wage based on both your pay grade, and the amount of prior experience you're applying with. Now I'll give you an example. I was hired on last year with no experience at all at $9 an hour, while my coworker, who was younger, but had held a job previously at another retail chain, was given a wage three dollars more than me. The two of us were working the same exact position, doing the same work, and a lot of the time I even went above and beyond his ethic. But in the end he still earned more than I did. This is my number one reason why I believe America needs a Fair Wage Law.
When I say "fair wage", I mean that companies should be forced to assign a single base wage for each position in their company, thus paying every employee the same amount in their respective title regardless of their prior experience. In my view of things, prior experience has no effect on the current work a person does compared to a coworker that has no prior experience. Employee A and Employee B work the same job, doing the same effort and the same work, therefore they should be earning the same amount, thus increasing equality and removing the risk of internal disputes based on pay.
Ugh. Finally have that out.