Forum Post: Appropriate Dispersal of Wealth
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 1, 2011, 3:26 p.m. EST by RationalDiscussion
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With the talk of everyone getting a fair share of the pie, I wonder what you think should be the base salary for each of these positions for a 40hr work week, and 2 weeks paid vacation.
Fast Food Employee (Non Manager) Cashier Waitress Cook Plumper Carpenter Welder Manufacturing Machine Operator Truck Driver Middle Manager Secretary CEO Teacher Small Business owner Accountant Lawyer Judge ETC…
Feel free to add your own given the same parameters.
Base pay should be determined by level of experience and the trade you work in. If you feel you are underpaid, then you should look elsewhere for employment. If you end up with more money, that's great. Maybe you're current employer will compete with your potential one and you may even get more money. If not, maybe your employer doesn't like you and you should part ways. That's how the system works. Sometimes is sucks, but sometimes you make out. But I DO NOT want the government telling me what I should be making, The more the government "helps" you out, the more you "owe" the government. In other words, I want the government to stay out of my life, and I will stay out of theirs.
Before we determine hypothetical salaries, we need to determine what kind of America we want to live in: a society of endless rat-race consumption or a society that knows how to maintain itself and enjoy itself without constant relentless novelty. In the latter, there would be a radical reappraisal of how human effort is valuated that would pay sanitation workers more than fashion designers.
In the New York City area, I wouldn't pay the most menial worker less than 11 dollars an hour. That is just my gut feeling on what it takes to live here.
When I hire people to clean or to do odd jobs for me that's what I pay them, even though I can get people who'll work for 7 dollars an hr. I attract better help & I just feel wrong handing someone 30 bucks for 5 hours work.
The Living Wage NYC project say that 11.50 without benefits is what a "living wage" is in NYC.
http://www.livingwagenyc.org/pagedetail.php?id=3
I've heard rumors that fast food counter work is paying as much as 14 dollars an hour because they just can't find people who'll work for less.
But I believe fast food & cashier should earn at least 11 bucks an hour.
Waitresses usually do well with tips, I don't think hourly wage is that much of an issue. If they work somewhere where the tips are sparse, then they should be paid hourly instead.
A small business owner earns what he puts in, there isn't and shouldn't be a limit.
there is nothing wrong with the average worker pay scales , it's the CEO and management that is taking advantage of the unjust laws and bonus's, when i was a kid 1960 , a doctor made maybe 5 times more than a factory worker this was a lot back then because he didn't have to pay that much more tax than a factory worker and it seemed justified, could you imagine a worker bringing home approx $50 a week for a family of 6 and having enough for every need and the wife didn't have to work , then imagine a doctor bringing home 5 times as much , this made him rich compared to most workers and he was worth it , nobody had any credit cards or debt like today ,now everything is about money and greed , i have known good doctors who changed their speciality to become plastic surgeons just because it pays a lot more ,our politicians and professors , lawyers are all corrupt , i have had to deel with 2 lawyers and they both wanted cash and one invited me into the court house stairwell to pay him so that we wouldn't be seen ...how many of you have lived this same expereince , lawyers are supposed to uphold the law and they are some of the worst offenders alive....
Teachers are overpaid. In my town they average $70,000 for 180 days of work. The parents of the children make half that and work over 320 days a year. The teachers bitch about pay more than the parents who pay them.
Would you want a minimum wage worker teaching your children?
Are you saying that the teachers in your town are overpaid because teachers are making less elsewhere, or that $70,000 is too much for a teacher? The former is a trade issue, the latter is a judgment on the value of educators.
When you consider the importance of the work and the amount of time required, teachers are the most grossly underpaid workers in America. Depending on the district, teachers start in the low to mid 40K. Menial workers start well below that, yet without the menial worker nothing else is possible. "Lowliness is the foundation of loftiness, humility is the root of honor." Lao-tzu