Aren’t they forgetting a few people?
The subject of this press release is the newly-upgraded Wal-Mart in Palmdale, CA:
“We are thrilled with the number of applications we’ve received. Working for Wal-Mart provides a number of job opportunities and choices for so many people, from seniors looking for supplemental income to young people just starting their work experience,†said [store manager Debbie] Escobar. The average wage in California for full-time, regular associates at Wal-Mart is $10.95 per hour.
Teenagers? Check. Senior citizens? Check. People looking for a career or who have families to feed? [Insert sound of crickets chirping here.]
If the largest private employer in America is planning on filling all its new openings with teenagers and senior citizens, America is going to run out of teenagers and senior citizens who want lousy jobs very, very quickly.
>People looking for a career or who have families to feed?
Those people should try getting a job that doesn’t fall in the “no skills/low skills category” Not a McJob.
UncleBob:
I don’t know where you live, but in much of the country those with high skills have seen their jobs move to China. They are taking “no skills/low skills” jobs because that’s all that’s available.
Try talking to some people in the rust belt. The NY Times had an article about Maytag closing up this week. Read it and see if you think that everything is the fault of the workers.
Is There (Middle Class) Life After Maytag?
Never said it was the fault of the workers. Although, one has to wonder how many of those workers enjoyed all of the cheap Chinese crap before *their* jobs went overseas.
It sounds to me that if a McJob is all you can get, then you really need to re-evaluate your life. Perhaps go back to school. Start your own business. I just find it hard to blame a company that hires someone to do no skill/low skill labor for *not* paying enough for single-mother-of-three to raise her children.
And I’m always amused when I hear someone who’s expecting *another* child sitting in the breakroom complaining about how they don’t have enough money.
Wal*Mart is (as wages go) a fine place to work as a secondary source of income or for someone who’s situation in life doesn’t make them income-oriented (i.e.: teenager in school with parents or grants paying for everything). Wal*Mart isn’t and hasn’t been for quite some time a place to work as a primary source of income for a household. I swear, I don’t hear people complaining that McDonald’s employees and newspaper delivery boys don’t get paid a “living wage”….
Okay, I read your article and here’s what I saw.
So you’ve got a bunch of over-paid workers. I say they were over-paid, since it would appear a similar factory is doing quite well in Ohio (as the article points out), but paying quite a bit less in wages. In fact, I believe that article mentioned the Ohio factory was adding 1,000 jobs. I also say over-paid since, as the same article points out, it’s nearly impossible to find a job that pays anywhere near the same wage in Newton.
So, you get all of these over-paid employees together at one location… is anyone at all surprised that this location gets closed down? I wonder if they would have kept the factory open if the employees would have agreed to pay more in-line with other US Whirlpool factory workers?
This doesn’t go a long way in convincing me that I should protest against Wal*Mart to pay me more than I’m worth (i.e.: more than employees who do similar low skills/no skills jobs and more than the average local wage).
UB:
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you leave me to assume one of two possible scenarios:
1. You are a terrible employee because you’re not worth more than the McJob paycheck you regularly receive.
2. You are the only person in the entire US economy who would turn down a raise, thereby making you the living embodiement of why all economist’s assumptions are wrong.
Neither is very flattering. Don’t you think you should work harder or perhaps at least improve your self image?
I feel that I am a good employee who makes a fair wage. Is that so wrong?
What makes you a good employee? Are you better than everyone else at work or are you all getting what you worth? Why can’t you go out and get a better job at better pay?
Seriously Bob, you seem like a smart guy. Isn’t there something better out there for you?
I can’t speak for my co-workers, as I don’t know exactly what they get paid and how they feel about their work performance vs. their wage. Honestly, I can say that I don’t think most Wal*Mart employees that I’ve worked with complain about their wage that much – or even benefits. I think it’s mostly the crap we get shoveled on us from both Home Office and our more-local management teams.
As far as what’s better out there, all of our jobs went overseas, so we’re out of luck. 🙂
Seriously though, I’ve commuted before and I *don’t* want to do that again. I live in a economically depressed area and there’s really nothing here short of coal mines (wife wouldn’t let me even if I wanted), fast food and other McJobs and a few factories. Wal*Mart is about the best paying employer in this town (short of the coal mine and one of the factories). Unfortunately, moving isn’t an option, as my wife literally works for a “Mom and Pop” outfit (her parents) and, as much as I’ve tried, I can’t seem to tear her away from it. 😉
And I’d love to start my own business, but, unfortunately, I just don’t think my dream job of video arcade owner would work out well in this town… 😉