Will the end of the Pandemic Unemployment Benefits turn a worker's market into a manager's market?

#101
#101
Boston Vol said:
Here I’ll do it fo you. I’ll use my current city, Lexington, KY as an example. Not a huge city, but well north of 300k inhabitants and the second highest cost of living in the state.

So we’re going to go with $2500 a month. That’s not an exact figure, but with full time hours at a wage of $20 that’s at least a fair number.

rent-$800 a month. There are certainly much cheaper apartments in Lexington, but $800 a month is a pretty decent apartment.

Car payment-$250 a month. I would guess that $250 a month gets you a pretty nice vehicle. I pay $297 a month for my BMW, so I would assume that $250 a month would get you a pretty decent car.

Car insurance-$130 a month? Now this would obviously depend on your driving history, but I think $130 is certainly a reasonable guess for what one would pay.

Utilities- $120 electric, this will be lower in the summer and obviously higher in the winter, but for an apartment I think this is a fair average payment for the year.

Water-$40. Most apartments these days will add your water bill to to your monthly rent payment. And in a lot of cases this will actually lower your payment as they divide the total amount they are charged by the water company by the number of tenants that they have. But again, we’ll go with $40.

Internet-$60? I can’t speak for everyone in Lexington but I pay $56 a month for internet only service through spectrum.

Cell phone-$110? That’s sounds reasonable for one line these days. That’s probably even a little high.

So using these numbers, you would still have almost $1000 a month left over for gas, healthcare, food, etc. So yes it’s pretty obvious that $20 an hour, in a decent size city, with a nice apartment and fairly nice car, is more than enough to live on.
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You forgot the $300 per month for student loan repayment for that sociology degree, and the $400 per month Capital One 24% credit card bill for the iPad, Apple TV and 55" TV.
 
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#102
#102
McDad said:
Curious about advancement. If unskilled worker comes in at $16 at your work and does an adequate job (nothing special), what does their advancement (if any) and pay look like after say 5 years?
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With us an unskilled trainee tech comes in between $17-$19 depending on where they are working out of. If they apply themselves get a CDL, learn to operate machinery and get all of their certifications they will be somewhere in the $30 hr range in 5 years.
 
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#103
#103
utvolpj said:
Not completely sure but annual raises are always there and if they learn to drive special equip (they started at $17 over 3yrs ago) that adds to their base rate. After 5yrs they better be at least a team lead which also comes with a bump. Maybe $23-25 by that time?

There's also the path to supervisor but in this campus it would likely take at least some time on nights. All about what you're willing to make it
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Maybe it is cognitive bias but it seems the opportunity for advancement of the unskilled worker is accelerated now compared to 20+ years ago.
 
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#104
#104
hog88 said:
With us an unskilled trainee tech comes in between $17-$19 depending on where they are working out of. If they apply themselves get a CDL, learn to operate machinery and get all of their certifications they will be somewhere in the $30 hr range in 5 years.
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Does your company help them navigate gaining those certifications or provide resources to them to gain certs?
 
#105
#105
volfanhill said:
In fairness you left off payroll taxes. So it's not $2,500 a month.
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....plus insurance, property taxes, and retirment. Add in healthcare and $100/wk for groceries and $2500/month is paycheck to paycheck.

You can cut here and there and make it work...sure, but $2500 doesn't go as far as one would think.
 
#106
#106
Rasputin_Vol said:
Tells you about the character of that person that is now going to crawl out and seek employment.

I wonder if it is even worth putting up with the hassle of even hiring them because you already see that you don't have a go-getter or someone with motivation.
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Yeah, if I was interviewing someone and it wasn’t clear by their resume/application what they were doing the past year then I would make sure to ask about the gap on their resume.
 
#108
#108
rjd970 said:
....plus insurance, property taxes, and retirment. Add in healthcare and $100/wk for groceries and $2500/month is paycheck to paycheck.

You can cut here and there and make it work...sure, but $2500 doesn't go as far as one would think.
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it’s paycheck to paycheck in a lot of places, but also more than enough to survive in most places. No one is suggesting that $38k was living the high life. I was simply responding to a comment that $20 an hour was unlivable in 90% of the country. Which of course is a load of sh*t.
 
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#109
#109
Boston Vol said:
it’s paycheck to paycheck in a lot of places, but also more than enough to survive in most places. No one is suggesting that $38k was living the high life. I was simply responding to a comment that $20 an hour was unlivable in 90% of the country. Which of course is a load of sh*t.
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Waiting tables in the early to mid 90s, I averaged $12 per hour tips and wage. That is equivalent to about $22 today. I reported about $5 an hour. Different resources show server averages about $10-$15 now. If tip reporting is about the same, then servers are actually making between $24 to $36 an hour. Bartenders even more. @volfanhill and @DinkinFlicka can likely give anecdotal evidence from their industry.
 
#111
#111
McDad said:
Waiting tables in the early to mid 90s, I averaged $12 per hour tips and wage. That is equivalent to about $22 today. I reported about $5 an hour. Different resources show server averages about $10-$15 now. If tip reporting is about the same, then servers are actually making between $24 to $36 an hour. Bartenders even more. @volfanhill and @DinkinFlicka can likely give anecdotal evidence from their industry.
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How did you handle healthcare? What would you have done if you needed major surgery?
 
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#112
#112
McDad said:
Waiting tables in the early to mid 90s, I averaged $12 per hour tips and wage. That is equivalent to about $22 today. I reported about $5 an hour. Different resources show server averages about $10-$15 now. If tip reporting is about the same, then servers are actually making between $24 to $36 an hour. Bartenders even more. @volfanhill and @DinkinFlicka can likely give anecdotal evidence from their industry.
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Our daughter bartended most of the time she was at UT, when she graduated with her masters and started teaching she took a pay cut and worked more hours.
 
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#113
#113
n_huffhines said:
Not everybody is entitled to live comfortably all the time. I haven't always lived comfortably. I was really poor and it lasted a handful of years. It's how you learn and how you get motivated to do better. It sucks that not everybody is comfortable, but that shouldn't be the primary goal of an economy. You shouldn't be comfortable as a low skill laborer. Comfort/discomfort is the reason industry comes from cold, hard uncomfortable places and the tropics historically produced little-to-nothing.
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This may be one of your best posts .
 
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#114
#114
hog88 said:
With us an unskilled trainee tech comes in between $17-$19 depending on where they are working out of. If they apply themselves get a CDL, learn to operate machinery and get all of their certifications they will be somewhere in the $30 hr range in 5 years.
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Do you offer a program to help / pay for the Certs?
 
#115
#115
rjd970 said:
How did you handle healthcare? What would you have done if you needed major surgery?
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I had a policy through college at MTSU. I have no idea about coverage because I never needed it. I suspect is was a bare bones, catastrophic policy.
 
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#117
#117
hog88 said:
Pay for it all. It’s part of the continuing education program.

Been screwed a few times but for the most part we’ve been successful with it.
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Nice , props to you brother . I understand the chances you take but it’s a great way to give someone a chance to do something they might not be able to otherwise , that’s how I got my start .
 
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#118
#118
Just playing around on Google. They offer Google Career Certificates in areas like IT support, Data Analytics, UX Design, etc. Completely online, suggested less than 10 hours a week to study, $39 a month, links you to careers that have average entry salary of 63,600 across certificate fields.

How can you not make it in today's world?
 
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#119
#119
allvol123 said:
Just playing around on Google. They offer Google Career Certificates in areas like IT support, Data Analytics, UX Design, etc. Completely online, suggested less than 10 hours a week to study, $39 a month, links you to careers that have average entry salary of 63,600 across certificate fields.

How can you not make it in today's world?
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LAZY?
Choose to spend your online time gaming, or high, instead of studying.
 
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#124
#124
Tyler Durden said:
Good luck getting by on $13/hr anywhere. Let's not act like $13/hr is a super duper deal for anybody anywhere. Corporations have been conducting highway robbery for 30 years, and now when the scales finally start balancing people want to act like these poor executives with million dollar homes and $300 haircuts have it so rough. Disgusting.
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You understand that minimum wage was designed to live off of. It was designed as a starting pay. With that understanding thatvthe employee will get raises or promotions.
 
#125
#125
rjd970 said:
....plus insurance, property taxes, and retirment. Add in healthcare and $100/wk for groceries and $2500/month is paycheck to paycheck.

You can cut here and there and make it work...sure, but $2500 doesn't go as far as one would think.
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I made 2500/wk work in Atlanta. You can make 40 bucks a week work for groceries. And not be pure ramen.

You arent paying property taxes at minimum wage.

It's my continuous rant. People want to live in a mcmansion, drive the newest mustang, three kids, have the newest phones and other widgets and then complain that 7.25 an hour isnt enough. Its backwards.

You make 7.25, so you rent a crappy apartment, you have a crappy used car. No phones or widgets. And you have enough let to feed, clothe, and medicate yourself.

Our nation has no concept of what is actually required for sustenance.
 
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