Competing for Minimum Wages....

[catnhatnh]

Back in the sixties,when I occassionally TOOK a minimum wage job, the fact was that I was settling and selling short-I fully expected that two weeks on any job was enough to show I was worth MORE.....I knew that not only was I "better than average" in terms of what was expected of a minimum wage employee, but that my employer knew Damn Well that I wouldn't stay long at that rate...Sadly today,this is not the case....the outsourcing of jobs and pushing for "productivity" has come directly from the hides of entry level workers-the bosses know that for the most part anything over minimum will bring them college graduates.....So "mere" HS grads can bite it...and workers can fight each other for what scraps remain....I'm glad I'm out of the market....

[pooja]

1. you are so right. A college education means maybe

if you are lucky 30,000 salary...Most of the time its the same as if you had a h.s. diploma starting out the door.

[catnhatnh]

3. Yep....

...in my chosen final private sector jobs I made between 45-50K with only a GED...I worked hard in jobs that needed both brawn and brains....and it took me 30 years to get there...but I made it to the low end of middle class....But young people won't- the shame of this country is that EVEN a masters degree can find no working home. The government says to be nimble and retrain-WHY??? Most have no use for the training they have....Our country has become a lie and I hope you or your children revolt...

[Selatius]

4. Retraining is difficult if you have to do it alone

Juggling time between classes and a job just to cover tuition costs is not easy. It is far easier said than done, and I can see why more and more people don't entertain the thought of going to college because of the increasing costs.

[blues90]

5. I did the same but

I managed to work my way up to a management position and was lucky because it was getting difficult for me to do the hard labor work I did for so many years and I thought being in the automotive repair field was a secure postion working at ford dealerships , well I was wrong , now I'm without a job for 4 1/2 months and can't find another job in this field , now I am over qualified and told so so now I have to keep looking and it does not look promising , I can't even find a job for more than $9 per hour and I was at the 55,000 mark , not great pay for all the years and it was a lot of hours but I did make the money , now I'm screwed . Now i don't know what will happen .

[Warpy]

2. College grads here are trying to get retail jobs

and we all know how lousy that pay is. I think they're all hoping that if they don't get anything in their field, they'll move into store management, regional management, then be on their way.

Sadly, most won't. They will be stuck, working too many hours to look for something better, not earning enough to live on, and certainly getting no benefits and risking disaster for even mild illnesses.

It happens like this every time the GOP gets in, too.