Saturday, August 25, 2007

Montana's Employment Woes

Montana, in the midst of a fifteen-year economic boom with unemployment rates as low as 2%, is having problems finding workers willing to work for $12.00/hr.

No surprise there.

The average weekly earnings in the United States in July 2007 was $596.76.

$12/hr is $480/week, or $116.76 below the national average.

It seems that the today's Montana worker is aware that the average hourly wage is $14.92/hr, and that they would have to work for five weeks to get four weeks worth of pay at the presently offered $12.00/hr.

Sounds like Montana workers are starting to say "Screw that".

Until Montana businesses start paying at least the average wage, it looks like their problems with worker shortages will continue.

I was in the New York area for awhile in the early nineties. I went to a MacDonald's for lunch one day and noticed a sign on the counter: Now hiring counter workers - starting pay $11.87/hr. That was fourteen years ago.

What does your local MacDonald's pay for a counter worker today? what were they paying in 1993?

Seems that New York understands that to get help, you have to pay for it.

3 comments:

TheWayfarer said...

Yeah, let's hear it for Jew York, where half of that $11.87/hr will go for federal, state and local income taxes, and a good chunk of the rest in hidden consumption taxes.
BTW, how much was your "Big Mac"? Quite a bit more than they go for in Texas, I would reckon!

Why is it so many think a government handout is only wrong if they're not the idiot being bribed with it?

Erik said...

The reason that the $12/hr is the start is due to the lack of workers. Given more unemployment that rate would go down, and rather quickly. New York is just an extreme example of that.

Here in Colorado $12/hr isn't bad, in Hawaii it would be poverty.

TheWayfarer said...

I'm quite certain it's poverty line in Jew York as well, with all the HITLERy types that have their hands in your pocket, the exorbitant rates charged for housing, parking and groceries, and new cockamamie regulations and regulators being signed into law everyday so the Imperialism State can live off proles further.
But don't give up hope, Bobert: Dubya, Bene-DICK XVwhatever and La Raza are doing all they can to bring similar destitution to you quickly.