11 Jobs Where an Honest Day's Work Earns You Poverty

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/11-jobs-where-honest-days-work-earns-you-poverty



***SNIP

1. Airport workers: Union busting and shrinking public investment have taken their toll on America’s airport employees. LaGuardia Airport was built as a New Deal WPA project aimed at restoring hope and dignity to American workers (and boosting the economy in the process). But today, 12,000 airport workers at LaGuardia make a miserable $8 an hour as cabin cleaners. They work at or near the minimum wage with zero health benefits, as do many other cleaners, baggage handlers and other airport workers across the country.

2. Big-box store employees: Millions toil in the aisles of Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and other giant retailers for wages set at or near minimum wage. When you factor in rampant wage theft and other predatory practices, many make even less. That's why in recent years, many cities such as Washington DC have taken action to demand that they raise wages while the federal government gets its act together. Home Depot, whose founder, Ken Langone, is among the most reactionary capitalists in America, loses no opportunity to voice his opposition to paying workers a living wage. His net worth is $2.1 billion. Does that make him a maker or a taker?

3. Casino workers: Pity the poor suckers losing money at the blackjack table, but pity the dealer, too. Many casino jobs, like dealers and drink servers, are either minimum wage or just a notch above, and the people doing them often have to put up with drunk, grabby customers, long hours on their feet and mushroom clouds of smoke. Often these employees depend on tips to support their livelihoods, but those working at the lower-end facilities have a hard time making ends meet even with tipping customers. In some states, like casino-packed Louisiana, these tipped workers can be paid as low as $2.13 per hour. That’s hardly a winning number.

4. Fast-food workers: You’re eating, but the person ringing up your order may be working for near-starvation wages. The median income of a non-managerial fast-food worker is a mere $8.94 an hour. The average age is 28, a far cry from the burger-flipping teen that living wage opponents pretend is the norm. About a quarter of these workers have children to support. More than half are female. The public cost of workers who can’t afford healthcare, or even food to feed their families, is enormous: nearly $7 billion a year.

[yeoman6987]

1. Some of these are suspect

First truck drivers CAN be paid really well. A friend of mine drives a truck and he says he is paid very well….I don't know exactly how much he gets paid, but if he was paid horribly, he certainly would say so. Nail Salon workers get pretty good tips so 9.58 an hour and then tips CAN be pretty good. And the fisherman? I am surprised especially after watching The Perfect Storm (they seemed to enjoy the money). However a very dangerous job. Some of these jobs are over minimum wage and since President Obama is wanting a 10.10 dollar an hour increase over 3 years, I don't see these jobs getting any better. Some will end up 12.00 an hour once the minimum wage is 10.10 in 2017 (if minimum wage increase is even passed)

[Octafish]

5. Yet, most don't.

I've worked a couple of those jobs. No one was keeping up, let alone getting ahead.

[JoeyT]

7. Construction workers CAN be paid really well, too,

or they could be working as one of the trades that get utterly screwed wage-wise. (Rod buster, scaffold builder, green helper, fire watch, hydroblaster, etc). So when they work for a company that pays below industry standard, they may not be making minimum wage, certainly not after you factor in travel, hotel, etc. The shittiest of the companies are getting really fond of 1099ing employees so they don't even have to pay overtime, which makes a big difference on an 84-112 hour work week. Edited to add: Oh, and you don't have to match your employee's SS contribution. Instead they get to pay all of it, further impoverishing them.

Truck driving is the same way. If the people running the company are greedy assholes, you're going to go broke. I've heard stories of companies that not only make their employees buy the fuel, but ones that pay them "As the crow flies" rather than by miles driven, which, depending on the trip can cut their mileage paid by 25-50%. I'm told short-haul companies are particularly bad about it.

Some fishermen probably do make bank. So do many construction workers and truck drivers. The problem is some of them are getting screwed so badly they bring the average down. The answer is to raise the minimum wage, and force companies that want to dick around with piecework or by-the-mile pay to pay the minimum in addition to whatever else they're doing.

[cynatnite]

10. If you're an owner/operator truck driver...

yes, you do have to pay your own fuel, repairs and whatnot. Sometimes those guys will take home a few thousand a week. Sometimes they get in the red and won't make any at all. It's an industry that fluctuates and as an owner operator, there is a certain amount of risk.

My husband is a company driver. He gets paid by the mile. When he's running down the road, the money is pretty good. When he sits, he makes nothing. Again, it depends on the industry.

Not all companies pay mileage quite the same. Some run zip code to zip code which can hurt mileage. Some pay address to address, but will use short route miles rather than practical miles which is what most drivers do.

Of course, the more experience the better the pay. If you have tickets or accidents, that can hurt you. A DUI will pretty much keep you out of the driver's seat unless the company is willing to risk it.

Drivers can make a lot of money. The husband has been doing it for a lot of years now with no accidents or tickets. He is paid quite well and is a driver instructor. He is in the top tier of company drivers. The potential for a good income is possible.

[Ikonoklast]

11. Truck drivers are exempt from Wage and Hour laws.

There are drivers that can work an entire week and literally make less than a fast-food worker.

There is a good reason that for many of the biggest trucking companies the turnover rate is 100% a year.


Yes, 100% turnover rate. Or higher.

People can't stay at a job that will actually cost them money to do.

[daleanime]

2. K&R....

Actually had a Teabagger tell me yesterday that removing the minimum wage would "create millions of jobs."





I asked if he was sure that he was OK to drive?

[HughBeaumont]

8. That's a libertarian chestnut . . . and it's not even a good IDEA.

Almost as horrible an idea as their whole "FairTax" crapola.

Yeah, take money OUT of the hands of people who have to spend every dime of it, all because they think slavery is awesome. Let me know how many "millions of jobs" THAT stupid action is going to create. A consumption economy loaded with people earning 4, 3, 2 bucks an hour . . . SMELL THE SUCCESS!!!

[Johonny]

9. well it takes working a million new jobs to make as much as one old job

[progressoid]

13. Millions of shitty jobs.

[onethatcares]

3. the quote I like to remember is:

"the only reason an employer will pay the minimum wage is because they can't get away with paying less".

[Cosmocat]

4. The stupid in this country is mind bending

Somehow it makes perfect sense to suppress wages in this country to the people who actually roll their sleeves up and work cause of the slackers who don't work the jobs that aren't available. Oh, and we have to cut our SS benefits cause of all the slacker, moochers who are taking from the government.

[mountain grammy]

6. Here in the resort area for the rich and not so famous..

(although we do have Tim Allen as a part time resident, the right wing jerk) I have worked as a house cleaner for resort rentals. The pay averages around $18/hour. That said, most resort housekeepers are paid like contractors (pay our own SS and Medicare,) endure wide fluctuations in the amount of work available, and must have a reliable vehicle to get to the work. Boil it all down, and it's minimum wage. Housekeepers in less rural areas, who work for homeowners living in their homes, work regularly, but for far less pay.

[CFLDem]

12. Minimum wage nation.

[El_Johns]

14. Mine.

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. Been saying it for years and this is a good opportunity to repeat it.

We'd better focus on raising the minimum wage drastically, because it is going to become The Wage, and it's coming sooner than you think.
& R