My co-worker got an Outstanding evaluation at the grocery store where she works. Want to guess what

[raccoon]

her "raise" was going to be?

.10 an hour. I am NOT kidding!

This is a grocery store that is part of a chain. I couldl tell you the name but I betcha they all do this crap.

I guess I don't need to tell you this is a so-called "right to work" state.

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[trumad]

2. Let's say your frined makes 13 bucks an hour...

If my math is right---what is that---13 cents?

[Chan790]

6. I think she's saying it was a 10-cent raise.

If she works 40-hours a week with paid vacation, it's $4/week...$208 a year additional regardless of her previous wage. Taxes are going to take 1/3-on-average so it's around an additional $140/year take-home. It's better than nothing but it's a shitty raise.

[TrollBuster9090]

26. $4 more a week? She'd better be careful it doesn't kick her up into a higher TAX bracket!

Still, never let it be said that hard work, dedication, and company loyalty are not rewarded!

[Kennah]

160. Making more money only potentially pushes that additional money into a higher bracket

That's the beauty of progressive taxation. When you make more, you pay more, but it's not possible to make more and lose it in higher taxes.

[raccoon]

7. She makes about 8.00 /hr. Raise will be all of .10 /hr. nt

[TrollBuster9090]

29. So, people who work in grocery stores now earn a whole $16 000 per year?

Let's see, doing the math...the dress and jewelry John McCain's wife wore onto the stage for his 2008 RNC convention speech was worth the equivalent of 22 years salary for a grocery store worker.

Welcome to the new GILDED AGE, folks.

[MADem]

37. Well...the woman got ripped off, IMO. Talk about not getting your money's worth! nt

[TrollBuster9090]

118. True, but that's part of the whole "money to burn" image.

A Rollex watch costs $20 000. Is there actually anything that a watch can DO to make it WORTH $20K? No! That's the whole point! By wearing it, it shows that you've got so much money that you don't even have to CARE about wasting it. "Value for money? That's for the plebs to worry about."

That was always my take on it, anyway.

[MADem]

119. Yes, and those Rolex's are heavy and ugly too--the counterfeits look better, actually!

That unfortunate woman should take some of the money she has to burn and use it as kindling to torch her "stylist's" business!

I rather cruelly wondered if the stylist wasn't a Dem, getting his or her licks in, in an "Empress's New Clothes" fashion! Mrs. McCain is a very fortunate woman; she's rich, she has nice features, she's photogenic...but damn, talk about minimizing one's assets. It's almost as though she was going out of her way to look horrible in a high fashion way. Or maybe she's just so lost in wealthyland that her idea of what looks good doesn't match that of the rest of the civilized world...

That picture isn't her worst outfit though--at some appearance, she wore a yellow get-up that looked like it was something you'd put on your little girl for Kindergarten picture day. Really awful looking--buffoon-y.

[dragonlady]

147. Thorsten Veblen explained this in 1899

I read his book called The Theory of the Leisure Class long ago and believe it is still relevant. He thoroughly describes and illustrates his theory of conspicuous consumption, which most of us unconsciously follow to greater or lesser degrees. One example I especially recall is the custom for women to wear high-heeled shoes, which are hard to walk in and thus unsuited for those who must do "lower-class" physical labor. Therefore high heels are an indication that one can afford to be a member of the leisure class. The Rolex watch would be another excellent example of his thesis.

[NYC_SKP]

155. Thorstein Veblen

THANKS!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorstein_Veblen

[Art_from_Ark]

170. There was a DUer with the username Thorstein Veblen at one time

I haven't seem him around in a while, though.

[TheMadMonk]

173. Also long fingernails and "trophy wives" incapable of doing a lick of work. /nt

[HotRodTuna]

166. You can get a Rolex for around $1000

and they last a lifetime

[coalition_unwilling]

50. Bravo! Emphasis on the 'GILDED' - n/t

[TrollBuster9090]

162. And a grocery store worker would have to work 32 years to match the 'charge account'

Newt Gingrich has a Tiffany's to buy jewelry for his wive(s).

Check out NEWT going on a shopping spree for Colista.

[grasswire]

103. be careful here.....Mrs. Obama wears designer clothes too

Very expensive designer clothes.

[MADem]

120. She wears shit from Target and I doubt her entire wardrobe, even without discounts,

equals the amount of money Miz McCain spends on underwear in a given year. H and M, Brooks Brothers, a few American designers....she's not running off to Paris to have stuff made-to-order.

Here: http://mrs-o.com/

[Scootaloo]

159. Shhh, shhhh!

We have to keep the "both sides do it!" meme going, MADem!

[HotRodTuna]

167. I don't believe President Obama's suits are off the rack either

rich people in public eye spend a lot of money on clothing. Fact.

[dixiegrrrrl]

140. Southern state? Does the store start with a W? and has 2 names?

[cstanleytech]

144. Its not just walmart, its almost all grocery stores both chains and independants.

Almost all of them pay dirt to the average employee and they wont allow overtime even if the employee is willing to work it and its even worse for the part time workers, they are lucky if they get 20 hours a week in my area.

[tkmorris]

145. dixiegrrrl doesn't mean Walmart

She's talking Winn Dixie. It would make sense, my daughter worked there somewhat briefly and a family friend still does. They are absolutely awful to work for.

[cstanleytech]

146. Ah, well Bi-Lo just bought them so dont expect them to change much in that regards. In fact

I know someone who has been with Bi-lo for 20 years and got a 1 cent raise last year and the person is capped out in pay and they change the hours and days they have to work each week so that they are unable to get a part time job.

[undeterred]

3. So if she is working 40 hours a week

thats over $200 a year. Wow.

[klook]

12. $4 a week. "Now I can afford a latte on Fridays! Whooppee!!" (n/t)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

151. Back in the day, you could go to the movies. By yourself:

[Marrah_G]

60. Sadly most retail places don't offer 40 hours anymore

[LiberalEsto]

139. In the DC area, Giant cut hours for its supermarket workers some years ago

because otherwise Giant would have to pay them benefits.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Sad, like the "Employee of the Month" award where

you get to park near the front door for 30 days.

This crap sickens me.

[a kennedy]

15. My husband once got employee of the year award once........he got a 3 day 2 night stay

at a lodge in Wisconsin Dells, a picture of him shaking hands with the owner, and 200.00.

[noamnety]

55. My husband got that once - the employee parking space.

The first time it snowed, the snow plow jammed all the snow up against his car because it was the corner of the parking lot. He ripped the corner off the car bumper trying to get out at the end of the day and it cost us a few hundred dollars to fix.

[shanti]

57. ouch!

no good deed goes unpunished!

[jberryhill]

5. Such ingratitude

My goodness, with that sort of attitude, the employer shouldn't have given a raise at all.

Do you realize that that extra ten cents an hour is more than enough to sponsor a child through Save The Children?

Well, by golly, if STC can do it for less than the price of a cup of coffee, your co-worker should think about starting a family or buying a new car.

[raccoon]

9. self-delete. nt

[redwitch]

10. jberryhill was being ironic.

[raccoon]

11. thanks, I edited the post. Hard to tell these days. nt

[jberryhill]

13. Oh come now

With an extra ten cents an hour, you can keep one of your dressage horses in oats all day!

[Fuddnik]

41. I couldn't keep me in oatmeal for $.80 a day.

Well, maybe I could, if I keep the serving small and forget about the milk and sugar.

[TalkingDog]

85. We buy 50 lb bags. We've estimated the cost at 25 cents a serving.

If you eat a lot of oatmeal (we do, daily) then it might be worth the effort. It also comes in 25# bags. Amish/Mennonite stores carry them, if you've got one nearby..... but in FL maybe not.

[Zalatix]

20. Damn, you had me there for a second. Please throw in a sarcasm smiley or something!

[backscatter712]

66. The sarcasm smiley's for amateurs! n/t

[FBaggins]

8. Compensation involves much more than salary.

Many grocery chains are laying off workers by the thousands. "I can't pay you more, but I value you so much that I'm not laying you off" is more than a slap in the face.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. That sucks

My wife has been working for the past 2 years without any raise despite consistently excellent evaluations. She can't get promoted either to save her life.

[barbtries]

16. 10 cents an hour.

oh. my. gawd.

i've been upset about my measly 3% - well i still am. these are the times. it's all degenerating so fast for the working person i really feel overwhelmed at times.

[awoke_in_2003]

68. I had an excellent review...

my boss apologized for only being able to give me 3%. I don't feel so bad now.

[haele]

98. Like the song in the 1954 musical "Pajama Game" - seven and a half cents -

We did Pajama Game for the high school musical in 1974...

"Seven and a half cents doesn't buy a hell of a lot,
Seven and a half cents doesn't mean a thing!
But give it to me every hour,
Forty hours every week,
And that's enough for me to be living like a king!"
.....
"Only five years from today!
I can see it all before me!
Only five years from today!
Five years! Let's see..thats 260 weeks, times forty hours every week, and roughly two and a quarter hours overtime.. at time
and a half for overtime! Comes to exactly.. $852.74!
That's enough for me to get
An automatic washing machine, (maybe, on clearance. No washer, though)A years supply of gasoline, (if you have a Honda Civic or a Prius and don't have a 100 mile commute...)Carpeting for the living room, (if you ask a contractor who just ripped out someone else's old carpeting if you could have it ...)A vacuum instead of a blasted broom, (okay - probably a bissel, but not a high-end dyson or kirby)Not to mention a forty inch television set!" (they're always having sales; you could get a 42 inch plasma for around $600)..........

"Only ten years from today,
I can see it, clear as daylight,
Only ten years from today!
Ten years! Let's see..thats 520 weeks, times forty hours every week, and roughly two and a quarter hours overtime.. at time
and a half for overtime! Comes to exactly.. $1705.48!
That's enough for me to buy...
(Song lyrics call out "A trip to France", "a motor boat and water skis" and "a foriegn car" - which you might get by with if you hunt for the lowest prices - but expect to do some work on the boat and car to be able to get them running well enough to register and insure.)
.......

The "twenty years from today" lyrics I'll ignore. No company hires anyone for twenty years if they can help it anymore; costs too much to keep an employee around that long, even if you don't give them a raise from that point. But the song indicates buying a house in twenty years on the $3411.96 that the seven and a half cents added up that long would get.

Amazing that musical made it unscathed through HUAC - A cheating boss adds a "wage increase" to the production cost to the customer to skim off the top for his own profit, and the striking union wins their promised increase when it's found out! Solidarity!
(Even if it did have a silly love story...)

Haele

[barbtries]

100. i never watched it.

but i know this: i received a raise in 1977 of $1.00 an hour.

[haele]

105. I spent the first part of 1977 working at a BurgerMaster while I was a senior.

I got two raises. Started out making $1.65 an hour part-time (eighteen hours), was making $2.30 (official federal minimum wage) an hour "full time" seven months later when I quit and took a job at $3.50 an hour working as a file clerk for the University of Washington. My first raise was twenty-five cents after three months, my second was fourty cents when I started working full time after graduating High School five months into the job.

Then I joined the Navy a couple months after that.

Think about it. In 1977, a seventeen year old got a $.25 cent raise at a fast food resturant working just part time after three months. Yes, I got an outstanding review to get that much of a raise (they were starting to train me up on the grill), but the thought of giving an adult woman working full time with an outstanding review a $.10 raise in 2012 at the current cost of living is totally ridiculous - and quite insulting.

Did we drop back into the 1950's or something like that?

Haele

[unapatriciated]

17. maybe she is topped out

[LibGranny]

18. My daughter also works at a chain grocery store and

that's the amount of the raise she has received and no, she doesn't make $13 an hour! And since school is out, some weeks this summer she has been lucky to get 28 hours and anything under 32 is not considered "full-time" so . . . . no benefits! She lives in Brownbackistan (aka Kansas) which is also a "right to work" state!

[Stardust]

157. Right-to-Work-for-Peanuts state is more like it. My, my, how they can spin those lies.

[slackmaster]

19. Why stay there? In 2009 I quit a job after three consecutive years of excellent reviews, zero raises

I got a $15K raise by going to a different company. I got laid off that after nearly three years, and now am working in a completely different field - Out of financial services, into medical IT. I'm still making more than I was at the job I quit in 2009.

You always have other options. If you aren't working under a contract that explicitly provides for pay increases based on performance reviews, you aren't entitled to raises. OTOH your employer isn't entitled to have you stick around to be exploited.

ETA times are tough for employees now because jobs are scarce. It's not always that way.

[Zalatix]

21. Well said. She or he could just move right into medical IT, right?

Instead of telling people "quit your job" how about we BLAME THE EMPLOYER for offering shit wages?

[slackmaster]

23. I've been working for more than 30 years, and found that things go a lot better for me when I...

...take control of the situation.

...how about we BLAME THE EMPLOYER for offering shit wages?

That's fine if it makes you feel better, but it doesn't result in an improved standard of living.

The only control an employee has over an employer's behavior is to bail out and find a better job. Curse the employer in one hand and shit in the other. Which gets full first?

She or he could just move right into medical IT, right?

I'll give you a serious answer to your smart-ass question: I don't know what skills she has or what other work may be available to her.

[daleanime]

32. Or we could support unions....

[Zalatix]

35. IT for some reason doesn't think they need unions.

Even as their jobs are going overseas...

[Paulie]

44. Um, congress/legislators decide if IT can be in a union

The whole "professional" exempt vs non-exempt decides it. Some states help, like California for lower skilled people, but not many other states even make that concession.

[Zalatix]

92. Wait, what?

You mean a group of workers can't organize and bargain collectively if legislators don't allow it?

I know right to work states don't let unions make membership mandatory and they can't force union dues. But organizing can happen anywhere.

[Sherman A1]

127. Precisely

[Zalatix]

34. Moving to a new employer doesn't improve your standard of living if no one's hiring.

Stat/Math question for you, since you're in IT:

How many people are competing for every available job?

As for my smart-ass question: if every unemployed person picked up medical IT skills your wages will plummet.

[slackmaster]

48. You're right. The more people choose to stay in dead-end, low-pay jobs, the better for...

...people who choose not to be exploited.

BTW my employer hired three IT people this week. We need an experienced QA manager.

[coalition_unwilling]

54. Yours is not exactly an 'alertable post,' but it is certainly reprehensible and

unbefitting a nominally Democratic website.

Let's see how your attitude might apply to other recent events:

"The more people who choose to stay in New Orleans as Katrina approaches, the better for those who are trying to leave . . ."

"The more people who choose to join the military and be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, the better for those who go into Medical IT . . . "

"The more people who choose not to get health insurance, the better for those who actually have insurance . . ."

I could go on, but really, why bother? How much you ascribe to human agency. It's people like you that Fate usually brings down the hardest. Question: how much empathy shall we feel for you when fate and circumstance conspire to bring you down? I vote for ZERO.

http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/just-world-hypothesis/

[slackmaster]

59. The issue is locus of control, not "human agency"

You can allow yourself to be exploited by your employer, or you can choose not to be.

Question: how much empathy shall we feel for you when fate and circumstance conspire to bring you down? I vote for ZERO.

It's already happened to me more than once in my life, and I really don't care what you think. My point in posting in this thread was to provide some encouragement, a positive message that you don't have to let someone take advantage of you, but you seem too wrapped up in your own issues to see that.

[coalition_unwilling]

63. I feel so little empathy for you or interest in anything further that you have to say

on any topic of interest to me that I am hereby placing you on Full Ignore.

Good luck with your Reagan v. 2.0 attitudes.

[slackmaster]

64. Pearls before swine

[Zalatix]

78. Or white-painted lead balls.

[HotRodTuna]

169. I appreciate you viewpoint

It's much easier to shake your fist at the sky in anger at the rain then actually build a shelter.

[Sherman A1]

131. Agreed

Somebody that is working, doing a good job (based upon the excellent review cited) and trying to do the right thing should be applauded for their effort. All honest work is honorable and should not be denigrated, this society needs people that work in grocery stores just as much as it needs Medical IT people. We all contribute to the whole of society and should receive a live able wage for our work. That they are in this case they are exploited by their employer is disgusting.

[Arctic Dave]

71. I know several IT people who are looking for work.

I will tell them about your job, you seem to be very comfortable in it and they will work for less.

[Zalatix]

79. *crickets*

[slackmaster]

80. Send them my way. I'm not afraid of competition.

And we really do need some more good people.

I'm quite serious. The jobs are located in San Diego, CA. The company is a start-up, so there is some risk.

If YOU are serious feel free to send me a private message, and I'll provide contact information.

[Arctic Dave]

99. And there lies the fallacy of your logic.

You have confused competition with enslavement.

Going without enough to sustain a decent living so the company can earn bigger profits is not a competitive advantage. It is the trademark of explotation.

[Dokkie]

130. lol

This is on the assumption that the grocery store itself is not facing any competition and living high on the hog. If the competition in my area is any indication, 1 grocery store has closed down and another 2 have merged to stay alive. Consumers are looking for cheaper and cheaper sticker prices and these grocery stores are in a fight for survival. We are not talking about oil companies here, we are talking about fricken grocery stores

[Arctic Dave]

182. I don't see how any of that relavant to my post.

Sounds like there too many stores for the size of town you live in.

Not only that, it sounds like you have the "Walmart" effect happening. Everyone wants cheaper but that comes at a price.

[Zalatix]

77. In your rush to be insensitive and condescending, you didn't answer my questions.

Stat/Math question for you, since you're in IT: How many people are competing for every available job?

I'll add a second question: if every unemployed person picked up medical IT skills and QA management skills, how many would get a job? What would happen to your wages?

Everyone else here knows the answer... perhaps that's why you won't answer?

[slackmaster]

81. There is a shortage of IT workers in my area. Job pickings are good here.

I'll add a second question: if every unemployed person picked up medical IT skills and QA management skills, how many would get a job?

That's a silly question and not worthy of a serious answer because not everyone has both the ability and the inclination to do what I do, or manage a QA team. There are plenty of other fields that are in need of workers.

[Zalatix]

89. You're still not answering my question.

And my second question is not silly - however, your answer was quite a craven little dodge act.

There are 12 million unemployed people in America. How many IT positions are open in your area?

You do know that I will keep asking you this until you answer the question, right?

[slackmaster]

106. Where did I say that there were enough IT jobs for everyone who needs a job?

How many IT positions are open in your area?

You do know that I will keep asking you this until you answer the question, right?

I don't know the answer to that question, and it may not be answerable because it changes constantly, and because a posted job opening is not the only place where a person can get a job. I can tell you that right now there are job openings at the company where I work.

[Zalatix]

115. Yes, there are job openings at the company where you work.

But there aren't enough job openings there, or anywhere else for that matter, for everyone who is out of work. Much LESS for those who are being paid crap for the work they do.

You seriously need to stop and ponder this.

[slackmaster]

49. I'm just speculating here becauese the OP doesn't have a lot of information but unless that store...

...is the only grocery store in town, it has at least one competitor. I wouldn't hesitate to go to a competing store with my glowing performance review in hand and see if the manager is interested in stealing one of his rivals' best workers.

I might even switch jobs if the competitor offered me the exact same wages.

[wickerwoman]

158. And if you don't have a car

and the "other" grocery store (if it exists... and in many place in the US that's a very big if...) is a forty minute bus ride each way and the fare is $8 a day and they don't offer you the extra dollar an hour to cover additional transport costs and you have to pay for extra childcare to cover the commuting time...

Bully for you that you have a skill set that qualifies you for an in-demand job and that you have geographic mobility and apparently few family commitments like aging or disabled relatives. Telling other people how easy it is to uproot and get another job is really ignorant and insensitive when you obviously know absolutely nothing about the struggles of minimum wage income Americans.

Yes, in some cases people could better their situation (if they weren't so exhausted and/or had adequate resources to explore their options rationally) but in some cases they genuinely can't and telling them they are responsible is bullying, not motivating.

[slackmaster]

164. We don't know whether the person has a car or not

All kinds of "Yeah, but" responses to any attempt at a helpful suggestion in this thread.

Bully for you that you have a skill set that qualifies you for an in-demand job...

I have worked my ass off for decades and made many difficult personal sacrifices to acquire the level of skill that I now have. I reject your prejudice and scorn. You can keep them.

[wickerwoman]

178. Yes, prejudice (seriously, WTF?) against willfull ignorance is something I will absolutely keep.

Do you also make "helpful suggestions" to end-stage cancer patients that if they ate a little healthier they would have a better outcome? It may actually be true for some of them but the reason nobody with any sense would say it is because they don't actually know that it's a fact and where it isn't true saying it makes them the worst kind of asshole.

I didn't say you didn't work your ass off. I said you have a skill set that is in demand and not everyone can acquire that skill set no matter how hard they work. Is that such a difficult concept to grasp? Really?

I also worked my ass off and am finally, after four years of unemployment, doing OK again but I have the humility to recognise that a lot of that is luck and that there are people who work even harder than me who have gotten jack shit for all their efforts. And I put myself through college working minimum wage jobs and actually took the time to get to know some of my coworkers and learn about what their lives were like (something, for all the time you spent slumming it decades ago you managed not to do). Their lives are not "yeah, buts" to an argument on the Internet. Every one of those things except single parenthood (which is hardly an imaginative stretch) I experienced myself.

Rather than making "helpful suggestions" to people who's lives and challenges you know absolutely nothing about, why don't you spend some time actually listening to them?

[slackmaster]

180. The thread is about raccoon's friend getting a stingy raise. We don't know much else about her.

She works for a chain grocery store, got an outstanding performance review, and an insultingly small raise.

Rather than making "helpful suggestions" to people who's lives and challenges you know absolutely nothing about, why don't you spend some time actually listening to them?

That's not possible when the person who does good work but got a crappy raise isn't here to tell us anything about her situation. We don't know anything about her limits, constraints, age, education, family situation, health, etc. We don't know what skills she has, or whether there are any other stores nearby, or a lot of other things that might be relevant as to the availability of work. All assumptions are off the table.

In the absence of other information I think it's reasonable to suggest that maybe she should start looking for a better job. But apparently some people see that as insensitive.

[caraher]

43. And that's the point

I'll give you a serious answer to your smart-ass question: I don't know what skills she has or what other work may be available to her.

Your advice is perfect for people with the right skill sets, and I'd agree that it's always wise to take charge of your own situation to the degree that you can rather than blaming circumstances.

But there will always be lots of people who work very hard but don't have the aptitude or resources to develop whatever skills are most marketable at a given moment. And it's no secret that the ongoing process of increasing the "productivity" of the workforce is as much about driving compensation down to rock-bottom levels to maximize the wealth of the 1%. That's not the fault of any individual being screwed for being too passive - it's systemic, and it's about having a just society, not criticizing other individuals for not taking advantage of the same opportunities we might have.

[TalkingDog]

90. Bingo.

Couldn't have said it better.

There is a hubris at play in the above mentioned attitude.

[slackmaster]

108. My advice is simply to look around and see if there is a possibility of getting another job

Not one that requires any specific skill set.

It never hurts to look, and NOT looking is the surest way to ensure that you DON'T find a better job.

My dad was a life-long Democrat who grew up on a farm and joined the Navy in 1934 (at age 15) to get out of poverty. He would never entertain my complaints early in my career about how I was being exploited. He always said I had the option of finding something else to do.

He was tough and didn't offer much empathy, but empathy never paid the bills or put food on my table.

[MADem]

40. Think about it from the employer's standpoint--why pay more if they don't have to?

No one gives away money. They pay what the market demands, and no more.

It sucks but that's how it is. When employees become scarce, and there are jobs a plenty and employers are begging, the wages go up.

[Marrah_G]

65. You do understand that the person works in a supermarket, right?

[slackmaster]

82. Yes. My first job was at a small neighborhood grocery store. $2.35 per hour in 1975.

I've moved beyond that.

[uppityperson]

91. "You always have other options"? Hahahahahahahaha. Yup. Quit a low paying job to join the unemployed

Live on the streets, eat out of soup kitchens. Yeah, "You always have other options" indeed.

[slackmaster]

109. Let me rephrase it so you might understand - You always have the option of LOOKING AROUND to see...

...what other opportunities might be available.

You always have the option of thinking about how you might develop more marketable job skills so you aren't stuck doing the same thing for the rest of your life.

You might even have the option of considering to relocate.

[uppityperson]

124. I have the option of looking around to see if I can be an astronaut or president!

Wow, why would I ever stay in a job that treats me bad when I have Options?

[slackmaster]

165. People do just that for a lot of reasons, uppityperson. The most common is low self-esteem.

People who have been told all of their lives that there is no hope, or that they are worthless, tend to believe it, and are unlikely to lift a finger to try to improve themselves.

[uppityperson]

177. In this economy, many are happy to have any job at all, and employers can easily abuse them.

The most common is lack of options, seconded by poor education, thirded by lack of affordable child care. Yes, some have low self esteem, but I doubt that is "most common" but following the ones I listed.

[AngryOldDem]

22. The scales, hopefully, will fall from a lot of eyes concerning "right to work."

In the long run, this will NOT help workers.

I hope she really enjoys that 10-cent boost in pay.

[Javaman]

24. My GF, she also works at a grocery store, told me last night...

she's due for an evaluation this week and she probably won't get a raise.

She gets all sorts of secret shopper awards, etc.

The owner of the grocery chain is a well known half wit libertarian.

[TrollBuster9090]

25. There you go! Who ever SAID hard work and dedication doesn't pay off?

That's almost ONE DOLLAR A DAY MORE!

[Robb]

27. We're on four years now without a raise.

Cost of living rises, of course, without pay keeping up. Still, working is better than not working.

[part man all 86]

28. welcome to the world of minimum wage.

they give you an uniform. all nice and polyester, a little scratching. a weeks paid vacation but you can only take it in the winter because where i live in the smoky mountains, a tourist(pronounced terrorist,yeh i will say it, vacationers are terrorist of my county, fuck them) trap, you work spring, summer, and fall for your lovely vacation in the winter at mytle beach, such fun. do not forget that free meal, or discounted meal at meal time. yum yum! now working for 7.25/hr is life's thrill and getting that nickel or dime raise every 2 or 3 years is an incentative to come to work at 4:30 am and cook the sausage made from some animal, maybe?, mix the dough from plastic containers for biscuits, pour the sweet nothings from 2 gallon white buckets on the raisin biscuits, and wait happily for the first sucker to arrive and eat this chemical soup called breakfast. some slogans from the 20 + years i worked restaurant and clerk jobs: fast is fun (pizza hut), time to lean time to clean (arby's), time to gripe time to wipe (arby's), and you want to see the dead come back to life, be here at closing, (almost by every time clock where i worked,arby's, pizza hut, dominoes, papa john's, oliverio's, spinakers, motels, t-shirt shops in gatlinburg, cactus jack's, wendy's, tgif's, university of tennessee cafeterias, corner markets, but not by the clock at the salvation army).
all i can say is after a career in minimum wage is i am glad i am self employed, but this lack of rain is hurting one of my jobs, mowing. (15/hr). i charge very little for the service, because most of my lawn owners are poor and elderly. now i am not a good person so do not let this little charity fool you about me.
i hate it when even a five cent raise is deemed as a hardship, i feel for your friend and wish them the best. good luck y'all from the sleepy smoky mountains of tenner'see

[MADem]

42. Very interesting glimpse into the world of fast food prep.

Hope you get a little rain so your lawn business picks up.

[grasswire]

110. welcome to DU, in the nicest way

:wave:

[part man all 86]

116. by the way i went to the great big orange screw called the university of tenner'see knox vegas.

no degree. funny i mow yards these last few years and my studies ended while pursuing an ornamental horiculture and landscape design degree.
all 86 in my name is from years of fast food which you should 86, but i am not telling what to do. i mean one thing about fast food is it is very tasty thus the craving for an arby Q or a double whooper w/cheese yes lots of cheese. one benefit? working at arby's is all the sweet chemical soda you can drink. love the lack of enamel on my teeth, yeah buddy

[MADem]

121. I probably eat that stuff two or three times a year, if that.

I guess I'm not missing a thing! I admire your fortitude at sticking at that type of work for so long. It looks like periods of extreme stress interrupted by brief periods of stultifying boredom, and repetition, repetition, repetition. At least mowing you can imprint your own unique design into the yard!

[badtoworse]

30. She needs to find another job

She's obviously a good worker and deserves better. I would not stick around if I was treated that way.

You should advise her to get references from people she trusts and to be positive when she interviews for other jobs. She should NOT disparage her current employer or even mention the $0.10 raise in an interview.

[snooper2]

31. your co-worker, where she works? You aren't there as well or you share another job together?

[raccoon]

83. She works part-time at the job where I work and part-time at the grocery store.

She IS trying to move into something else. Just finished her associate's degree and is taking courses at a 4-yr university
in the fall semester.

[brewens]

33. I proved I was working ten extra hours a week once and got a $25 per week raise.

They didn't even dispute my figures. They just said that was all I was getting. I was a salaried warehouse worker. That was back in the 80's and for what I was doing it started out as a good deal. I had agreed to load all the trucks and a few other things for $250 bucks a week. I got it down to about 20 hours as I got good at it. Then they started making changes that piled on more work and slowed me down.

They forced me to quit and when I gave them my notice, then they decided to be reasonable. They asked what it would take for me to stay and I just laughed. My new job was seasonal and they were really hurting as the holidays came around. The offer was still open so I went back to help out under much more favorable terms. I also made them promise to lay me off as soon as the holidays were over so I could resume my unenjoyment vacation before I went back to work in the spring.

I really went back to help the guys I liked out more than anything. Also it was much more favorable if I delayed my unenjoyment claim. I needed to keep working to the end of that quarter so they would base my claim on the period where I had earned higher wages.

I ended up going back to work there permanently. My stock went up the longer I was gone and ended up as full-time warehouse supervisor. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and money if they had just been reasonable in the first place.

[Thav]

36. My wife is going through her yearly review.

It's meeting with two managers and doing a self-assessment.

It's all irrelevant as no one is getting pay raises this year.

[Cairycat]

38. Unfortunately, that's the way it is for a lot of people

10 cents an hour - IS pretty paltry for all your co-worker's hard work. That's too bad that her effort can't be recognized more appropriately.

My daughter is a direct care giver at a group home for intellectually disabled young adults. She recently got her certification to pass meds, but only gets paid 10 cents more an hour for her med-passing shifts. That doesn't seem like much for much more responsibility. But, it is a step in the right direction for helping her get her goal of a nursing degree.

[warrprayer]

39. "Right to Work"

... for less

[stevenleser]

45. $4 a week. Ugh. Yeah, thanks a lot.

Every month you can eat out once with your spouse (but not your children) at McDonalds with that money.

[spooky3]

46. coupla years ago, I won an award -- and got a zero increase that year, like everyone else.

Did they make it up to us when things turned around? Nope.

We are all told how lucky we are to have jobs. And obviously, compared to people who want to work but can't that is true. But compared to the top brass and to how things should be, where we are all working harder and producing more than ever? No.

[Art_from_Ark]

74. I was told that back during the Reagan Recession of 1982

"We might be paying you crap wages and making you work shitty hours, but you better count your lucky stars you have this job!"

[raccoon]

87. The job market really sucked in those days. Took me months to find a job. People that had been

working at a place foryears had their hours cut back.

[coalition_unwilling]

95. Funny story about the Reagan Recession (if there is any humor to be gleaned from it, even

30 years later):

I was graduating from college with my B.A.s in English and History and looking around for what to do next. Went to the Career Placement office and discovered that the only place interviewing English or History majors was the CIA! In retropsect, had I swallowed my pride, who knows but I might have been able to stop Shocking and Awful in its tracks. But I was a prideful young feller and was damned if I would work for the CIA. So it was off to grad school for me (the employer of last resort, courtesy of a teaching assistantship).

Those were scary times to be out of work. In Kansas City, IIRC, the unemployment rate reached 12% in 1982 and stayed there for at least a few months.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

96. Same here: I came out of grad school in the Reagan recession, and the only place

that was hiring Japanese speakers except for colleges offering one-year and two-year limited appointments (no renewal) was the CIA.

[Art_from_Ark]

148. Interesting

A few years later, I also learned that the employer that was apparently most interested in my knowledge and skills at the time was... the CIA! Like you, I was hesitant about pursuing that course. And I went to Kansas City for job interviews in 1987, and found that the employment situation was still not so good.

[coalition_unwilling]

149. That meshes with my experience. I finished my Master's at UMKC in 1986 and, still

facing a shitty job market, headed up to Madison, WI to start a Ph.D. (never finished, Thank God

Between 1983 and 86, Hallmark Cards had joined the CIA as another employer willing to interview English majors. I remember the Hallmark interviewer discussing Hallmark's 'social interaction products' (greeting cards) and the revulsion I'm sure my face displayed at this perversion of the English language. (Needless to say, I did not hear back from Hallmark). Of course, in today's 'social networking milieu,' I'm guessing that 'social interaction products' would fit right in.

Now when it comes to 'socialist networking,' I'm right there

[Art_from_Ark]

150. "Social interaction products"?

I'm sure I would have shown the same reaction as you if I had heard that at an interview. My face would have said "Who ARE these people?"

But the most ridiculous experience I ever had at an interview was when I was applying for a one-year teaching job in Japan, again in 1987. There was a panel of three interviewers who were asking questions of 3 or 4 of us applicants who were taking the interview together. The question was: "You are a teacher in a rural junior high school and your principal invites you to his house for dinner. After dinner, he introduces you to his barely legal daughter and says, 'Here is my daughter. Would you like to sleep with her?' How do you respond?"

My face said, I was very, very tempted to say, "She's cute, and I'd be glad to share a bed with her!" just to see what THEIR reaction would have been!

[coalition_unwilling]

168. LMAO. Your post prompted me to remember my favorite all-time interview Q&A

of all time (related to me by a female colleague):

Interviewer: "What kind of birth control do you use?"

Colleague: "What kind of birth control would the company like me to use?"

Oh, how I wish for the presence of mind to have that snappy wit at my command in the moment. I only think of such come-backs long after the time for them has passed.

[Art_from_Ark]

171. At one time, I was actually considering going to the University of Wisconsin

at Madison, in 1980. This was based in large part on the school's reputation as a liberal paradise. I even rode my bicycle up there to look around the campus and talk to professors. There was even a nice-looking gal who started giving me coy looks as we crossed paths at various places on the campus. She eventually caught up with me and started chatting with me, but I'm afraid I said something stupid ( ) and that remark put that "flame" out in a big hurry I never did attend U of W, that might have been the reason why. Or it might have been due to hearing about how that big lake on campus froze over in the winter. Or maybe both

[coalition_unwilling]

172. I think the 'liberal paradise' idea was pretty much a relic of the 60s. When I

TA'ed there in 1986-89, 25% of each entering Freshman class had pre-selected 'Business' as its Major, all this without having taken a single college class, mind you.

OTOH, during Operation Desert Shield\Desert Storm protests of 1990-1, I met some wonderful activists there, some throwbacks to the 'liberal paradise' days and others new activists, younger than I by a generation.

There's a great documentary called "The War At Home" about the anti-war protests during the Vietnam War at UW-Madison. Highly rec if you get a chance. Paul Soglin, one of the student anti-war protesters prominent in the documentary, went on to become Madison's Mayor. IIRC, he was called "the Red Mayor."

The winds off Lake Mendota could be positively brutal in January. Not sure if that's still the case with global climate change, but I'd imagine it is.

[Art_from_Ark]

174. Come to think of it,

if things had gone well with that gal, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up at U of W, despite the freezing lake We actually walked up to her house, which was on a hill that had a splendid view of the state capitol. We chatted outside, on the steps leading up to her door, and then I said something stupid (No, it wasn't "I love you" ), and she abruptly said "Well, be seeing you" and went inside without even looking back

After that, I headed for Lacrosse via the Elroy-Sparta trail, but I never even made it to the campus because I was sidetracked.

Oh, the opportunities that were wasted

[Posteritatis]

152. I had a couple stellar reviews in my last job and got a pay cut for my problems

Like genuine, gushing, falling-over-themselves-to-praise-my-contributions reviews with lots of demonstrable evidence of my improving the place I was at - at which point they rewarded me by switching me from wage to salary, making the base salary about the equivalent to a $1/hr pay cut, and followed that a week or so later by hinting that an extra 10-20 hours a week would get me something in a couple of years.

Turns out that when one's job involves knowing both the expenses and the invoicing for nearly everything we do, an employee might be able to tell if they're getting a pay cut due to financial problems in the company, or if they're just getting one because the company's decided to be cheap.

I'm rather less employed there than I once was.

[12AngryBorneoWildmen]

47. In Canada 20 years ago

Grocery cashiers were making $20/hr.

[madmom]

51. You know what my daughter got for her "raise"? She got

a key to the door and the safe. She was deemed such a good, trustworthy employee, she can now open/close on her own, without owners/management there to do the "heavy" work.

[TalkingDog]

52. My spousal unit recently got his first raise in 2 years. $3.40 PER YEAR.

He works for the county government.

And guess what, all the county commissioners are R and we have a teabagger who calls county employees parasites.

They cut out cost of living increases and incentive raises (continuing education).

[RKP5637]

53. Ain't the "new" America just the best place in the whole wide world! n/t

[tclambert]

56. Hey, if she doesn't like her raise, she should quit and get a job as a Wall Street banker.

I hear they make lots of money . . . and get huge bonuses, way more than 10 cents an hour. Judging by their performance in recent years, it doesn't seem like they need a whole lot in the way of skills. (Maybe a complete lack of ethics. That could be a show-stopper for any non-sociopaths out there, I suppose.)

[Marrah_G]

58. The bosses need more cars, gold and land

They don't give a shit about the employees.

[slackmaster]

62. The bosses need to be shown that people won't put up with their crap

That's the only way they ever learn.

[HopeHoops]

61. That's one of those "Woo Hoo. In three days I'll be able to afford a Miller Lite draft!" moments.

[coalition_unwilling]

67. Wow, one unanticipated benefit of your OP is that it's bringing

out the Reagan-oids, thereby allowing me to augment my Ignore list with people who probly should have been added long ago.

So, I suppose 'thanks' are in order.

K&R!

[Marrah_G]

70. I also added to my ignore list

I'm to tired and in no mood to fight with them.

[OnyxCollie]

72. All of the threads I see are asshole-free.

But then, I've got over 100 people on "ignore."

[coalition_unwilling]

76. I'm working on it. Threads like this one are helping me in my pursuit. - n/t

[OnyxCollie]

88. It's worth the effort. nt

[coalition_unwilling]

93. Or at least the lowered blood pressure. On a quasi-humorous note, it

appears as if I've survived your asshole cut (at least for the time being). Whew! That was a close call (as my wife would be happy to tell you some times

[OnyxCollie]

111. I live my life on the razor's edge.

LOL!

[coalition_unwilling]

73. IMO, if you can't demonstrate empathy, you really do not belong on this board. There

are other boards like Free Republic and Storm Front that are way more appropriate for the empathy-challenged (aka "personal responsibility&quot crowd.

[OnyxCollie]

69. Ha! I got a .16 an hour raise after my last evaluation.

I'm rich, bitches!

Eh, not really. Um, not at all, actually.

Do food stamps count toward "riches?"

[Posteritatis]

154. That's a pretty specific amount.. (nt)

[OnyxCollie]

175. A raise in wages per hour tends to be specific.

Did you think I was making it up?

[Posteritatis]

176. No, just curious as to why they chose sixteen instead of, say, fifteen or twenty.

Gives me the image of some Walmartian thing where employers track their costs down to the thousandth of a cent for its own sake.

[OnyxCollie]

181. The store was allotted $3.20 in wage increases

to be distributed among about 30 people.

I was lucky. Some people got nothing.

[Arctic Dave]

75. I worked for a company where

I saved them approximately 500,000 a year by changing their maintenance process. I got a certificate and 500 bucks.
After that, I made it my goal to tell everyone who worked that company to never help them again.

[bayareaboy]

84. well it rightly don't make a difference if you are from ...

A right to work state or you come from a "FREE" state.

Out here in California UF&CW which does the major chains have given up lots of medical coverage or have to pay out more per worker. Even the Teamsters are having a problem. Raley's a chain that covers most of north state, that seems to have an upfront contract is now talking about doing a lock out for medical coverage.

So the Corporation controls you at every instance or if you have a contract, as management we will start there.

[slackmaster]

86. Union clerks at Vons, a typical chain grocery in Southern California, average a little over $8/hour

People who worked for union grocery store chains used to do a lot better proportionally. One of my old friends from high school used to pull in about $6/hour in the mid-1970s, which was more than twice what I made at a non-union store in the same neighborhood.

[no_hypocrisy]

94. My boss fired me on the BEST DAY of work I've ever had.

I made him look like a God and at the end of the day, he fired me.

Makes no difference what you do. We're all disposable if we're not in a union.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

97. One of my brothers (in sales) turned a territory around and made it profitable again

again after the previous salesman had wrecked it, but according to the big wigs, he hadn't made it profitable ENOUGH in the first year, so he was called to a restaurant for breakfast--and asked to hand in the keys to his company car.

[TheKentuckian]

101. 1.2% raise for the top grade is less than pitiful

I was disappointed at being top grade and only getting 3% but I'm well rewarded and highly valued in comparison.

I guess in the current state of affairs 3% means one is pretty much invaluable.

[backscatter712]

102. Clark Griswold has the best reaction to this...

[Lifelong Protester]

143. "spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is"

My favorite scene in the whole movie....

"Where's the Tylenol?"

[B Calm]

104. Tell her the squeaky wheel

gets the grease and stop being an ass kisser and raise some hell!

[Sirveri]

117. They'll fire her, claim for cause, and deny her unemployment.

Then she'll get to live on the streets in a box. But she'd have her principles.

[SOS]

107. My father also received an excellent work review

He was working for a leather wholesaler in Lower Manhattan.

His employer was so pleased with him, he gave him a 25 cent an hour raise.

This was in 1952.

[lunasun]

112. If that is all doing a good job gets you then slack off as much as possible

becuz working hard at that place only earns you 'atta boys'.
You can not pay for anything with atta boys

Refuse to give them any extra energy and most jobs have slackable outs even if you have to practice slacking at first.
Sad but if they do not reward hard work - why would anyone give them any?? Don't be their tool
Her goal should be a blah satisfactory review= nothing above but not bad enuf to get fired

Make sure to use all your allowed sick days for fishing or whatever IMO
Go to school at night to get a better job and sleep walk through your current day job with as much care as they pay you to have!
Then move on when you can.

[Brigid]

113. A dime an hour. Wow.

Tell your coworker not to spend it all in one place.

And you know what the worst part is? I when I first saw the thread title, I was almost positive you were going to say, "Want to know what happened next? They fired her." How sad is that?

[Egalitarian Thug]

114. The broken social contract that nobody want to talk about anymore.

Like, what contract? What are you talking about? We don't have a contract, never did...

LALALALALALALALALA! I can't hear you!

[Liberal_in_LA]

122. omg

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

123. It's a pretty typical raise

When I worked in minimum wage jobs, I never got more than 20 cents or so of a raise and that was about once a year. Not to mention that they would work me at 39 1/2 hours (just under 40) so I wouldn't be full time and get benefits. My mother in her later years worked at Burger King for some extra money making I think, at most, about 5.50 an hour. They liked her work so much they wanted to make her a manager, and give her a great big 75 cents more an hour. She said no thanks, because why should she have so much extra work and get paid still so little. I really wish it was mandatory for everyone to work a minimum wage job, especially a customer oriented one, so they could see how truly sucky it is. Then people might actually have more respect for the people that work in these jobs. It's the main reason why today I prefer to be in the company of animals rather than actual people, lol.

[struggle4progress]

125. In the mid-1970s I had a short-term job at a very small manufacturing plant

that was scheduled to close soon. I knew when I was hired that it was a short-term hire and the place would be closing soon. On my last day, the boss asked me to stay another week. It was a shitty and slightly hazardous job, and I was making minimum wage to do it, so I said no. As incentive, he offered me a $0.05/hr raise for that one extra week. That's right, he thought I'd change my mind for $2.00. With some effort, I just politely again said no

[lib2DaBone]

126. We have been living top-down Reganomics for the last 30 years... giant fail

it's time to try something else..like paying workers a living wage. Stimulate "Demand" and companies will hire.

But workers can not buy things unless they have living wages.

Mitt Romney has offshore bank acounts he doesnt even know about....billions...

[HockeyMom]

128. That is all I got in 4 years at public school district in Florida

Special Ed TA. I went from $13.35/hour to $13.45. That was it in all 4 years, before I quit. INDEFINITE wage freeze, yes, even with a UNION. Unions in these "Right" to Work States mean nothing. In that time, I also went from free health benefits to $160/month with $3,500 deductible. Can you say LOSING MONEY?

I quit last August. The only thing that kept me there for 4 years wERE the kids I worked with. Oh, will ROMNEY get me a PRIVATE FOR PROFIT job?????? Welcome to Walmart?

[Myrina]

129. I had an "outstanding" evaluation in March

... then I got demoted: do the same job for a lesser title & no possiblity of a raise for 3 years because I'm "paid too much" for my " new title" ....

:barf:

[Spitfire of ATJ]

132. They're dropping a dime on her.

Every hour on the hour...

[Honeycombe8]

133. What's her hourly rate? Need to know what % the 10 cents is of her hrly rate. Suffice to say...

but suffice to day, that sounds piss poor. That's almost the same as no raise at all.

[Ineeda]

134. Is employee theft on the rise at the grocery store?

I've noticed more and more open bags of candy or cookies, etc. on my local store shelves. Maybe revenge has been a motivator.

[cyglet]

135. If I were her

I would go apply at Costco (if you have one in the,area, that is).

[Orrex]

136. I got a $.10 per hour raise at a corporate job back in 2003

As I recall, I actually laughed in my boss' face about it. It wasn't intentional, just sort of slipped out.

I told her--truthfully--that it was the worst raise I'd ever gotten at any job, both in terms of percentage and raw dollars, including when I worked at an amusement park when I was 14 for $2.13 per hour.

Her answer, predictably, was that I should feel glad to have a job at all blah blah blah.

[thelordofhell]

137. Sound like she works for the Walto......er Dukes

[rickford66]

138. I got a raise like that once

In the early 90's I was working for a job shop. We were contracted out to wherever they could make a buck. I was getting around 42K a year and the company was getting about $119,000 for my services. Not bad. Well, after a years probation, one of the managers took me aside and said that I did such a great job they were giving me a ..... wait for it ..... 5 cent raise. So, that's $2.00 per week and maybe put me in the next column in the tax table. Maybe I ended up making less. They did give us a couple slices of pizza a month and their HMO health insurance only cost $500 + a month. At the time I had privately bought a BC/BS family plan for $340 per month. When they found out that I was interviewing other places, I received an $8,000 raise and 4 weeks paid vacation (they had no vacation but my manager said since I had never taken a sick day in three years I should have the 4 weeks paid). I left right after that.

[livingonearth]

141. That's why they call it "trickle down"...

because it happens real sloooooowly.

[patrice]

142. Like a frakking grocery store has trouble making enough profit. Shame!!!

[Skittles]

153. sad thing is, she got a better pay raise than did I

[Evoman]

156. My girlfriend worked at a clothing store and was a top notch employee.

Her manager gave her a good review, but the big wigs pressured the manager to make it worse so she wouldn't get as big a raise. She got 5 cents extra an hour.

She was so insulted she quit. In order to stop a great employee from quitting (all the other workers were flakey, always called in sick, and didnt do half the work she did), they finally offered her an extra 2 dollars or something like that to stay.

Would have cost them much less if they hadn't been such cheap bastards.

She quit two months later anyways and got a job that paid 5 bucks an hour more. Now she is in her 4th year of pharmacy.

Always try to move forward.

Also, NEVER be loyal to an employer. Fuck em. If you get a better offer, and you'd rather leave, do it. You don't owe your employer anything.

[Ken Burch]

161. And they'll probably levy an .11$ an hour processing fee on each of her paychecks.

And I wouldn't put it past them to fire her for telling you how much of a "raise" they gave her.

Bastards...scumbags...shitheels...

[Ship of Fools]

163. Umm...I can attest that this has been going on for years. Just sayin.

[Xyzse]

179. Well, she got a raise.

I've been working for a company for a while, and even if I got an employee of the year award, I haven't had a raise in 4 years.

Every little thing helps I guess, but I'm glad I have other side jobs.

[Initech]

183. And the CEO gets a $4.6 million raise.

And we get the scraps. The system works.