Why doesn't anything pay well?

[Nikia]

I have been searching for a different job for a couple of years now. One of the limiting factors to taking a different job has been low pay. I serach the classifieds and job boards. Few jobs pay above $15/hour or $30,000 year. Those that do usually have one of the following qualifications: 10+ years experience in a very specific field or skill, master's or other advance degree, very specific technology based skills. Some sales jobs have potential for large salaries, but conversely have the potential for no salary.
How do people get good paying jobs now. Obviously, a 4 year degree isn't enough. I regularly see ads wanting a 4 year degree for $10/hour positions, some wanting a couple years experience too. Many jobs seem to dead end, not rewarding those who do a good job within the company.
Is there any hope for those who are not well connected to earn a good salary without going to law or medical school?
From looking at the job ads, it also does seem like many people do make under $30,000 year. Although two people each making $30,000 can get by alright without a family, if nothing really bad happens, things become much tighter when children enter the picture and it is still not compatible with the type of lifestyle that the media presents as normal.

[KarenInMA]

1. Without the abilty to sell something

or a technical degree, no. Nothing really pays well.

You see, a BA is like a high school diploma from 15 years ago. Even a Masters in liberal arts is quite litterally useless.

You are MUCH better off with a skill- any skill- than a history/english degree.

sad but true.

[Nikia]

16. I have lab skills

My degree is in biology and I have almost 5 years of quality assurance experience in the food industry. I have considered getting cerifications even if my company doesn't sponsor me. For example, I have found out that to be a certified cheese grader, I only need to pass a test and pay $50. I think that HACCP certification is expensive, but I know my stuff and believe that I could pass a test on it without additional study. On the other hand, I am getting to the point where I think that perhaps quality assurance isn't for me.
As for lab work, it seems without a master's degree that only technician jobs paying less than the amounts that I mentioned are available. Some of these jobs, requiring a degree, are $10/hour jobs.
I agree that many jobs are skill based. Many of them request very specific skills. Sometimes, I wonder who has the specific skill sets advertised in job ads, but obviously they find someone to do the job.

[thinkingwoman]

50. Hear, Hear!

I predicted this 20 years ago, when I was in college. Did I get paid for my brilliant foresight? Of course not. sigh.

[noahmijo]

2. Welcome to $America$

Yea I have a BS in MIS from what is supposedly the number 3 school in Information Technology only below MIT and Carnegie Mellon and I've been searching for about a year now for something better than $13/hr with no benefits and not even full time status. Hell not even employed status I am just an intern and this is the best I've been able to do so far.

I think it's the location I'm in though. Here in Tucson the job market is terrible and thanks to all the Californians moving into this city the cost of living is probably just below San Diego when not more than about 5-7 years ago it was actually very cheap to live here.

Only reason I don't branch out and look for jobs elsewhere is because I'm waiting for my gf to graduate. She only has two semesters left so I figure I can hold off for awhile.

From doing searches for the hell of it online it seems like if you want any shot at even a mediocre job you gotta search the big cities.

I've even considered looking at Canada.

[ace2u_in_MD]

51. Tucson has always sucked for employment...

Lived there for a year in '88 working on the WPPSS trial. Rents were right around $300 month for nice 1 BR apartments. Tech work was landed on the "good ol boy network", and most other employment was crap... It is a glorified college town from an economic perspective...

[noahmijo]

52. You nailed it in one sentence

The tech work is totally dominated by the slack jawed talking good ol boy network. Where I work I'm surrounded by good ol boy Republican types.

[BenTrem]

3. Disparity

Over the past 15 or so years the lowest paid 20% have, by some figures, actually lost spending power. The second quintile gained maybe 5% or so. In contrast the top quitile gained something like 60% over that same period ... the top 1% sky-rocked by something like 110%.

It's economic warfare, doncha know ... they gotta buy our loyalty, but they cannot allow us to gain our independence ... free time leads to free thinking.

(I shit-canned by Babylonian career years ago to raise kids in the country ... "voluntary simplicity". A bit of misfortune has left me in abject poverty. *shrug*)

[newyawker99]

27. Hi BenTrem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[I Have A Dream]

Hi, BenTrem - welcome to DU!

I'm waiting for the time when people are just going to rise up and say "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

I hope that it happens soon.

I hope that your situation improves. There's no room today for misfortune in our society. One can be doing fine and, after something even relatively minor happens, find oneself homeless or going without food or transportation. There's no such thing as a safety net anymore in America.

[MercutioATC]

4. Are you 31 years old or younger?

Air traffic control pays pretty well, but it's not something everybody would enjoy.

[Nikia]

9. I'm 27

But I am not sure if I could handle that stress. I might try to find more about it though.

[MercutioATC]

www.faa.gov

www.faa.gov

We're hiring...not as fast as we need to, but we ARE hiring.

[jzodda]

31. nt

nt

[CountAllVotes]

5. after getting my M.A. ....

the best job I could find was that of an "office assistant" which paid a whole $1900. a month.

Big deal huh? Was it worth it? Well in a way yes, because education is never useless in life IMO.

Keep looking! I hope better things come your way soon! :D

:kick:

[RebelOne]

6. I am employed as a copy editor for a very large media corporation.

My salary sucks, but the benefits are excellent. Even if you do take a job for $30,000 or under, if the benefits are good (i.e., medical, dental and life insurance, lots of time off and perks), it sort of evens out.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. It's all about who you know.

Something I discovered at an early age (19)

I've been able to manufacture an excellent career for myself by:

a) being good at what I do
b) maintaining contact with people who are able to give me jobs

Without a college degree, I've managed to fight my way into a career in the tech sector, completly defying the odds which say I should probably be drunk in a ditch somewhere. In my experience, nothing can compare to having connections. I know it sounds terrible, but it works.

[Tux]

12. Today

I think degrees are just dressing for contacts. My psych degree is worthless, even a PhD, since I focus on research and not fluffy clinical crap.

I am considering getting a BBA if I can get any job. KY sucks for anything over $6.50/hr.

[Shang Tsung]

30. Yup very true

But look at this way... education should be for it's own sake. While your education may not be appreciated by employers be glad you have it. Afterall hopefully you became educated for your self not an employer. Be glad that you are educated enough to see the situation as it is now. Most people don't have the brains to think beyond anything FOX news tells them, and that's why we're in the situation we are in now.

It would be nice if everyone went to higher education to learn important social subjects like government, economics, etc instead of what SONY et al would like. The country would be a much better places if people could understand the economic and government situation and how they are getting screwed as well as what they can do about it.

[Imagine My Surprise]

33. Not necessarily true...

I moved back to Louisville from LA, CA and got a temp job in healthcare. just landed a 33,000k job and I do NOT have a college degree. This has been an enlightening chat though...I was thinking My salary sucked. Guess it doesn't.
PS -- I do NOT have highly technical skills, either. temp to hire is the way to go.

[Shang Tsung]

34. Healthcare

is a unique exception to the rule. You can still got a job in that field easily, especially if you are educated.

Though it's not a field that is for everyone, and many positions require at least some medical training.

[Imagine My Surprise]

38. I actually came in as a secretary (I am a 49 year old male!)...

and within 5 weeks of being a permanent secretary (I temped for 3 months with them) I applied for another position (non-secretarial) within the company. Went from 28.5 to 33.3. And I do not have a degree.

[Shang Tsung]

40. Errr

you're talking about promotion from within after working there for a number of years as a secretary. How many people can get to that job you moved in to as an entry level position with no medical training?

[Imagine My Surprise]

48. I worked as a secretary for six weeks.

I was was a temp for 3 months. Then I was hired on as permanent staff. And six weeks later, I was promoted from within. I am not saying everyone is as fortunate. But I did this and I assume I am not the only person on the planet that this can happen to. But I WAS willing to start at the bottom.

[rainbow4321]

53. Except hospitals are importing their help...

and finding lame reasons to let American nurses go..the imported nurses think they are living high on the hog earning $15/hr with their nursing degree....one proudly told how the hospital bought her bathroom towels and a set of bed sheets upon her arrival to her new US apartment.

Yeah, well, seeing as how they just fired an American based nurse who was making $25/hr and they get to save $10/hr from here on out on this imported nurse, spending a few bucks on shopping at Wal Mart is not that upsetting to the hospital. The hospitals just look at it as getting rid of a "more expensive" American nurse.

The imported Asian nurse said that back in her home country, she and her husband had to both work to make ends meet...once they got here, the husband gets to be a stay at home Dad since the nurse/wife is making "so much" more money here in the US hospital.

I've talked to 2 nurses in the last couple weeks (different times/places, not together) who said that for their annual evaluation pay raises, they each got 20 CENTS/hour raise. Both are young, new nurses who are already burnt out after only a year on the job in a career that has you on your feet for 8-12 hrs/day...where you are lucky to get a bathroom break or lunch, where you are trying to keep people get healthy and live. And what do they get in return?? 20 cents/hour.

Another nurse did 55 extra shifts last year ..all he heard in his eval was that management was upset with him for calling in 5 times in one year. Nothing about the extra 55 shifts he did to help them out.

They go thru a 2 or 4 yr nursing degree, start out at between $18-$20/hr and find out really quick that it will be at least 5 yrs before they see a single dollar increase in their salary??????

Last point and I will stop my ranting...getting into nursing school is no longer an easy way to get a job. Last year, 4200 Texans were refused entry into nursing school. Not because they were underqualified but because there are not enough nursing instructors to teach the classes. So colleges are limiting the number of applicants they accept. Nurse instructors don't get paid enough, they can do better in the private sector. No instructors = no new students = very few nurses in the future to take care of the ever increasing number of baby boomers/elderly.

[Tux]

62. Temp

Did temp at Dell as a computer technician for 7 months. My contract ended when I solved a couple problems the L2 techs couldn't solve.

Employers here ask why I attended EMU and a MI high school instead of WKU and local high schools. Nothing I said mattered.

I tried temps agencies and all I hear is "sorry, nothing yet". With a bad back, factories are out but nothing for office or tech.

[question everything]

8. Sometimes you have to be willing to start at the bottom

and build these years of experience.

I remember being fresh out of school I have often wondered - but where do I get that experience they they seek?

And, unfortunately, with more people seeking good jobs, the employers can pick and choose.

And, hopefully, once you generate that experience, you can also establish some network of people who would get to know you and would think of you when something opens.

And, yes, if you can, you may have to relocate to whee there are better opportunity.

Good Luck.

[Ilsa]

10. And living expenses are hard to manage with those salaries.

You almost have to have a roommate, which is almost comparable to being a two-income no children family unit. No wonder so many people live at home with mom and dad while they try to get started. They can't afford to live on their own, and they certainly can't save for their futures.

I wish you well on your job search. Be flexible.

[tmooses]

11. I think this is just another example of Bush's handing the country over

to corporate interests. I read yesterday about large cuts in jobs for June and July but we keep hearing about job creation. Anybody looking for work knows the answer to what's going on-low paying service jobs are replacing higher paying tech jobs. With all the people looking for work you'd think there would be at least somebody pointing these phone job numbers and what they really reflect.

[Tommymac]

13. The destruction of the Unions

has a LOT to do with low wages.

We are now in the corporate controlled world...the checks and balances the unions provide are going fast.

Looking for a well paying job? Not in Bush's America...not unless you have connections, and are willing to sell your soul to the company store...

[quiet.american]

14. Good question. Rents are up. Wages down.

And the smirk goes on.

[CrispyQ]

15. I like the ads that say

'excellent pay!' & you find out it's 25k a year. Didn't our dimwit pResident say that 20k a year was middle class? He is so out of touch with reality, as are most executives.

Your comment: "Many jobs seem to dead end, not rewarding those who do a good job within the company."

My experience has been that very few companies value good work. Oh, they value that they don't have to worry about the quality of your work or your reliability, but come raise time you are given the same 3% as the slackard that sits across from you.

And if a position, that would be a promotion for you, becomes available, they may do you the courtesy of an interview, but more than likely the position will be offered to someone from outside the company.

It's like you're pigeon-holed as soon as you walk into the company. You are at this level & will not advance much further, if at all, beyond it. It seems that corporations generally value the unknown qualities of an outsider more than the known qualities of employees who have worked for them & proven themselves.

I have seen this over & over & over again with the many different companies I have worked for. Anytime I made an advancement in my career, I had to leave the current company & go to a new company.

Sorry, I got a little off topic, there. I agree with the other suggestions that you would be well served to learn a specific skill. What do you like to do & what are you good at? It may be worth looking into some career counseling, although, admittedly I've never done that & don't know much about it.

Good luck! We live in trying times.

[rucky]

56. click this - just for kicks...

www.fuckthisjob.com

i laughed, i cried.... i cried.

[CrispyQ]

57. Thank you!

That's a good site & reminds me that others have it much worse.

I actually have a dream job right now, but it took years to get here!

[number_nine]

17. Even tech jobs aren't all that technical any more...

...at least where I work. I have a BS in computer science, and really love that field. I used to primarily be a software engineer/developer, though my role is changing to more of a project manager---the development part is being off shored. Project management is semi interesting and okay, but it's not what I really want to do---I'd rather be coding. :)

Short of moving to a big city though, I don't know that there are a lot of opportunities for me to have a stable, well-paying "hand on" type technology job. Software development is now seen as a commodity skill, like the various labor trades. And the technology base makes it especially easy to move such operations overseas.

Makes a bumper sticker I saw recently ring ever the more true: "If Conservatives love America so much, why are they sending all our jobs overseas?"

Anyway, I'm kind of caught in the middle, since where I work now pays well, is stable, has good benefits and all that. I just see the opportunities to actually do what I want to do diminishing.

Looking into the future, I think that America will slowly become nothing more than a country of managers. Seriously. All the "real work" is too expensive to be done by Americans, so it'll be outsourced. Many people say that eventually the rest of the world will catch up, but hard-core capitalists and oppressive regimes (like Bush's) will ensure that "strategic sourcing" opportunities never disappear.

[CrispyQ]

58. another bumper sticker

The only thing America produces is rich executives.

[Yupster]

18. Sales jobs

More specifically, high end sales jobs is where very good money can be made.

To me a high end sales job is a position with which you can move from employer to employer and potentially take your customers with you. Companies know this and will generally treat these people very well including, but not limited to high pay. There are many companies where the top salespeople make more than the office manager.

I've had careers on both sides. I was a public school teacher for nine years and I've been a high end sales person for 15 years. The differences are dramatic. It would in fact make a great idea for a book. (As an aside one of the biggest differences I have noticed was the leadership).

Anyway, there isn't a week that goes by where I don't get a recruitment call from another company offering bonuses to come over. In 15 years I've switched only once and that was not for the money but because my old company was changing dramatically.

The company I work for treats me very well, and I know they are trying to keep me happy. I wouldn't leave for more money.

The downside is what you said though. Most sales people aren't successful and after two or three years of making virtually no money, they give up. That's a chance every commission worker takes when he starts his job.

Best of wishes to you on your career search.

[raccoon]

19. You got that right, not many jobs pay well any more

and if you can get a well-paying job with benefits, you really have stars in your crown.

As some have said here, and it's been my observation too, you pretty much have to know somebody to put in a word for you. There are rare exceptions but not many.

Plenty of people I know make less than $30,000. And these are well educated people. Of course, where you live makes a big difference there--$30,000 would go further in Smalltown, wherever than in Washington, DC.

"From looking at the job ads, it also does seem like many people do make under $30,000 year."

Right.

"Although two people each making $30,000... and it is still not compatible with the type of lifestyle that the media presents as normal."

The media is full of crap. A person living outside the US, from watching American TV shows and movies, could easily get the idea that all Americans are upper-middle class (if not downright rich), live in great big houses, have several new, expensive cars, dress very well, and don't have to worry about trivial things like how to pay the car payment or the utility bill.

The same is true of many magazines. All this is Madison Avenue, not real life.

[unrepuke]

20. 30 years ago I wanted to become a sign painter. Hahahahaha

The instructor told us the average time required to attain a workable mediocrity was 10 years, and 30 > if you REALLY REALLY want it bad enough to work at it 24/7 - to get very good at it.
He said if you want to make a living, go be a doctor. You can make it in 9 years and charge whatever you like.

I chose Sign Painter, and became one of the very best. I make less each year, averaging now about $1100 a month. In Southern California it takes about 40 large a year just to breathe the smog here. I, too, search the want ads and have filled out hundreds of applications over the years. It's disheartening at 60 years of age seeing all the $6.50 per hour, part time/no benefit jobs available.

I hope my landlord outlives me.

[oscar111]

21. Hi pay = Low profits. PS 32 K is average pay

32 is average IIRC.

avg family gets fifty K because wifey also works, at some lower pay.

Unions can change all this.

AAR can uniquely help to expand unions, and it seems nothing else will.

AFLCIO seems clueless about expanding. Has NO radio station, no newspapers, no tv channel for rabbitear tv's like Fox is.

AFLCIO is dumb, in a word.

Solution is to expand AAR by our own efforts. Or by locals of unions, independently of national HQ's. Anchorage IBEW local bought a station, put AAR on.

Lets all do that.

[Shang Tsung]

26. AAR is not union radio

In my two years with the teamsters never did I hear anyone talk about AAR.

If you want to know my opinion as a former union member who was worked a union job and various non-union jobs the problem is too many people are willing to take it.

For example, I worked at an employer that was pretty trashy one time. Treated most employees like crap. Low pay, poor benefits, unetheical practices. (i.e. get hurt at work they'll deny it, changed time logs to remove minutes/hours worked a week) Everyone knew about and hated this including me and one other guy I worked with who was even more pissed off about it and talked about it daily.

I started asking others that were pissed off if they wanted to form a union. You know what? None of them wanted to even though it would have meant an end to the BS. Even the one guy I knew who was really really upset about the situation wouldn't go for it. Now I can understand some peoples position. They had kids to feed and felt they couldn't risk it. But for the most part everyone was just willing to take it.

That's the problem IMO. Take drug testing, credit checks, and all the other invasions of privacy many employers pull today. Everyone just lined up like cattle to take it. I have to wonder - if most companies tomorrow announced anal probes were now part of pre-employment testing how many people would speak out about it? Somehow I have a feeling most would go along with it.

Anyway, my discussion of a union at that job had a pretty pathetic ending. I knew a guy at work that was very very friendly. Seemed bright and educated, and worked the same job we did. I eventually talked to him about it. I was fired the next day. Turns out he was a little too friendly. He spent most days walking around talking to everyone instead of working... yet no one in management cared. I figured he was just friends with someone higher up since the guy was so friendly. Well turns out the company hired him to work with those of us at the lowest level and report to management anything he heard/saw that conflicted with company policy. (read: union talk for one) I was extremely upset when I was told that when I was fired. They essentially hired someone to spy on us.

It's a sad state of affaris for unions today, and unfortunately I only see the situation getting worse. AAR is not going to fix it. People at the workplace need to grow a spine and some self respect. Only then will unions make a come back.

[Shang Tsung]

22. Look in to UPS

the shipping company.

I worked there until early this year when I became too sick to do it anymore. (unrelated illness)

UPS has a union - a damn good one. Pay started at 8.50/hr at my location in Texas... but it's was part time ONLY. Most people (almost everyone at UPS) start out as a package handler making that. BUT after 90 days you get a 50 cent pay raise. Every year after that you get a one dollar raise. So if you work 5 years you'll be making $14/hr. You also get benefits like medical (very good medical) even though you are part time.

Unfortunately it's part time only, but most people with a degree (damn near all) get promoted pretty fast to full time doing something else since almost all higher level jobs are from promotions within.

Package handling is VERY physical work... but since you're 27 you should be able to handle it. I doubt any of this changed since I left earlier this year.

One word - stay FAR away from Fedex as an alternative. I looked in to working there prior to UPS. You get paid less doing package handling... far far less. No raises at all. NO benefits for part time. IMO because they have no union.

[Shang Tsung]

23. In answer to your question

Death of unions. (many young people don't even know what a union is anymore. When I worked at UPS until early this year I told my friends in college I was in the union and most of them literally had to be told what a union was. These are college students. It was depressing.)

[SlavesandBulldozers]

24. well according to Alan Greenspan

we have an abundance of tech jobs and not enough qualified workers - so I guess you're just not qualified to work in this booming job market.

seriously, he says that, and congress looks at him and nods in agreement, lamenting the lack of qualified workers. welcome to bizarro-world.

[Tommymac]

25. Where?

I think I saw one of them there high payin' jobs runnin' under the bush across the street the other day...but it turned out to be a rat....

[barb162]

28. RN s, pharmacy pay extremely well in my area

[barb162]

29. Meant to add that 1/3 of all jobs in the USA right now pay less

than 35000/yr. (source was CNN as I recall)

[Nikia]

39. Are you sure that it is not the opposite or worse?

Looking at all those job ads and how much they pay, thinking about all the possible jobs in my community, and thinking that the average person earns less than that (women do for sure), I cannot possibly believe that 2/3 of American jobs pay more than $35,000. Maybe there are some companies in big cities that pay nearly everyone well, but I still don't think that it adds up to more.

[barb162]

46. don't recall exactly; I heard it last evening in a story about

home-buying and the avg price of a house in the US right now is 200,000 or above and that 1/3 of the jobs are 35000 or less. ANd that makes it quite hard for people to buy houses, if the old standard 1/4 of income is used. Then they went on to show 3 couples who bought their houses for that price and what they found. Then they went into more expensive home market where people were really maxing out everything to get into any houses. Cnn or MSNBC, but I think it was CNN.

[jzodda]

32. Well I can not even find a job at all...and i have 3 degrees....

In 2003 I was working at a lawfirm in Manhattan. Things were going well. The day I fell I had just conducted my first trial solo (I won)

Then I fell down a flight of stairs after work and eventually lost my job because of it. Then began a nightmere of not being able to walk, 2 hospitalizatons, and 2 operations.

Since then I have not been able to find a job as an attorney and I have even volunteered to work for FREE a few times. Can you believe it? I can not even seem to get an interview for jobs paying $30k a year (as a lawyer thats not a very good job)

So here I am 2 years later and can not even get a job at blockbuster. They tell me "your a lawyer You expect me to believe you will stay for long?" So I can not get a job in my field, I can not get crappy jobs....

It just makes me bitter and angry. To the guy who said "its all who you know a few posts up" Yeah....you are 100% correct. When you do not know anybody or have good connections it can be very very hard!

[Tommymac]

35. Curious...

have you tried contacting some of the progressive organizations online? Especially the ones working on election reform? Just a thought...If I hear of anything here in Western PA I will let you know...I have a couple of friends in the law business... but jobs here are scarce too. I have been out of work for 6 months...10 years experience as a network engineer...lost my last job because I didn't live in Bangalore.

[Shang Tsung]

37. How much do those organizations pay?

Most (if not all) election reform organizations are non-profit.

Although they're good organizations they may not pay the bills... which seems to be what the poster is looking for.

[jzodda]

41. thanks for the kind words :)

I will look in these organizations. Have nothing to lose

[Imagine My Surprise]

36. I am so sorry about your situation...there is a book...

called THE HALO EFFECT: HOW VOLUNTEERING CAN LEAD TO A MORE FULFILLING LIFE AND A BETTER CAREER by John Reynolds.
I know you're checked into the volunteer route. But read the book and be open to little "nudges" that come to you. You might be surprised what happens.

[jzodda]

44. I will order that today at amazon

thanks for the advice :)

and as for what I volunteered for it was not a public interest organization it was for a few law firms that practiced the kind of law I like. I figured maybe they would see that I do good work and then take a chance and hire me, but it was a no go.

wow the book was only $3.00 shipped so good deal for me :)

[Imagine My Surprise]

49. You are welcome!

I have a "sense" that confidence is an issue with you. And I can see why you've lost a bit of a grip on that. I hate "feel good" platitudes, but I do believe sometimes they work. I hope you find a tidbit within the book that might send you in a new, positive direction.

[barb162]

47. yes it is this: who you know

I have heard the same lines from employers for years as I also have more than one degree. "Overqualified" is the worst. Employers cripe about the rotten quality of candidates and you would think they would be kissing your feet to get you in. But a lot of times the hiring managers don't want superqualified people around because it just makes them look inept by comparison.

[CrispyQ]

59. That is so true!!!

"But a lot of times the hiring managers don't want superqualified people around because it just makes them look inept by comparison."


I've seen it many times.

[jlseagull]

42. Here's an idea - STOP LOOKING FOR A JOB!

Stop trying to stay in the trap of working for someone else. Work for yourself, the rewards are MUCH greater!

You say you have a degree in biology? Food service QA for five years? Perfect. You're just at the right point in your career to strike out on your own as a consultant. You think you don't know enough? HA! No one does! It's all about your ability to learn FAST.

Incorporate as an LLC or S corp. Get an HSA. Start an IRA if you don't already have one. Dump extraneous expenses. Make up business cards and a small pamphlet advertising your services. One of the most important things to do is to join a food service professionals association and a small business association (often one or both will be free). Go to old contacts in previous jobs and ask that they keep you in mind and that your rates are flexible (charging double your old hourly rate, of course). Begin to write off things like computers, portions of your rent or mortgage, pencils, auto miles, lunches, education, books, etc.

I did it, and I'm making double the industry average at the age of 26, and as the CEO and sole employee, I give myself a month of vacation every year. And I can write half of it off as a business expense when I go visit sites to do research. And I have a liberal arts degree. :)

[Tux]

64. I tried that

I tried PC repair. No big deal. Now, my biz is dead and I have a $ framed with a biz card for decoration. I thought I had an idea with the biz but I had to compete with Best Buy's Geel Squad and 15 other PC reapir places in a town of 50,000. Many don't have PCs or if they do, they prefer the PC maker's tech support.

[Cleita]

43. Because you need strong labor unions to barter

for your fair share of corporate income. When you have strong labor unions bringing in higher wages, then even non-union workplaces have to up their wages to be competitive. You can thank your Republican officials for destroying labor power in the last century starting with Ronald Reagan.

One of the reasons ordinary families in the fifties could afford a house, a car, and a vacation was that union wages in the blue collar sector enabled workers to achieve the American dream.

[spuddonna]

45. Because Reagan put the last nail in the Union's coffin?

And now we 'outsource' most of our technical jobs overseas... Just a theory...

[Deja Q]

54. Because it pays far less in some communist country.

And despite what our government tells us, it's apparently okay for Americans to use their services.

Having been to a seminar recently, fewer companies keep long term employees, fewer companies have full time employees, fewer companies pay workers a PROPER wage (Lincoln would be pissed), fewer companies bother to pay benefits.

In short, the lower classes trying to even life will become harder. And the reich wing can spew all they want about morality and family but they also support the "people" who choose to exploit and embezzle and treat workers like worms.

It's not a society I wish to live in. Fortunately my health is on the decline. What are you going to do about the problem they are making?

[eleny]

55. Cheap labor economics

[B Calm]

60. Happens every time cheap labor conservatives are in power.

Wait until Bush stacks the Supreme Court with corporate sluts all bent on destroying workers rights.

[wli]

61. hard tech here

Few enough people can do it that worldwide recruitment is necessary and most people who enter the field end up being incompetent. No relation to Bill Gates' bullcrap, but rather very specialized work.

It's a minor miracle I managed to get where I'm at, though I'm not even making 100K/yr.

[SoCalDem]

63. Why?? because the "Masters of Commerce"

have determined that $30K is just about right to keep people 'hungry' and slaves to their jobs. It keeps them too afraid to job-hop if the have benefits of any kind, because they live so close to the "edge", that they can never save enough to tide them over during a job-search.

And if wages are kept low, it creates a huge demand for ever-cheaper goods, which only continues the downward wage spiral in all sectors. The exception here is for goods that require financing. Those will increase in price to "hook" formerly middle class people into thinking they can continue their status, but in reality are digging a deeper debt hole.

The real money in corporations is reserved for the upper echelons and the elite investors. The rank and file employees are just dust on the wind.. readily available and easy to replace..

Workers have gone from being an asset to being a liability, and one that can be cut without a look back.

It's all supply and demand.. When there are more applicants than jobs, the wages can be dropped because someone will always take that lower paying job if they have no other option.. The pressure is also intense to "cut the deadwood" and hire cheaper people.. A 45-55 yr old employee at the top of the pay-scale, who is a few years from collecting a pension (if they are in the lucky minority) can always be eliminated by a "careful" employer.. That worker can be easily replaced by 2 22 yr olds who will work for peanuts..

Does the employer care if that 45-55 yr old has a mortgage or kids in college, or may desperately need the medical benefits he can no longer afford on unemployment or the $10 hr job he settled for?? Nope. They sleep like babies.. Evil satanic babies :(