Consumerist: wages

Estimated Hourly Wages For The Lowest Paying Jobs In The U.S.

Chris Walters — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:29:04 EST

The blog Political Calculations took data from the Congressional Budget Office, "which published a study of the lowest-wage workers in the U.S. from 1979 through 2005," and looked at the occupations of the bottom 20% of earners in the U.S. Then it took a chart of the 10 full-time jobs with the lowest annual earnings as compiled by BizJournals.com and estimated the hourly wage based on 40-hour weeks. Conclusion: don't plan on operating a Tilt-a-Whirl and retiring comfortably.

Three of the jobs—waiting tables, bartending, and, uh, bellhopping?—don't include unreported tips. After the food and beverage jobs, the next lowest spot on the chart is "Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants." Interesting—this could explain why that Zipper ride operator at the fair yelled at us when we were kids and tried to scoop up spare change that fell out of riders' pockets. That was his money.

Average Hourly Wages as estimated by Political Calculations * does not include unreported tip income
Waiters and waitresses* Waiters and waitresses' assistants Bartenders* Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants Baggage Porters and Bellhops* Food Preparation Workers Not Classified Elsewhere Early Childhood Teacher's Assistants Maids and Housemen Teacher's Aides Food Preparation Kitchen Workers		$4.21 $5.94 $6.39 $6.97 $7.20 $7.77 $7.96 $7.99 $8.01 $8.43

"The Jobs That Pay the Least" [Political Calculations]

"America's 25 Best and Worst Paying Jobs"
(Photo: Mister Scratch)

Walmart Uses 4,300 Unpaid Teenagers As Baggers In Its Mexican Stores

Meg Marco — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:19:47 EDT

Walmart is Mexico's largest private employer, according to Newsweek, and that doesn't include the 4,300 unpaid teenagers that it lets "volunteer" to bag groceries at its Mexican stores.

The teenagers work for gratuities and Walmart says the teenagers "cannot be considered workers," and are therefore exempt from Walmart's "code of ethics" that prevents "associates" from going unpaid.

Meanwhile business is booming in Mexico for Walmart. They have plans to open 125 additional stores and "reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 "

So why are the baggers going unpaid, relying only on gratuities? Local custom. From Newsweek:

The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be "volunteering" their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country's labor laws. But some officials south of the U.S. border nonetheless view the practice as regrettable, if not downright exploitative. "These kids should receive a salary," says Labor Undersecretary Patricia Espinosa Torres. "If you ask me, I don't think these kids should be working, but there are cultural and social circumstances [in Mexico] rooted in poverty and scarcity."

In a country where nearly half of the population scrapes by on less than $4 a day, any income source is welcome in millions of households, even if it hinges on the goodwill of a tipping customer. And Wal-Mart did not invent the bagger program that, as a written statement from the company notes, pre-dates the firm's arrival in Mexico, nor is it alone within the country's retail sector in benefiting from the toil of unpaid adolescents. But in Mexico City, for example, the 4,300 teenagers who work in Wal-Mart's retail stores free of charge dwarf similar numbers laboring unpaid for Mexican competitors like Comercial Mexicana (715) and Gigante (427).

Can Walmart not afford the Mexican minimum wage? Newsweek says its less than $5 an hour. Just from a consumer's perspective, we'd be annoyed at having to personally pay the wages of our grocery bagger, but obviously that is the cultural norm.

Teens at Work [Newsweek](Thanks, Molly!)
(Photo:Marco Ugarte/AP)

Minimum Wage Bumps Up To $5.85 This Week

Meg Marco — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 19:15:22 EDT

The federal minimum wage is rising to $5.85 this week, up from $5.15. The change is part of a plan to give minimum-wage workers an additional 70 cent boost each summer until 2009, when the minimum wage will be $7.50, or about $15,000 a year before taxes and without taking time off.

The poverty level in the us is around $10,210 a year.

The effect that a minimum wage increase will have on the economy is hotly debated. Some say it will cost jobs and raise prices, others say that it won't. We'll find out.

Federal Minimum Wage Rising This Week [Washington Post]
(Photo:GrooverFW)

Make More Money By Adjusting Your Witholdings

Ben Popken — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:45:03 EDT

Why give the IRS an interest-free loan throughout the year? Instead, boost your monthly earnings by changing the amount of withholdings you claim. Kiplinger offers an easy 3-question calculator to help you figure out the right number.

If you want to be more exact, you can follow the 19-page IRS work booklet (PDF), or answer their 30 item online questionnaire.

Once you do that, file a revised W-4 (PDF) with your employer, and start seeing the pay bump within 30 days. — BEN POPKEN

Withholding Calculator [Kiplinger]
Get Next Year's Refund Now [Kiplinger]

Life at $7.25 An Hour

Meg Marco — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:48:16 EST

The Washington Post has an interesting article about what life is like for someone who makes $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage that was passed by the House and will be moving on to the Senate. The article examines the life of a retail worker who makes $7.25:

"I bring home 900 a month," he said. "So I very rarely have any money for myself."

And also examines what a minimum wage increase would mean for businesses and workers alike:

Shannon Wilk, 33, who makes $6.25 an hour, said that of course she would like to earn more money. It would help her. It would help her 18-month-old daughter. "It would be good," she said, "but also, for me, I live in income-based housing, and if I get a raise, my rent would go up, and I would lose my assistance." Even the tiniest raise would affect her, she said, and with nowhere to go, the last thing she can afford is a raise to $7.25.

Interesting stuff. —MEGHANN MARCO

Life at $7.25 [Washington Post/MSNBC]

HOWTO: Negotiate Fair Pay

Meg Marco — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:54:54 EST

Let's face it, women don't get paid as much as men. Why is this? Aside from obvious reasons like "Men are sexist douchebags" there's also the fact that fewer women negotiate when it comes to things like salary offers or their yearly raise. Why? Who knows. The point is, it's appropriate to negotiate. If the men in your office are getting paid more than you are, put a stop to it with a few negotiating tips from Bankrate.com:

•State the behavior. Say that you are not being paid the same as other employees with similar performance.

•Tell how you feel without getting too emotional. Wahhh, you want money. Don't complain, just say, "Being paid less than other people makes me feel under-appreciated." Don't say you need the money for your Aunt's goiter.

•Determine your options. Have a solution ready. Tell them what you want, but don't try to bankrupt the company.

•Strive for a positive outcome. Don't be a negative creep.

Go get 'em, tiger.

Negotiate your way to fair pay [Bankrate.com]

Confessions Of A Former Walmart Manager

Ben Popken — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:35:10 EDT

The recent wage caps on veteran employees are supposed to encourage employees to advance through the ranks rather than staying in the same job, year after year.

Well, this gut-spilling from a fromer Wal-Mart manager tells us what fun stuff they would have to look forward to: forcing a mother just back from maternity leave to work 22 hours straight, missing your son's birthday party, and more!

Read it, after the jump.

Valli A. writes in the PaperBack Swap forums (free registration required):

"I worked upper management for two years at Wal-Mart. You would not believe the horrific things I've seen.

I was once reamed out for hiring a deaf guy. I was told that once I start hiring handicapped people, then they would force Wal-Mart to provide all kinds of expensive equipment for them to use. I once had to force a brand new mother into working 22 hours straight because her department was not quite ready for inventory when I could easily have pulled other department managers from their ready departments to help her. Her department wasn't ready because she'd JUST come back from maternity leave. She did not get paid extra for all those hours. I was once asked to put off my own son's birthday party because some district manager was unexpectedly coming. They called me at home the morning of the party and demanded that I be there in an hour. Needless to say, I became a stay at home Mom that very day!

The main store manager gets a huge yearly bonus if his yearly wages are under the mark. I was constantly lowering the amount of employees on the floor for him to get this bonus. Then, I'd have to make the salaried department managers work extra hours to do things they should have had employees to do for them. So, next time you can't find an employee to help you there, don't get aggravated. Just think how nice it will be for the store manager to get that fat bonus check!

There are lots of things that even the regular, hourly employees of Wal-Mart don't know. I'm not naive, I know that all companies operate for profit, but Wal-Mart goes overboard to present itself as a friend to the community. In reality, they are a community's worst enemy."

Guess they skipped over Valli's store on the Wal-Marting Across America tour.

(Thanks to Jenny!)

The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Work Harder

Ben Popken — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:58:42 EDT

In Upton Sinclair's, "The Jungle," it eventually emerges that some of the Chicago meatpacking workers lose body parts in the factory gears. If memory serves, at one point even one of the workers falls in. The implication being that the owners are literally making mincemeat of their workforce. Similarly, in the NYT this morning, "Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity"

"As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as "the golden era of profitability."

And yet, somehow they can't afford meatier customer service.