@natty1988 I’d like to point out that for me, living in a big city like San Francisco is more about living without having to use cars. I don’t have one, and I’m not getting one (For a period I had an odd desire to acquire a motorcycle, but that passed). Not driving is worth paying the rent around here.
"I do see where she is coming from, but I feel she went about this in the wrong way. She shouldn’t have aired her dirty laundry in public. Maybe it would’ve been better to go talk to human resources privately. Written a private letter to the CEO. By doing this she seems like a whiner and complainer and she’s ruined her career opportunities. "
I do not think her career is “ruined.” It sounds like she tried to bring up the issues with the management, but it all fell on a deaf ear, apparently. She raised a very legitimate, important issue, but she chose the wrong forum and the wrong format. Her attempt at sarcasm looked like whining, indeed. Personal attacks were the last straw. Should have gone the route of the NYT article about Amazon.
@spaceship, Well, FWIW, about 4% of the workforce works at minimum wage(ish), down from about 13% in 1979, so there is some merit to my statement that employers will not just arbitrarily pay the minimum and will pay what it takes to get the workforce they need.
http://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-are-characteristics-minimum-wage-workers
The concept of a minimum/living wage is complex, and the needs of an individual extend beyond the price an employer is willing to pay for an hour of labor. Should a HS student earning a few bucks to buy a car earn the same money as a single mom doing the same job? Philosophically, probably not. But the reality is that the job brings a specific value to the employer and that drives a lot of what the job will pay.
Since I seem to be the only one to answer directly, what should minimum wage be?
And one more time, I will restate that, as a practical consideration, minimum wage is needed as a means of worker protection. Kind of like workplace safety laws.
@Spaceship
That is true…for some people that might make the high rent worth it. I’m just saying that if you choose to live somewhere, you really shouldn’t complain about it. No one is forcing you to live there and I know many people who don’t get to choose where they live… they live where the jobs are and where it’s affordable.
For some people living in San Francisco is worth it despite the price and they make it work…
I just see so many young people who feel that they “have” to live in a fun city like New York, San Francisco, LA…that’s fine, but you don’t have to live in one of these cities…either find a way to make it work or move elsewhere…
I hope Stephanie will get several free lance gigs from her excellent article. I’d prefer hiring her and others with her work ethic than entitled whining Talia Jane any day.
As a couple others have mentioned, the article isn’t so much about her low wages as her public complaints about her employer.
As a professional employee who earns significantly above minimum wage, I can say that I’d estimate more than 95% of the people I know complain about their jobs and/or their employers on a pretty regular basis. I have one friend who regularly complains about her $80,000+/year salary. Although I’m from the generation that learned ‘not to bite the hand that feeds you’, so most of those complaints are not very public. But as someone who has worked for several employers in my lifetime there are definitely those that should have their hands bitten.
Personally my view is that employee turnover can be very expensive for a business and if one employee is so dissatisfied that she is taking her complaints public, then odds are high there are a number of other unhappy employees. Instead of making employees feel as if they have no recourse and they can’t voice their opinions for risk of losing their jobs, which certainly won’t help morale, perhaps the better route is to help employees see a path forward if they are willing to work for it. To establish a mentorship program, to offer training to employees to help them grow into other positions, to simply have a manager sit down and ask employees about their career goals and provide suggestions for avenues they can pursue to reach them.
Employers can view minimum wage employees as exchangeable parts, but turnover even at that level becomes costly. In this day and age people don’t stay with the same employer for lifetimes as they did in the past, but that doesn’t seem to be just the fault of employees, but also the fault of many employers who just don’t seem to be focused on what it takes to retain their employees.
@alh yes, full time jobs exist that aren’t supposed to be to support a family. If a housewife wants to work to make extra spending money there are jobs for that, like favors and uber. You can work these jobs 8 hours a day, but you will not be able to live an easy lifestyle.
@BunsenBurner A receptionist can have a salary to support a family, but it depends on the company.
I also know of people who built themselves up to 6 figure salaries in 3 years of being single moms.
It is not impossible to make money, it just matters how hard you work and your decisions.
Who is advocating that position? I’m thinking you are being facetious, but I’m sure someone would be happy to get on that band wagon. We are going to start telling companies how many employees they need to hire? Who would determine this, follow it, enforce it? Big government just keeps getting bigger all of the time.
Where this matters more, imo, is in hospitals. Hospitals continue to understaff their floors. Nurse to patient ratios get higher and higher. This is a safety issue for the patients. It contributes to nurse burnout, turnover, and additional costs to train replacements. I read the other day on my nursing forum that a hospital in Arizona is insisting the ICU nurses take 3-5 patients, when the standard of care in the US is 1-2 patients per ICU nurse. That’s crazy dangerous, but it sure ensures the CEO gets his big bonus. As far as I know, California is the only state with mandated nurse to patient ratios. It’s ridiculous.
I guess we’re digressing even more and more from the OP.
@DecideSomeHow Those numbers are calculated using the federal minimum wage. That’s an issue, because a lot of states and cities have a higher minimum wage than that. Without knowing how many cities or states mandated wages above the federal minimum in 1979, I’d have to wonder how much of the gap comes from more local jurisdictions taking up greater responsibility for minimum wages.
As for what the minimum wage should be, I believe that it should be determined by individual counties based on local costs of living, and that it should always be indexed to inflation. Here in San Francisco, the jump to $15 is quite reasonable. In Bakersfield or Eureka, it wouldn’t be reasonable at all. We’ll figure our needs out here in San Francisco, and Kern and Humboldt counties can figure out their own.
“Employers can view minimum wage employees as exchangeable parts, but turnover even at that level becomes costly. In this day and age people don’t stay with the same employer for lifetimes as they did in the past, but that doesn’t seem to be just the fault of employees, but also the fault of many employers who just don’t seem to be focused on what it takes to retain their employees.”
This. My husband just calculated - out of curiousity - the ballpark $ the company just spent on replacing one employee who recently left. The number was not insignificant. His bosses scratched their heads - wow, they never thought about some indirect $ consequences and agreed with the analysis.
I am not aware of anyone advocating that position. However, you do see people who say that Walmart (and other low paying employers) are forcing taxpayers to subsidize their low wages because their employees need government assistance to live. Someone has said as much in this thread. I am just saying that the reasoning with respect to unemployment benefit costs is the same. Seems to me few people (if any) would agree with the unemployment benefit position but I have seen a lot of people advocating for the one with respect to low wages.
@saillakeerie I do agree with your logic, but I don’t see how we could address that problem. While we can mandate wages, we can’t mandate hiring. At lesst, not in a way thast wouldn’t cause a lot more problems than it would solve.
The issue with raising minimum wage is that with raising minimum wage, we will be raising the cost of living so people can pay that minimum wage. Basically inflating our dollar and devaluating it.
If you google her name it appears she’s a fake. I think she took the job in August just so she could make a viral issue out of her pay or possibly try to sue for wrongful termination. She has an old web page from a year ago complaining about the pay and conditions as a thrift shop worker in CA. She has an agent. She performs stand up in San Francisco. She has several essays about growing up poor. In one she says she is the child of someone in Witness Protection. Her Twitter is still up and she purchased Billet Whiskey ($50 a bottle) to be delivered at work. There are many posts of alcohol laced cupcakes she makes and a picture of her messy kitchen. She definitely had food to cook. What grossed me out is her many posts on sexual technique and a apparent obsession with certain male body parts. She also apparently posts from her toilet and relates the out put. She seems kind of odd. Someone has set up a Go Fund Me for her and she posts a link and running tabulation of donations.
I thought it was odd that any landlord would rent a $1200/month apartment to someone earning so little. When I was a landlord we made sure the tenant earned 4 x the rent. It looks like she had a boyfriend who just moved out.
She’s very active on social media. It’s odd she didn’t realize that her foot print would show she’s lying about a lot of things.
@SeniorStruggling How much research is there that demonstrates this playing out?
@Spaceship it’s basic econ. With a rise in minimum wage there is a rise in cost of production and rise in cost of good/service.
The money has to come from somewhere, it doesn’t just happen.
@HImom I wouldn’t want to hang with Stephanie or Talia…
Talia sounds entitled, Stephanie just sounds angry…
If people feel that they have a problem with their company…don’t post it on social media…or if you do post it publicly, be anonymous.
People need to be realistic when it comes to careers and money. Life is all about trade-offs. You need to make sacrifices…and maybe deal with the harsh reality that living in an expensive city just isn’t doable…
It looks like she found a legitimate issue to drum up public outrage - otherwise, the public would pay zero attention. The issue of hiring practices at Yelp etc. and low wages is not made up, but yet again another legitimate issue gets undermined by an imposter. Just like the folks running one “Tent City” did in our area, when the supporters discovered the “manifesto” of one of its organizers and then looked into the internal policies and practices of the “city.”
“A housewife wants to make extra spending money”
Are you from the 60s??
@SeniorStruggling If it’s basic econ, we should be able to demonstrate it in America’s big cities and most of Western Europe. I have yet seen this done. The best I’ve seen is Scandinavian fast food prices rising by about 50% of the wage hike, which I wouldn’t consider currency devaluation, considering that the purchasing power of those making minimum wage has still increased.