Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There are a few posts that recommend trades or entry level construction labor. Based solely on my years of such work, I would not recommend it.
You will be lucky to find 8-10/hr. (entry level) Investors, owners, developers are greedy people and will do what ever they can to avoid paying the peasants below them.
If you have a degree, have some skills, and live in an urban (houston, san fran, boston, atlanta, etc), you should be able to find a 30K+ job pretty easily
Sure.. But the living expenses in those areas are insane. You may as well flip burgers with that salary in those places. After all, chances are if you're making 30k in those areas you'll be living off government benefits.
A 30K job is useless in an urban area and in non-urban areas where jobs are scarce they are difficult to find
There are a few posts that recommend trades or entry level construction labor. Based solely on my years of such work, I would not recommend it.
You will be lucky to find 8-10/hr. (entry level) Investors, owners, developers are greedy people and will do what ever they can to avoid paying the peasants below them.
Your post is nonsense.
If you want quality work then you need quality people, and quality people are not going to work for peanuts.
Because the trades are struggling to find people who can even show up on time without worrying that their employees are going to go on a bender or a drug binge, and struggling to find people who actually WORK when they do show up, the wages are going up.
It makes no sense to pay a slacker $10 an hour when his production value is worth $5 an hour. It makes more sense to pay an honest guy who does efficient quality work $20 an hour who's benefit to the company is $30 an hour (keeping the numbers simple just for example). This is especially true when your company's reputation is on the line.
Think about this as well, although not stated in the company manual, you'll be let go if you showed up one day with a neck tattoo or letters printed on your knuckles. The boss doesn't want to have to think about "if I send X out for a service call, will the customer be scared to open the door?" Today's trades are not interested in hiring those types of guys despite the still-lingering stereotype. So wages and job security go up for everyone else.
The trick is finding the right people. I'm guessing your workplace and the trades around you are full of slackers and losers. That's ultimately bad for business even if you're paying them lightly. You shouldn't have to beat production value out of your workers, and you shouldn't have to micro manage. If you have good people they'll get the job done and the company leadership can focus on the big picture. But...you have to pay them.
1. The better quality of people you can attract the better your reputation will be, not to mention your company's ability to complete projects faster as well as delivering a quality product.
2. Then with a better reputation you can charge more and your general contractors and builders (at least in the custom homes industry) will pay it because they know what the alternative looks like (it looks a heck of a lot like the guy with the neck tats and his pants sagging)
3. By being able to charge more everyone in the company makes more, owners and workers together.
Last edited by InchingWest; 02-08-2017 at 06:41 PM..
It's kind of sad because back in the 90s, you easily make 35 or 40K a year working in many jobs. Admin assistants were earning those salaries in the 90s (Clinton era). During that time, I had a temp job where I was paid $16 an hour just to make photocopies.
If you want quality work then you need quality people, and quality people are not going to work for peanuts.
Because the trades are struggling to find people who can even show up on time without worrying that their employees are going to go on a bender or a drug binge, and struggling to find people who actually WORK when they do show up, the wages are going up.
It makes no sense to pay a slacker $10 an hour when his production value is worth $5 an hour. It makes more sense to pay an honest guy who does efficient quality work $20 an hour who's benefit to the company is $30 an hour (keeping the numbers simple just for example). This is especially true when your company's reputation is on the line.
Think about this as well, although not stated in the company manual, you'll be let go if you showed up one day with a neck tattoo or letters printed on your knuckles. The boss doesn't want to have to think about "if I send X out for a service call, will the customer be scared to open the door?" Today's trades are not interested in hiring those types of guys despite the still-lingering stereotype. So wages and job security go up for everyone else.
The trick is finding the right people. I'm guessing your workplace and the trades around you are full of slackers and losers. That's ultimately bad for business even if you're paying them lightly. You shouldn't have to beat production value out of your workers, and you shouldn't have to micro manage. If you have good people they'll get the job done and the company leadership can focus on the big picture. But...you have to pay them.
1. The better quality of people you can attract the better your reputation will be, not to mention your company's ability to complete projects faster as well as delivering a quality product.
2. Then with a better reputation you can charge more and your general contractors and builders (at least in the custom homes industry) will pay it because they know what the alternative looks like (it looks a heck of a lot like the guy with the neck tats and his pants sagging)
3. By being able to charge more everyone in the company makes more, owners and workers together.
The personal attacks are not necessary. You make assumptions and live in a make-believe world. In the real world people are greedy. They only react. They never think ahead. You say trades are struggling to find people, yet there are few to no jobs posted. The jobs that are posted are asking for 20 years experience for 10/hr after a probational period of 18 months at 7.25/hr. You say that workers have to be paid, yet that simply does. not. happen.
If you want quality work then you need quality people, and quality people are not going to work for peanuts.
Because the trades are struggling to find people who can even show up on time without worrying that their employees are going to go on a bender or a drug binge, and struggling to find people who actually WORK when they do show up, the wages are going up.
It makes no sense to pay a slacker $10 an hour when his production value is worth $5 an hour. It makes more sense to pay an honest guy who does efficient quality work $20 an hour who's benefit to the company is $30 an hour (keeping the numbers simple just for example). This is especially true when your company's reputation is on the line.
Think about this as well, although not stated in the company manual, you'll be let go if you showed up one day with a neck tattoo or letters printed on your knuckles. The boss doesn't want to have to think about "if I send X out for a service call, will the customer be scared to open the door?" Today's trades are not interested in hiring those types of guys despite the still-lingering stereotype. So wages and job security go up for everyone else.
The trick is finding the right people. I'm guessing your workplace and the trades around you are full of slackers and losers. That's ultimately bad for business even if you're paying them lightly. You shouldn't have to beat production value out of your workers, and you shouldn't have to micro manage. If you have good people they'll get the job done and the company leadership can focus on the big picture. But...you have to pay them.
1. The better quality of people you can attract the better your reputation will be, not to mention your company's ability to complete projects faster as well as delivering a quality product.
2. Then with a better reputation you can charge more and your general contractors and builders (at least in the custom homes industry) will pay it because they know what the alternative looks like (it looks a heck of a lot like the guy with the neck tats and his pants sagging)
3. By being able to charge more everyone in the company makes more, owners and workers together.
What does ANY of this have to do with a guy who only knows IT and has a teaching license, and who obviously is past the prime apprenticeship age? Does he SOUND like someone who is going to be able to jump into construction and do a quality job efficiently? As you are aware, it takes lots of practice and skill, none of which he has.
If you can stand the public and the low-caliber management, being a server in a nice restaurant can be very lucrative. I was always embarrassed to say I did it, but the $30 an hour with winters off more than made up for it....there is almost no background checks and sometimes no qualifications. A lot depends on the place, of course. And you can do it part-time, around another job, if need be.
I don't understand why anyone would be embarrassed about that, unless one is sensitive to what others think of people that do that job, which I get. But there is nothing shameful about that job.
People go to restaurants and want good service and appreciate it. People who think lowly of restaurant workers usually aren't all that themselves.
I'm wondering if the OP is a passive type? An IT degree with a teaching cert. Yet cannot find a job that pays more than 30k. I'm not convinced he is rwally actively searching.
I've never had a job in my life that has paid more than my current $16-$17 an hour. Lowest paid one was $5.50 an hour back in the late 1990's and the highest I've ever had is my current one. I have found that just working long hours and maybe getting a 2nd job seems to do the trick. Once I even worked 2 full time jobs. I work lots of overtime at my factory job so I'm making good money($60-$70k). It's the only way I know how to increase my income. Everybody wants a $30 an hour job but there doesn't seem to be a lot of those around or else they are very competitive to get and never listed on the job boards.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
