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Because they are dishonest crooks. They hope that they can get a great worker for a penny above minimum wage thanks to the worker being willing to take anything. It's just another form of exploitation. Nobody in their right mind would say... go to look at cars to purchase without having any idea what the price is. Or, go house shopping without checking the price. But we're all expected to fill out the applications and play the game without knowing the salary - it's not like we have bills to pay - and then be grateful when we're badly underpaid since there's probably 10 other people who'd like that job.
All I can say is that this nation did a great job blowing it and now we have Great Depression II, despite whatever nonsense we hear about the economy "improving."
I had an interview today for a job, that while wouldn't qualify as skilled, still requires some knowledge and experience to do efficiently. The pay? $9.50/hr. No thanks, I told the gentlemen. He looked completely shocked. "You don't want to work?" he said to me. "Not for those wages" I said.
Before you told him no thanks did you at least tell him that you would only be interested in the job if it paid $11 an hour? There is a difference between what an employer says they will pay and what they can afford to pay. And if $11 is a reasonable wage for the work they need done then they need to be put on notice. If they insist on finding someone willing to take $9.50 then it will serve them right if that employee costs them more than $1.50/hr to employ in the long run due to less skill or experience
Please, no one take this as immigrant bashing. But immigrants will do jobs for peanuts and it suppresses the wages for everyone else. Imagine that you've just come from a country where you were making $5 a day and someone offers you $9/hr. You'd take it and you'd bust your ass. You wouldn't care that you didn't get overtime or that you never got a vacation.
Employers know this. They know there is this huge workforce out there that is willing to work for less and willing to acquiesce to whatever the employer wants.
Sometimes I am interviewing for a job and the interviewer will ask if I have any questions. If they haven't mentioned the wages yet, then that will be my first question. At some point I'll ask about what in America is called "benefits", but what the rest of the industrialized world calls "human rights." Yeah, I'm talking about vacation time.
When I ask about this, a look comes over the interviewers face. I can almost read their mind. They are thinking, " Ha Ha...You've got to be kidding with this vacation stuff right? I can go hire an immigrant that will work 50 hrs a week, never complain when he is shorted on overtime, and never complain when he never ever ever gets any holiday time off. The immigrant I'm about to hire is going to work for me all hear round and never get time off. Why should I hire you?"
All the more reason we need a higher minimum wage in this country and better working standards/human rights.
Some do, but many don't. And it's just becoming a waste of my time having to go through the process of getting an interview/being interviewed only to find the wages offered are too low.
I can understand why employers who are looking for fill highly-skilled positions wouldn't include a salary offer in a job posting. I'm talking about lower wage work. I'm a student and currently have a night delivery job. I'm always on the look out for something else though.
I just won't work for less than $11 an hour. And a lot of these employers want to pay peanuts for difficult back-breaking work. If they intend to offer only $9/hr in wages, why not just say that in their job posting and save everyone from wasting their time?
I had an interview today for a job, that while wouldn't qualify as skilled, still requires some knowledge and experience to do efficiently. The pay? $9.50/hr. No thanks, I told the gentlemen. He looked completely shocked. "You don't want to work?" he said to me. "Not for those wages" I said.
The employer was an ass. Trying to make you feel bad because you wouldn't allow him to take advantage of you.
What does not wanting to make under $10 an hour have to do with not wanting to work?
Please, no one take this as immigrant bashing. But immigrants will do jobs for peanuts and it suppresses the wages for everyone else. Imagine that you've just come from a country where you were making $5 a day and someone offers you $9/hr. You'd take it and you'd bust your ass. You wouldn't care that you didn't get overtime or that you never got a vacation.
Welcome to the USA, the land where fat, greedy businessmen and entrepreneurs always have looked out to stuff their faces and wallets at the expense of their own people, first the working class, and now the middle class people by importing slaves and whatever other cheap or free labor possible.
The middle class now have their panties in a bunch because it now can't insulate itself the way it once did by avoiding the rubbing of their elbows with the lower class and non-White immigrants. They are now feeling what it's like to scrounge and barely keep up a middle class lifestyle and to send their kids to school with the people they wanted to and did avoid for all these years but now in order to do so would have to pay tuition fees for private school which they can't afford. It is the current middle class's parents who are to blame for selling out their next generation because the were too insulated, greedy, and self indulgent to upset the apple cart when this economy and society started to plummet downwards.
Please, no one take this as immigrant bashing. But immigrants will do jobs for peanuts and it suppresses the wages for everyone else. Imagine that you've just come from a country where you were making $5 a day and someone offers you $9/hr. You'd take it and you'd bust your ass. You wouldn't care that you didn't get overtime or that you never got a vacation. ".
I'm an degree-holding immigrant who's had better jobs in my home country and yet I took a 9.50/hour while waiting for the right job to keep me busy and to get some cash as I apply and wait for a job offer that's more in line with my experience. It's not always about "desperation" but just wanting to keep yourself from rotting at home and letting go of opportunities and experiences no matter how seemingly unrelated it is from the career path you want.
Immigrants need to work extra hard to prove themselves. Even if we have gained work experience outside the United States that surpasses the credentials of people who were educated here, we need to prove that our experiences are actually valid. We typically need to start from scratch even if we have 5 years of strong work experience and good education to back as up. The only way we can actually spring back into the careers we want/like is to start on odd hourly jobs that pay less than $10.00.
Yes, employers know that there will always be someone to take on those low-paying jobs and they are taking advantage of it. But to a certain extent if you really value "experience" and keeping yourself current, after 6 months or so of not finding work and being tooo picky, you just have to swallow your pride and do something other than sit at home and whine about not being employed and how immigrants take all the jobs. I think there's so much more pride in working $10.00/hour job that waiting and complaining and or cheating government to get benefits.
I'm an degree-holding immigrant who's had better jobs in my home country and yet I took a 9.50/hour while waiting for the right job to keep me busy and to get some cash as I apply and wait for a job offer that's more in line with my experience. It's not always about "desperation" but just wanting to keep yourself from rotting at home and letting go of opportunities and experiences no matter how seemingly unrelated it is from the career path you want.
Immigrants need to work extra hard to prove themselves. Even if we have gained work experience outside the United States that surpasses the credentials of people who were educated here, we need to prove that our experiences are actually valid. We typically need to start from scratch even if we have 5 years of strong work experience and good education to back as up. The only way we can actually spring back into the careers we want/like is to start on odd hourly jobs that pay less than $10.00.
Yes, employers know that there will always be someone to take on those low-paying jobs and they are taking advantage of it. But to a certain extent if you really value "experience" and keeping yourself current, after 6 months or so of not finding work and being tooo picky, you just have to swallow your pride and do something other than sit at home and whine about not being employed and how immigrants take all the jobs. I think there's so much more pride in working $10.00/hour job that waiting and complaining and or cheating government to get benefits.
BroadwayDiva,
I wasn't smearing all immigrants, or any immigrants for that matter. It's just a simple fact that we are importing cheap labor into the country while neglecting to enforce proper labor standards. If you import cheap labor and refuse to raise minimum wage standards, you're going to see wages suppress. Not just for very low-paying jobs but for a lot of industries.
Also, if you read my original post, I am not sitting at home complaining about immigrants. I go to graduate school by day and at night I work. I work 40 hours a week because I have rent to pay. I didn't get into it in my original post but the reason I am looking for a different job is because my ex-girlfriend and I work for the same company. It is awkward and I agreed that I would look for another job. My current job pays $12/hr. It pays the rent. Something a $10/hr job wouldn't. Or, to be more precise, landlords would not rent me a studio apartment if they knew I was only making $10/hr. So, it's not about swallowing pride. It's about having a roof over my head.
Lastly, who said anything about cheating the government to get benefits?
Because they are dishonest crooks. They hope that they can get a great worker for a penny above minimum wage thanks to the worker being willing to take anything. It's just another form of exploitation. Nobody in their right mind would say... go to look at cars to purchase without having any idea what the price is. Or, go house shopping without checking the price. But we're all expected to fill out the applications and play the game without knowing the salary - it's not like we have bills to pay - and then be grateful when we're badly underpaid since there's probably 10 other people who'd like that job.
All I can say is that this nation did a great job blowing it and now we have Great Depression II, despite whatever nonsense we hear about the economy "improving."
Not always correct.
The bank I work for - one of the largest in the world, has NO salary info listed on ANY positions. Yet they pay competitively with the industry.
A neighbor recently was offered a job at $20K less per year than was listed on the original information. Their explanation? We didn't get one of the grants we were counting on so when we looked at the budget that's all we are able to offer.
Crazy. She did not accept the job, of course.
On another note, it's not just the ready supply of immigrant labor that will work for lower wages to get their foot in the door, it's the demise of the unions.
I was sick to my stomach at reading how the recent Subaru plant union vote went down. Though Subaru made it clear that whether a plant was unionized or not made no difference in its decisions on where to manufacture various vehicles, a great deal of effort went into convincing workers that if they voted the union in, it would cut down on the jobs as Subaru would move its operations elsewhere.
Unions used to set the bar for decent working conditions and fair pay.
Who will do that now?
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