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UPMC offers maximum tuition assistance of $5,000 per year. It can only be used at Pitt or a community college. $5,000 at Pitt will cover a total of 6 credits a year in Nursing and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. It would cover a total of around 7 credits in the other programs. $5,000 would allow you to go full-time at CCAC.
That would easily pay most of an RN degree at CCAC. However, I can understand someone not pursuing a nursing degree. I could never be a nurse. I wouldn't want to deal with the grossness of it. Switching shifts would be very hard for me too. It takes a special person to go into nursing.
scr, we don't KNOW this woman doesn't have the father of her children in her life. people are just speculating that maybe she doesn't. and your little rant about how women who have kids out of wedlock deserve nothing.... just, wow. being married doesn't stop men from leaving, you know. and even if you have no sympathy for single mothers unless they're widows (which is pretty gross, but hey), do their kids deserve less because of their parents' relationship? and NONE of this high horse, self righteous, heartless stuff you're saying about single mothers has anything to do with how much it costs to raise kids or what a living wage is.
and you know, one way for workers to get better wages is to start a union. hence upmc employees trying to start a union, which is what triggered this whole food pantry pr thing in the first place, at least at shadyside and presby. let's not get too focused on picking apart this one woman (who is very brave to stand up for herself and her fellow workers just to get torn apart by people like you) and lose sight of the big picture here.
i'm sorry that your pay is crap but that doesn't make pay slightly higher than yours not crap. and if you think your "several hundred dollars" student loans are comparable to the cost to raise children.... you just have no idea how much it costs to take care of kids. raising kids also takes TIME. if a single parent works 2 jobs to make ends meet, then they generally have to pay someone to take care of their kids while they are at those jobs. you can easily come out behind financially doing that. even if kids are old enough to be at home alone, parents need to be able to spend time with their kids in order to raise them properly.
i'm kind of curious about what you do at pnc that pays so little. i feel like what you're implying you make is teller wages, and that's just as much of an entry level job as being a unit secretary. i don't have a degree and the only time i made that little money was when i was working service jobs and temping. and you have high hopes now about advancing; i truly hope that works out for you but let's talk in 9 years, ok? let's not forget how much blame you cast around on other people when you couldn't find the work you wanted.
Nobody has yet to address why Ms. Poston hasn't sought internal career advancement within UPMC. I know that there is a relatively high level of turnover with this organization, which would debunk Hopes's theory that she may be constrained because everyone above her at UPMC is a "lifer". I will also say that the benefits offered at UPMC are quite generous. They offer better health plans and better paid time off, to say the least, than my organization does. If she feels she may be passed over for positions she's been applying for as retaliation for her attempts to organize a union, then she has a legitimate reason to consult with an attorney for discrimination.
As far as my own personal career prospects are concerned let's just say turnover in my division is extremely high as many of my colleagues leave for better positions within the organization or with other financial institutions that offer better pay and benefits at a lower stress point. With this frequent "churn" I'm not at all concerned I will be unable to locate a better position in the future. New job listings are posted daily.
it's pretty hard to advance as a clerical worker at upmc (at least in the hospitals) because once you go up the chain very far, everyone's doctors and nurses. the only exceptions i can think of off hand are hr or the health plan. oh and the one department, at least at children's, where an administrative assistant can advance very far just by showing aptitude is the IT department.
so yeah, unless that degree is in nursing or IT, it's probably not going to help. and there is an obligation to stay at upmc for a specific amount of time once your degree is finished, or you have to pay the assistance back.
Ironically UPMC and PNC each employ nearly the same number of employees. Both organizations are extremely stratified and diversified. If PNC has a relatively high turnover rate in certain divisions, then it's relatively easy for someone in another department to apply for, interview for, and potentially secure one of those positions. I know UPMC has a relatively high turnover rate in certain areas, and I would hazard a guess to say Ms. Poston most certainly has had numerous opportunities over the years to apply for higher positions, even if they're in different departments or at different hospitals. Sometimes a fresh face is exactly what one department may need. Ms. Poston has been under no obligation to remain in an intentionally low-paying position for so long, and she has also been under no obligation to even stay with the same organization.
Nobody has yet to address why Ms. Poston hasn't sought internal career advancement within UPMC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SteelCityRising
Ms. Poston has been under no obligation to remain in an intentionally low-paying position for so long, and she has also been under no obligation to even stay with the same organization.
For all we know, Ms Poston has advanced through the ranks to become a unit coordinator. Ms. Collins (another employee mentioned in the Trib article) was in housekeeping prior to becoming a unit secretary. Just because the articles don't meniton how long Ms Poston was in her position doesn't mean she has been in it for eternity.
UPMC does excel at benefits. Health Insurance is something like $40 a month for full time employees, plus all the retirement plan contributions and relatively generous amounts of paid time off.
This is true. UPMC's PTO program is quite generous...but good luck using your PTO. Also, while the health benefits are pretty good and very affordable for a single person at the bottom of the wage scale, they become much more burdensome as a percentage of income when you add a dependent. Also, they cost the same whether you are a doctor or a floor sweeper. I wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of single-wage earners at the bottom of the scale also receive medicaid for their children. The relatively low per-pay cost of UPMC health insurance becomes a undesirably heavy outlay when you add children.
So, people end up on food stamps and medicaid - upmc's costs are shifted to the taxpayer.
The City of Pittsburgh gives a developer tax credits to build on some brownfield or other -- let's use South Side Works as and example -- UPMC pays the developer 25 million for a couple of buildings and removes them from the tax rolls. Now we get dinged twice, once for the original tax credit and once again for the property's shiny new tax-exempt status. Who wins? The developer and UPMC.
Would either of you two care to elaborate? I happen to think Ms. Poston is off-base proclaiming that nearly $13/hr. isn't enough to buy food. Nobody has forced her to stay within her current position for as long as she has if she feels she can't survive on what she is making. What is stopping her from picking up a second job? I've frequently worked my second job to help reinforce my finances, as do many of Ms. Poston's UPMC peers. Also, I happen to know for a FACT that UPMC offers great benefits options.
SCR--First off your assumptions about this woman, her children, and whether or not the father is involved pretty much has guaranteed I won't be reading much more of what you write. All of your responses in regards to this are based on you making assumptions about this woman and her life. We have no clue about this woman. You are missing the point. It isn't just about this one employee.
What is stopping her from picking up a second job? Maybe she would actually like to see her children at some point? Maybe she has a weird shift at UPMC? It probably isn't 9-5. I had a mother who worked two full time jobs. One at a school during the day and one at a group home at night. She did this for 20 years. She was exhausted and I truly wish she hadn't done this. Maybe you will feel some empathy for her though because she was married?
You are comparing your pay to people who have been working much longer than you. And again I question why can my employer manage to pay me $19 a hour for a position that UPMC offered me only $14 for? I assure you UPMC rakes in way more profit than my company.
I know you like to make threads all about yourself and I am trying to not make this one about me. I am a single mother to one child. I don't care if anyone feels sympathy for me. I work hard, own my house, my kid is happy. I still feel sympathy for other women though who maybe haven't had the same luck in life as me. Who cares if she had children out of wedlock? Married men can leave as well. Married men can skip out on child support as well. I just can't think of much more to say or a better way to say it at this point.
You've had it out for me lately, sparrowmint, and I'd love to know why. I'd truly love to know where I mentioned my housing search in this thread, and I'd love to know why that was relevant here.
My reply to this and to the rest of your post, and the follow up posts in this thread are simple. Because you keep posting such ignorant, self-absorbed things. You have no idea what it's like for people who have experiences that are not your own. When I was a bit younger, I used to get very annoyed when older people would speak down to younger people, saying they don't have the experiences and background to comment on issues. Now I understand why this stereotype exists, and it's because of people like you. You've been completely sucked in by the just world fallacy. Just completely and utterly. Why was bringing up your housing experiences relevant? Because it's an example of your entitlement, the exact same entitlement that's on display here and is giving you motivation to attack this woman. You're looking out to lash out at others who are struggling in different ways, making vast assumptions to tear others down. I don't know if it makes you feel better about your own position or what your motivation is.
You're in full bootstraps mode against Ms. Poston. Apply it to yourself next time you choose to whine about local housing prices and about deflated wages of the region, things you have complained about at length in recent times. Of course, only you are allowed to complain about it, despite the fact that you are a privileged white man who only has his whole life ahead of him to advance, completely unburdened by the most important responsibilities that exist (children).
I am otherwise completely unable to reply to the specific points you made, the assumptions you made against Ms. Poston. It's just so completely dripping with the self-absorbed privilege of youth and inexperience that it's beyond me to do so because there's nothing to reply to, just jealousy and whininess. You speak such venom about the bad choices you assumed she's made, perhaps I could do the same to you, since you complain so much about your lot in life? I'm an immigrant. Got my green card in 2008. Unable to find work in a high unemployment, higher COL city, I worked retail for a year. No one else wanted to even look at my Canadian work experience nor my Canadian references. Three years later, having built a business while also going to school full-time, my income is, uh, significantly higher than Ms. Poston's, and yours, and I have a paid off house. And gee, somehow I still have it in my heart to have all the sympathy in the world for people like her because, well, I'm not a complete sucker for corporate interests and the divide and conquer propaganda that turns working class Americans against one another.
Nobody has yet to address why Ms. Poston hasn't sought internal career advancement within UPMC. I know that there is a relatively high level of turnover with this organization, which would debunk Hopes's theory that she may be constrained because everyone above her at UPMC is a "lifer". I will also say that the benefits offered at UPMC are quite generous. They offer better health plans and better paid time off, to say the least, than my organization does. If she feels she may be passed over for positions she's been applying for as retaliation for her attempts to organize a union, then she has a legitimate reason to consult with an attorney for discrimination.
As far as my own personal career prospects are concerned let's just say turnover in my division is extremely high as many of my colleagues leave for better positions within the organization or with other financial institutions that offer better pay and benefits at a lower stress point. With this frequent "churn" I'm not at all concerned I will be unable to locate a better position in the future. New job listings are posted daily.
my point about bringing up your position is that you said it's not right that she gets paid more than you when you have a college degree. but does your position require a college degree? if it doesn't, that's not really relevant. don't get me wrong, i think you both deserve to be paid more. and you obviously think so, at least about yourself, too, and complain about it incessantly. i think that's fair, but when you turn around and judge people (especially people who are in a very different point in their life than you are) because they make a tiny bit more than you - that's hugely hypocritical.
again, ms. poston's personal circumstances are not the point here. she is standing up and telling her story, and letting herself be crucified, on behalf of many people at upmc, not just herself. compensation needs to be fairer for people just coming into the position (and others) as well as people who've been there for a long time. being a HUC a pretty important role in the unit, and it's a benefit to the patients when it's done well by an experienced person - this is very simplified but HUCs basically keep track of patients arriving and leaving, make sure paperwork is ready and rooms are ready, control access to the unit, and serve as a communication hub between internal and external callers, the nurses and the doctors. they need to learn who to call, what form to use, etc for a million different things that can conceivably happen, many of which have life and death stakes. someone will always be doing these jobs and whatever their family or career status, they should get a living wage. as consumers in the health care system, we should WANT people to have incentives to stay in these jobs.
SCR--First off your assumptions about this woman, her children, and whether or not the father is involved pretty much has guaranteed I won't be reading much more of what you write. All of your responses in regards to this are based on you making assumptions about this woman and her life. We have no clue about this woman. You are missing the point.
This point is missed in 3/4 of the posts here - no one knows a thing about this lady except the scant details in the article, though regardless of her personal life situation I fail to see how this is material to her salary and bashing UPMC (an organization i cant stand).
A certain salary was deemed appropriate to fill that position, what an applicants particular life situation is should have no bearing on what a company is offering as compensation.
Getting back on point, this lady's individual circumstances are not the point. If it weren't her in that job it'd be someone else. So all this about her life decisions and whether or not SCR deserves a medal or a boot to the head is beside the point. Stagnant wages are not a good thing, the excuse that it's cheap to live in Pittsburgh is BS. Period. Reasonable people should be able to agree on that without picking apart a lady's personal life or the decisions therein, because it's not about her, she's a single data point among thousands.
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