How much would you work for?

[farmerjan]

I have done several jobs over the years.... babysitting when it was $.50/hr.... $.75 when I had 3 or more kids to watch. $1.60/ then it went to 2.10..... waitressed for $1.85/hr plus tips.... your money is in the tips=====meaning GOOD SERVICE.
I have never made 30,000 a year with all the years I milk tested... but I had flexibility. Milked cows part time, because I could get up early, do that, then go do another job if I wanted more money, or do something else for me.
Now they get $5-10.00 an hour to babysit... and some aren't very good in my opinion. I was making $8-10 hour when I was milking part-time and then waitressing on top of it.
Like @kenny thomas with his delivering trailers, there are perks that give a person some incentive. My milk testing now is like extra since I can live on my SS. Used most of my retirement as a down payment on my house last year and paid off other debt. I didn't have alot in there and lost 1/2 it in 2008 so had to rebuild that and then stuck it in a safe but low interest paying option. Not going to let the gov't start taxing it extra to "spread the wealth" and support all the ones that won't work. That's coming with the current administration....
Agree that most nowadays don't understand that if you don't work you don't eat.... they have it too easy, and there is no pride or drive to get ahead with so many of the younger generation coming along. They want it now, they don't want to get dirty or sweaty to get it, they think they are worth all this money and have no skills to warrant that inflated belief in themselves. And they all ask "what's the payment?" not "what does it cost" ? So the socialist everyone has the same same..... works for them... Not me, if I work for it, it is mine....and I will work something to have a little extra ....because I am also of the same mindset... if I do something extra, that is extra in my pocket that I didn't have before.

 

[littletom]

Hard to answer . I have a idea what i will make in year. If things go somewhat normal. If rains alot i may lose my butt. If its kinda dry year I will make alot. I grow tobacco and a lot can go wrong or right. After living like this for years. It would real hard to know what my paycheck would be every 2 weeks.

 

[504RP]

During the summer break when i was in high school. Me, my brother and one of my school mate's hauled several thousand square bales and stacked them in old houses that had the ceilings doors windows removed from them during summer break. They all had tin roofs. Were hard to stack in. Hot as could be. For $ .15 a bale which the three of us split. That Wasn't $ .15 for each of us. My older brother got $ .10 cents of that to help pay for the gas and use of his truck. Me and the other boy got $ .05 each. I bought my school clothes with that money.

One summer I got a job working at a Tyson chicken hatchery making $ 3.40 an hour man I thought I was rich. It had alot of nasty parts to the job. Whenever we pulled racks from the incubators after the chicks had hatched. We would have to take the newly hatched chicks out of the trays that was filled with egg shells and lots of rotten eggs that didn't hatch. And dump them into 55 gal drums. Then put them out behind the building. Where eventually they filled with maggots. I mean the barrels would be almost to the top filled with mostly rotted babby chickens, rotten eggs and gallons up on gallons of maggots, slush.

About every other week about 3 of us would have to put a 10 foot section of like rollers used to roll boxes down a assembly line. We had a old school bus that was used to hall these barrels of maggots to the land fill. So we would open the back door of that bus, put one end up in the back of the bus, the other end on the ground making a loading ramp out of it.

Instead of using it to roll boxes we put a small square peace of plywood at the bottom on the rollers, then roll the barrel full of maggots onto the plywood. Then 3 of us would push the barrel up into the bus. We done that until the bus was full of barrels then take them to the land fill.

At the time i thought I was really making alot of money.

 

[Bigfoot]

Just some thoughts:
I worked my way through college, and paid for college as I went ('89-93). Started at $4.75 and left at $7.50. Worked 40 hours a week. Rode a few colts and did a little farrier work on the side. I honestly don't know how high a wage would have to be, to accomplish that feet today.

Second thought.....A really good acquaintance of mine makes $45,000 per year and stops. Dead in his tracks stops. His wife draws disability, and they get the works in handouts. He says he can't afford to make anymore, because he will lose his handouts.

Third thought.....If the guy above is making $45,000 and getting the works, somebody working for less is getting them to. To me that means McDonald's and Walmart have subsidized labor, with the government picking up the bill.

To answer the question, how much I'd work for, I don't really know. Before I seen my kids do without, I'd probably work for almost nothing.

 

[504RP]

I think $ 15 an hour for minimum wage is too high even for this day and time. When i think of minimum wage. I look at it as wages paid for unskilled labor. Like Wal-Mart, and restaurant's for say a stock boy or maintenance position I can see them being paid more because they have more to offer.

But for some body who has no prior work experience or skills. I don't see paying more than $ 10 dollars an hour.

 

[Muletrack]

The discussion on the stimulus thread about $15 an hour minimum wage got me to thinking. I can remember share croppers working for $3 a day and an old house to live in. I have worked for $1 an hour.
If you weren't working already what is the least you would work for?

We are all in the cattle business, or farming of some type. Sometime a fella works for nothing. $15/hour for unskilled labor is just goofy. Pay what you have to pay, but I do not support any type of "minimum" wage. If $15 is good, why not make it $25? An increase in minimum wage will mean less people working.

 

[Muletrack]

The discussion on the stimulus thread about $15 an hour minimum wage got me to thinking. I can remember share croppers working for $3 a day and an old house to live in. I have worked for $1 an hour.
If you weren't working already what is the least you would work for?

I'm retired, but a hardly ever worked on an hourly wage -- always on a monthly salary. I think I made the least money per hour as a sportswriter -- always 60-hour weeks, ball games four nights a week ... it was terrible. And then you get yelled at a lot, by the management and the fans!

 

[504RP]

I'm retired, but a hardly ever worked on an hourly wage -- always on a monthly salary. I think I made the least money per hour as a sportswriter -- always 60-hour weeks, ball games four nights a week ... it was terrible. And then you get yelled at a lot, by the management and the fans!

 

[504RP]

If I were to hire some to work for me on my farm. I would have to get some type of liability insurance in case that person or persons got hurt some how. And anyone who works on a farm knows there is a good chance of someone getting bad hurt. So it would be pure stupid on my part to hire someone and not have insurance in case something happened.

That insurance is going to cost quite a bit of money. Then considering I don't make a fortune on my farm. And would have to buy that insurance on unskilled labor who probably doesn't know the front end from the back end of a cow. Who would probably get hurt and cause that high dollar insurance to go up.

Why on earth make it that much more exspenseive for companies or employer's to stay in business to provide jobs for unskilled labor.

After isn't the opportunity to work for $ 10 an hour than no opportunity at all ?

 

[cfpinz]

And they all ask "what's the payment?" not "what does it cost" ?

That irks the hell out of me. I was truck shopping a few years ago and it drove me nuts how many salespeople had that mentality. You worry about the price, I'll worry about the payment.

 

[jltrent]

Some pretty nice equipment for a winter auction.

Ring 1

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Ring 2

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Largest Equipment Auction in East Tennessee for Heavy Construction Equipment, Farm Tractors & Machinery, Excavators, Backhoes, Dozers & Loaders, Graders, Pavers, Rollers, Forklifts, Boom & Scissor Lif

www.proxibid.com

Ring 3

ProTEAM Auction Auction Catalog - Ring 3- 12th Annual Pre-Season Absolute Auction Online Auctions | Proxibid

Largest Equipment Auction in East Tennessee for Heavy Construction Equipment, Farm Tractors & Machinery, Excavators, Backhoes, Dozers & Loaders, Graders, Pavers, Rollers, Forklifts, Boom & Scissor Lif

www.proxibid.com

 

[Lucky]

I guess the amount per hour I'd work for would depend on the situation I was in. If I all I could find was a minimum wage job I'd get 2 of them to make ends meet before I took the handouts. One of the problems I see these days is people don't want to work extra when they need more money. 40 hrs should be the minimum not the standard.

While we are on the subject what do y'all consider too high of an hourly wage? What would y'all consider over paid for the job at hand? Oil field workers can make $50-75 is that too much.

 

[Silver]

I see lots of problems, but have no solutions. I don't like the idea that a minimum wage needs to be legislated. Seems like you shouldn't have to legislate a maximum wage either in a free market economy.
It bothers me that no longer can a household have one member provide a middle class living for the family with a job such as a parts salesperson or similar.
It also bothers me that in Canada for example, the highest paid CEO's earned more by lunch time on the first working day of the year than the average Canadian makes in the entire year.
Seems like as corporations get larger there becomes a "trickle up" effect in order to satisfy shareholder demand for ever increasing profits, and every other smaller corporation must compete or perish.
Just observations, not solutions.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Silver> An observation well stated and I am sorry to say it is the same on this side as well. LVR

 

[Mrcopier]

I guess the amount per hour I'd work for would depend on the situation I was in. If I all I could find was a minimum wage job I'd get 2 of them to make ends meet before I took the handouts. One of the problems I see these days is people don't want to work extra when they need more money. 40 hrs should be the minimum not the standard.

While we are on the subject what do y'all consider too high of an hourly wage? What would y'all consider over paid for the job at hand? Oil field workers can make $50-75 is that too much.

I have a friend that makes $10,000 per week working in the oil field. That is to much. He has checks piled up on his dresser like a ream of paper. He deposits them about once every 3 months. BUT he works 6-10 weeks without ANY time off.

 

[JParrott]

Depends on the job and the cost of living of where I would be living. Around here, not much or any less than what I make now. I'd take a slight pay cut to just stay home and work on the farm but that's just not feasible.

Minimum wage when I started work was $4.15 but I hauled hay for years at .03-.05 cents a bale.

If I had to put a number on it around here - no less than $50k a year and if any management or staff duties are involved, $70k.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Anyone setting a price for what they will work for has never been desparate and hungry.
There can come a time when all bets are off and a meal and dry cot is the only way you will see tomorrow.
God bless those who have been there and protect those facing such a situation.

 

[D2Cat]

I went to an auto repair shop when I was about 20 and freezing my butt off burying phone drops, and asked if he needed any help. He was a Saab dealer and they had clutch repairs all the time. He was reluctant because he asked me what kind of wrenched I would need. I told him metric. He was still not convinced I could do him any good. I finally told him I'd work for a week and if I didn't make any money for him he owed me nothing and I'd be gone. Drove 40 miles to his shop for several months until I found something closer. I had worked for another dealer and was familiar with the car.

Threw a lot of square bales for 2 cents each bale per person. Two, one on the truck one driving! They were all nice uniform tight bales with all fairly new JD equipment. Some days we'd get 900-1000 bales in the barn.

 

[Little Joe]

I used to run a heat and air business while also working a 40 hour week doing maintenance at the school where I'm currently facilities director. Some days I would leave home before 6 so I could get someone's air going that had quit the night before, go to work at day job after, get off in the evening and run service calls or bid jobs until 9 at night. I often worked 6 days a week or 7 if emergencies came up on Sundays. Done that for 10 years. I would try to hire people to help me on Saturdays that had a regular job but was struggling to make ends meet, many times they'd tell me that they were tired because they had already worked 40 hours that week, I'd always think yeah me too between Monday and Wednesday then another 40 from Thursday-Saturday. The heat and air business is seasonal so I'd get a break when the weather was mild, usually spring and fall which worked out good to catch up around the house and do farm chores. Only thing that ever kept me from taking on an after hours job was if my son had something special that I needed to go to. When he played ball I always made it to his games but other than that I'd take on the side jobs. I had some aquaintances that owned a heat and air company full time, they would always gripe at me for being cheaper per hour saying that they were struggling to get enough work. I started sending jobs their way that I didn't want to do or didn't have time to do, they wouldn't do them because those were not the kind of jobs they wanted to do or for the price that was being offered yet they still complained about not having enough work.

 

[Atimm693]

I guess the amount per hour I'd work for would depend on the situation I was in. If I all I could find was a minimum wage job I'd get 2 of them to make ends meet before I took the handouts. One of the problems I see these days is people don't want to work extra when they need more money. 40 hrs should be the minimum not the standard.

While we are on the subject what do y'all consider too high of an hourly wage? What would y'all consider over paid for the job at hand? Oil field workers can make $50-75 is that too much.

A lot of those jobs like oil work and welding are like that. You can make boat loads of cash, but usually only for a short while at a time, and you need to travel to get it. So no, I don't think it's too much, when the sacrifices and volatility are considered.

The facts are that costs of living have far outpaced wages. You can no longer work minimum wage and support yourself, let alone a family, which is the whole purpose of minimum wage.

Thats why everything seems so expensive now. Trucks, toys, properties. They really haven't gone up much when inflation is considered, we just don't make as much.

I think increasing it is a step in the right direction, but there are many drawbacks. It shouldn't be done across the board, cost of living varies so much by area. A UBI that is tiered by your locality would be better, it helps everyone the same, and businesses don't have to pass the costs to the consumer like with a minimum wage increase.

And before you get on your soap box and preach about the younger generation, there are outliers in all age groups, but we are working as hard (or harder) than you did, for less.

Millennials Are Actually Workaholics, According to Research

And it’s changing the way Americans take vacation.

hbr.org