Quote:
Originally Posted by srmom
http://www.buildingc3.com/doc.asp?id=2836
When the union wage for a painter is $32.15, and the union wage for a roofer is $31.30. Is it any wonder that people are paying illegal workers for this type of work, thus taking away employment for "poor" Americans?
Considering that these hourly union wages compute out to around $65,000 a year, I'd call that way above a "liveable wage".
I work full time for an oil company, doing logistics and planning, and my salary doesn't come close to that. Maybe I should have skipped college and just picked up a paintbrush...
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A "liveable" wage varies greatly by geographic region. In NYC or Southern California, $65K a year would put you on a pretty tight budget. If you're paying $20K a year in day care, it would also make your budget pretty tight.
Roofing is a really dangerous job and most roofers end up injuring themselves pretty badly or getting asbestosis or silicosis from inhaling all the crap they inhale. Tar burns are pretty awful too. Many jobs are paid better because they are hazardous.
I do admit that the UAW got ridiculously greedy and strayed from its original purpose. UAW leaders are as out of touch as high level executives are. However, there are many unions that have not been that way, which is why I mentioned grocery store employees and teachers.
During a management meeting in my corporation this week, after they announced both our raises and our benefit cost increases, one of the managers pointed out that the raises are less than the new cost of the benefits and the executive leadership said "Well, that's only true for the employees making less than $60,000 a year", as if that was a small number of people. In reality, that's about 85% of the employees. "Only the employees making less than $60,000 a year"... ONLY.. as in "only for the employees who are already struggling to make ends meet".
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