I need to find it again, but there was an economical assessment that said if minimum wage had gone up at the same rate as prices/inflation, we'd be looking at a minimum wage of around $33/hr now. But the minimums stagnated while CEOS started getting more and more $$$ as prices went up. Sure some actual materials/products etc went up and cost of production went up and they raised prices on everything to the consumer-- but instead of any of that $ going to the lower tier employees, it pretty much went to the higher ups.
I saw a cartoon sketch of a CEO whining that nobody would work for him & he's tried "everything". Person he's talking to said "Have you tried raising wages?"
"No, but I offered $100 sign-on bonuses if they stay 6 months! I've even tried offering a gift voucher for $5 once per week!" and it goes on with the person repeatedly telling them they should try raising wages. But nope. Here they briefly did raise wages just to get people in the door at the local McDonalds- a whopping $12/hr. But the thing is, the local franchise has to put up signs they get from corporate but doesn't have to honor the agreements. So, people came in the door applying thinking it was $12 when it wasn't. Then they lowered the signage to say $10/hr. Turns out there's a caveat on that too. It's not the starting pay. They get minimum wage until they have worked 6 months and they *might* get $10/hr if they last. But, they love to fire people just before they can qualify. They don't give a flying f*** if the employees are trained.
You must have a different economy in your area, Rusty. $15/hr is unheard of around here. Median household income is less than $25k (much of it is under $20k). People were all excited when the local Walmart started paying $11/hr. But, there are still a lot of places (like Pizza Hut) that still pay even their managers less than $8/hr. I shouldn't even get started on how waitstaff are paid $4/hr and expected to make it up in tips but the supervisors lie & claim they did make the tips when they didn't. So, not only do they get screwed on pay, they have to pay taxes as if they made minimum wage when they didn't. Even when they have enough people to fill the jobs, they still deliberately understaff (and have been doing so long before Covid). They will have 1 person to do the job of 5. Then can't figure out why that person burns out. No vacation time, they don't accept doctor's notes, they don't want to give them bathroom breaks. Walmart has this catch 22 where an employee has to take a bathroom/lunch break sometime during their shift at a specific time & if they don't take it they get written up. But, if they take that break without having another employee to fill in for them while they are gone for a few minutes, they get written up. They don't schedule employees to relieve them so they get written up no matter what. They also make them wait for the next employee to come clock in and take over but don't schedule it so they have to work overtime and they write them up for overtime. But they also write them up if they leave before relieved. After 6 writeups or so they get fired and have to wait 3 months to re-apply at a lower wage again.
There's also the fact that the supervisors will often treat employees like absolute crap. They forget they are dealing with human beings with feelings and real life issues. Someone has a family emergency or health issue-- too frickin' bad.
Ok, I'll stop ranting.. LOL.
I slept today and my stomach didn't feel great. Mom wanted food in the middle of the night so it messed up my sleep schedule. Woke up having a bizarre dream about trying to find a bathroom & Mayim Bialik was helping me search for one. In the dream, my brother beat me to the first bathroom we found so I had to find another one. Finally did and that's when I woke up realizing the stomach pains I was feeling in the dream were real and I needed to run to the bathroom & hope my brother wasn't in it already. Generally if I dream about trying to find a bathroom, it's time to wake up. LOL.
I just watched one of my fat cats try in vain to dig in a small box to make it large enough to fit him. Alas, it's way too small and he couldn't dig a bigger size into it so he gave up after several tries.
