Every day you read where another CEO either got few million dollar bonus or a retirement package. That is after many of them make a few million a year in salary. If you are making millions a year in salary you don’t need a retirement bonus plan. A lot of companies could trickle a few of those $$$ down to the average worker.
To be fair those CEOs generate many many many X more dollars than the a stage floor worker. It is possible they deserve all that compensation.
I rent and don’t own a boat. I put myself here. I’ll work my way out…or not.
But if you guys want to start a pool of money because you feel as bad for me as you do these enslaved Walmart employees, I am open to the idea.
I don’t know how it is in you guys’s neck of the woods, but they tore down a Micky’ds and a Wendys here and built another in the same spot all within the last 6 months, somebody’s making money to build new million dollar buildings. I’m not calling out for an all out unionization but it would be nice if those employes were getting a buck or two an hour more. A group health care plan payed for by those store? I don’t know, maybe 50/50 with part of the money coming from a $2 dollar an hour wage raise. Now can they find an affordable group plan to buy at a $2 an hour raise, I have my doubts considering the ceo’s are walking away with $200 million dollar bonuses when they retire plus yearly wages that everyone here on the site put together could live on very comfortably. This discussion is getting good, lets all hold onto our tempers and discuss this thing, its worth it.
Bottom line is people have a right to an opinion, but not a right to decided how others spend their money.
What if your boss came up to you and said we can’t give you any cost of living wage Pug, what would you do when you know they are making enough, go find another job just because you don’t feel you deserve it. We all try to live within our means but we do deserve an occasional cost of live raise, especially when the guy I’m working for makes $300 billion a year and the guy I’m working for just built a new restaurant that cost a million, darn, did I help him make that money by just showing up to work, and then working, I guess I did.
Your right Pug, and they also don’t have the right to dictate what an affordable wage is, that’s only their opinion and most likely based on what they want to pay and that’s more then likely based on what they want for their profit margin.
Who does dictate wages? It should be market forces. Not the gov’t or us. If a person is worth $16/hr, the job market will dictate that. Obviously the job market dictates a burger flipper or wal-mart greeter is worth $7/hr or whatever they get.
I just got a raise under the cost of living. I figure if you get a 3% every year, you aren’t getting a raise, you are breaking even.
I’ve had pay freezes and yep, I went looking for a new job.
A person can complain they aren’t making enough or do something about it. The reason places like Walmart and McDonalds can pay a lower wage because the workers are complacent or their jobs are easily filled. Its called the job market. And if workers were less complacent, then the employer would have to naturally raise their wages.
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All of you going to school and making yourselves better workers, congratulations and good for you
You are the expensive Ranger and Skeeter boat owners among others, and you deserve everything you have worked hard for. But what about the average Joe worker, he must not have had the best education, or parenting for that matter to get him the skills he needs to be the management type. We need burger guys, we need janitors, we need mindless workers on factory lines and hanging clothes, we all need the minion workers doing the small things in order for all you “educated” workers to make big money. If anyone thinks that you yourself is making big dollars all by your incredibly educated self you are wrong, there is many minimum wage workers somewhere along the line doing the grunt work. I just want those people to have a somewhat decent life, I would compel anyone to try to live on minimum wage here. Somehow the American dream has turned into a $250000 house with 2 cars a 18′ glass boat and 2 degrees later and all those who dont make that are “mindless workers”. Why can’t a guy who is a Walmart worker have a $75000 house a piece of crap car and a rickety tin boat? Minimum wage won’t even provide that, nor health, dental,life insurance, or retirement. I’m tired of paying taxes to supplement these people where there greedy employers could be providing. Oh wait we need to make our shareholders happy and the rich get richer.
I am going to school to maintain my middle class status. I own a 98 Crestliner 1650, you think it’s special I’ll send you a few pictures. I just sent my 98 F150 down the road with 186,000 miles because my father in law was nice enough to give me a great deal on his 2005 Silverado otherwise I’d still be in my old hunk of junk. I live in a basic house that I remodeled from top to bottom over the last 15 years in the city of Eau Claire. I have worked 300 to 700 hours per year of overtime my entire life to be able to provide extra things for my family, like vacations to Canada. My wife (who works two part time jobs) and I are providing for my daughter as she goes to college, small things like a car and insurance. You are extremely misguided about myself and your ideas of education….sad for you
Maybe starting wage Wade, but what about those people who have gained the skills it takes to make that place run even better then a turn over of new help all the time, Id want to hold onto those people because they can run the place without me being there and that’s an asset to me that I would give raises on. Aren’t the people who have stayed and learned their job well and perform well worth a little more, I think so. I think dependability and an educated skill run pretty close to neck and neck when it makes a business run better because those people will learn the skills it takes. What would I want to do, retrain people all the time or pay dependable help a little more, I myself think its a no brainer.
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and a rickety tin boat
I feel worth a little less today. 
Bigpike I wasn’t intentionally bashing you personally, and I apologize if I came off like that. I am a big picture kind of guy who likes to use words that are used in such topics.
And as far as your personal story goes, good for you, commend you for your efforts, but just like when the politicians come on during campaign speeches about the lonely mother he talked to in blah blah or the single dad struggling in blah blah, it is a valid story, but not one that comes to grip of reality of the big picture here. And that is what I was trying to get at.
I would have to guess the majority of the respondents to this watch only fox news. It wouldn’t even come close to hurting there bottom line. And what they tell there new hires to do about getting government assisted insurance instead of offering there employees health insurance should tick off all tax payers. 
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About 75% of our store management teams started as hourly associates, and they earn between $50,000 and $170,000 a year — similar to what firefighters, accountants, and even doctors make.
Every year, we promote about 160,000 people to jobs with more responsibility and higher pay.
I may have to switch careers…to own a fiberglass vessel. 
So let me get this straight. A worker gets a job making minimum wage. That worker is a cashier, the jobs in the pay scale above him require a GED. he doesn’t have that. So he continues to be a cashier for 10 years. That guy continues making minimum wage because he never got the required “certificate” to advance. Why should that company go out of there way to help him when he is not even willing to help himself?
This country was built on hard work. Some people have a job that allows them to use their brain for making money more than their back.
– side note: I own a “rickety tin boat” thats 9 years old and up until a tree fell on my truck I was driving a 17 year old pickup that I loved. I got those “luxuries” by working 2400 hours a year and being on call 20 weeks a year.
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I would have to guess the majority of the respondents to this watch only fox news.
Because that’s what John Stewart and MSNBC tells you?
I don’t watch Fox. Guess again.
Here some food for thought,
How many of you are going to be paying higher health care premiums to support; “O-bama Care”
In turn, how many of the 1.3 million Wal-mart employees will benift, from “O-bama Care”
So the burden falls on eveyone else to help finace the Wal-Warts of the world.
Lower prices at Wal-Mart 
Wake up and smell the coffee.
How would everyone feel about some type of mandate to employers who employ many of these lower end jobs to require health insurance, or some type of retirement package, or something along these lines to help get these millions of people off gov. assistance. Here is the main point, whether we like it or not the majority of these minimum wagers healthcare and senior expenses as they get older make our taxes go higher, and some have illustrated here that most of us work our a$$ off just for Uncle Sam to take thousands away from us and I am sick and tired of it. Everything is taxed!!! Yet we don’t want employers like Walmart to pay their people more, but also we don’t want to get taxed in order to pay for everything their wage doesn’t?? Where does the logic lie?
The people that we are talking about can’t live within their own means now, what makes you think they will if they make MORE money?
I work a union job, even in our busiest times we always have people “on the bench”. That is because those people want to be there. Over time they eventually move on to bigger and better things.
If an employee wants a raise because they don’t make enough money to live the life they think they need. That person needs to change their lifestyle. I want to go on fishing trips so I cancelled the cable and home internet. I don’t have a new iPhone. I don’t waste my money on tattoos, I don’t eat out everyday,
If the govt forces an employee to pay their employees more, that will force that employer to live within its own means. If that leads to cutbacks, that’s what they will do. Wal-Mart’s business plan works for Walmart, if you don’t like it. Don’t go there and don’t work there.
Apology accepted, the broader base view of someone working at wallyworld or Mcy’ds should strive to better themselves through education. The growth of knowledge and technology is doubling every 22 months. 100 years ago when we had little public services in this country growth of knowledge and technology would take ones lifetime to double. These employee’s do not need a 4 year degree at a college to thrive in there jobs. Technical jobs are so many right now with so few people to fill them. Go to Tech school and get some skills people!
Here’s some more food for thought about health insurance. Maybe its true, maybe its not. Has anyone ever thought about a single payer insurance system, where the people who want, can buy into a pool with a monthly payment and that’s based on how much they make. Everyone, and too no fault of their own, says that insurance is way to high.
There’s dozens of reasons why health insurance is way to high and unaffordable to millions, but no, no one wants to talk about a pooled payments system to bring down the prices of regular health insurance by giving them some competition. The insurance industry is pricing themselves right out of business, it needs some competition by another way of insuring everyone, and everyone puts in what they can afford, even if its $20 bucks a month.
There’s millions of people that will be paying into that system that aren’t paying into it now and having to ask for help, and that’s payed for by the tax payers. Whats wrong with getting a little from those people, when in the future their more then likely going to need help, and also to make a little competition for the big insurance companies.
I know the CEO’s won’t like it along with their share holders, but who cares because the only other way comes from the tax payers. How about all those workers at Micky’d’s and Walmart paying into a system and that pooled money goes twards their health care, and make it so the insurance companies don’t get their hands on it, ever,,, 1.3 million Walmart workers putting in $20 bucks a month is how much a month, 26 million?,,just an example,, You’d think that Walmart would want to keep the wolf away from the door, the unions, by setting up a program like that. If the unions get their foot in the door they’ll be paying a whole lot more then that and the employees will be paying most of the burden of it.
Its time to realize that some systems just don’t work and others need to be looked at. Why are new and more stable ideas frowned upon so much. They could call it,,,lower wage earners health coverage pool. Why not, you and I are paying for the alternative. And even if it was partially subsidized atleast those workers would be paying something in to it.
I’ve never stated I don’t want Walmart employees to make more money. In fact, I’ve stated the opposite.
Be careful of government of government mandates which usually have unintended consequences. Also be wary of any program the government says will “save” us money.
I agree Pug, $100 toilet seats is a good example. 
Mossydan,
Sounds like you want all out socialism. That’s fine. You can vote for the Socialist Party when election time comes around. But just remember. With socialism you give up freedom.
-J.
Its not socialism when their going to be paying something in to it Jon. Socialism is when a certain agenda is controlled by the government, in this case it wouldn’t be. Would it be socialism if Walmart and Micky’d’s wanted to setup a program like that to insure their workers, whats so socialistic about that.
I’ll tell you what socialism is, its when the tax payers have to subsidize everyones health care that can’t afford it, like what its doing now, through taxes.
That is socilism!
And also making some competition for the insurance industry, whats socialistic about that? That to me and too many around here its called good business.
If one business can’t do it, then maybe another type of business can, that’s not socialism. And if someone wants to get right down too it, then insurance is also socialism, other wise it would be everyone for themselves, with no insurance companies involved at all. But that borders insanity,,,and doesn’t take care of anyone except the ones who can afford to pay for their medical expenses. Everyone else is left out to fend for themselves.
I worked at Walmart for 2 yrs through graduate school. Here’s the deal, Walmart can be a great place, but you have to work there a while and you have to show up to work. They give a 15% break on buying stock through payroll, 10% dicount on purchases and several other programs. There were a ton of farmer wives that worked there that were near millionaires cause they’d been buying stock (and collecting dividends) for 30 years. You didn’t hear any of them bitching. If you can spare $10 every two weeks, and I know you can with your $100 cell phone bill and $100 cable bill, you can start taking care of yourself and not expecting others to do it.
Just my 2 cents.
This is socilism:
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Should all service jobs be paid enough to buy a house, plus buy medical insurance, plus have enough to eat healthy food, plus many other things. I think this just shows the inadaquacies in our system. I for one am not going to settle for an answer that, this is just the way things are, because I can see improvements on quite a few things when it comes to prices. To me just because someone is a common laborer doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be paid a reasonable wage.
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