Don't take this wrong
Just to clarify. I do not have a problem with college kids making decent money over the summer. If they can find a job that pays well, gives them a few extras, more power to them. However, the entity paying them must justify the expenses. City workers are payed well, have good benefits, paid holidays etc. (I know, I have tried to get several city jobs.) But any business must earn enough to meet payroll, expenses, and turn a modest profit or that business will close. This is a harsh reality.
I worked at a small business in Great Falls for nine years. I started not knowing what I was doing, and was paid accordingly. As my skills increased, so did my pay, to a certain level. I worked very hard, learned everything I could, and ended up skilled in a trade where you only make money working for yourself. In nine years my hourly wage was never over $10.88 an hour. I had 2 weeks vacation and limited paid holidays. Part of the time I had crappy medical coverage I helped pay for and left me thousands of dollars in debt when I had my daughter.
I guarantee I worked harder than the majority of city workers you see driving around in city trucks, or having their morning break at Town Pump. I know some of them. They are good people. But they are not held to the performance level that a private business must be.
But my point is that business could not support paying me more, for a variety of reasons. The Bottom Line. The money left after everything else had been paid. I would like to see accountability . I don't care what the Park & Rec director gets paid. I don't care what the kids mowing the golf course get paid. I don't care what the guys shoveling out the gutters get paid. As long as the work they do justifies the pay they get and the bottom line comes out on the good side.
If a lawyer pays himself all the profit from his practice, what does he pay his receptionist? He can't, she leaves. Will he be out there answering the phone in falsetto, wearing short skirts and heels? Or will he take a pay cut, hire a working mom at whatever wage she has to demand to justify working, and try harder to satisfy The Bottom Line.
I worked at a small business in Great Falls for nine years. I started not knowing what I was doing, and was paid accordingly. As my skills increased, so did my pay, to a certain level. I worked very hard, learned everything I could, and ended up skilled in a trade where you only make money working for yourself. In nine years my hourly wage was never over $10.88 an hour. I had 2 weeks vacation and limited paid holidays. Part of the time I had crappy medical coverage I helped pay for and left me thousands of dollars in debt when I had my daughter.
I guarantee I worked harder than the majority of city workers you see driving around in city trucks, or having their morning break at Town Pump. I know some of them. They are good people. But they are not held to the performance level that a private business must be.
But my point is that business could not support paying me more, for a variety of reasons. The Bottom Line. The money left after everything else had been paid. I would like to see accountability . I don't care what the Park & Rec director gets paid. I don't care what the kids mowing the golf course get paid. I don't care what the guys shoveling out the gutters get paid. As long as the work they do justifies the pay they get and the bottom line comes out on the good side.
If a lawyer pays himself all the profit from his practice, what does he pay his receptionist? He can't, she leaves. Will he be out there answering the phone in falsetto, wearing short skirts and heels? Or will he take a pay cut, hire a working mom at whatever wage she has to demand to justify working, and try harder to satisfy The Bottom Line.
posted by a-fire-fly at 9:17 AM
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