why don't companies pay us more?

why don't companys pay us more?... we have lost more to inflation then anyones income has been able to keep up with...according to the GAO, just for one example, health care costs have went up from $6000 a year in 2000 to $12,000 for a family of four in 2006...in the last 2 years our grocery store dollar has seen a decrease of 25%. when is the last time you had the price of food go down?...you see.... the talking heads on TV don't consider this in "THEIR" economy, they are looking at the prices in the stock market...they say "minus oil and food the economy looks pretty good"....HELLO!!! anybody out there...OIL and FOOD!!!!.... excuse me for being somewhat simple, but ...OIL... factors into everything... and food!!! yeah we people have to eat every day....sooooo. if the price goes up on food!!!! who does it hurt?...not the guy who is giving your the news on CNBC and calling for tax cuts....he's got his... and you don't ...and who do you think he is talking for?...you....HAHAHA...yeah, and i still believe in the tooth fairy.

reply to post by jimmyx


I am afraid to tell you that this but if you have to ask why then you probably don't deserve more. In order to get more money from an employer you have to show them you are a valuable asset.
In this world no one is going to give you anything just because your personal circumstances have changed. Corporations are in business to make money. They couldn't care less about you and your future. Hate to be the bearer of the bad news. The good news is that you can change that. You are in a free market society. Go to school or improve your knowledge of your trade and show them what you are worth. Then go ask for more money. Trust me it makes all the difference.

reply to post by Daz3d-n-Confus3d


I agree with everything you said here, but would like to add that I am sure whatever business this person is working for has probably seen the costs for running their business go up as well.

reply to post by Daz3d-n-Confus3d

i agree with you had to say..at the age of 41 ..i went back to a school to get an AA in computer electonics and i got that in 1995... i got a job the very next week, starting at 36 k a year, i stuck with the company thru 2005, where because of company re-assignments and changes to their employee "designations", i ended up being given the "choice" of becoming a "contract" employee where i could make 2k a month...and if i didn't like it i was told to find another job. i guess it must be easy for you though...since you tend to side with the employer. of course i guess in your world it was my fault. there had to be a flaw in me.

reply to post by Daz3d-n-Confus3d


and by the way ...how old are you ..and what skills do you have ...and more importantly... how long do you think your employer is going to think you are valuable?....please don't lecture me... i have been on both sides of the "management" and "labor" arguements. i have alot more experience in both of these positions and i realize what has taken place over the last 3 decades, and i am sour to what has happened in our corporate enviorment as it pertains to employees.

"Companies" don't pay you more because you either have a crap job, don't deserve it, or your sour attitude is showing through to your management and co-workers.

To the guy who tried to answer your question, you just seem to patronize him by saying, "Oh yeah, buddy? How old are you? What skills do you have? Don't lecture me! I've been through it all!"

You're attitude is probably one of the reasons why you are not getting the money that you feel that you deserve.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but most employers don't consider an AA degree as education.

reply to post by benign.psychosis


ok ..benign.. i was wrong on how i expressed myself... so your solution to my "employement problem" is my attititude. so you automatically assume that i wasn't able to maintain a professional and upbeat position as far as my job assignments. therefore, because i express this type of contempt toward the employer, i am the one that has the "problem". ok...let me spell it out for you in simple langauge. i was asked to "fix" a networking problem at a large insurance company. the company was under pressure..as was our company to get the "office" online, i worked from 6 in the morning to 12 that evening and finally was able to "fix" the problem, my company only paid me for 8 hours..when i called my supervisor to ask why i was not paid for the other 8 hours...he said that i should have dome the the job in 8 hours and that is all the company is going to pay me, since that was the "contractual" agreement.....you know i don't know what company you have worked for or their policies... but believe me there are companies out there that take advantage of their employees ...why ...because they can!!!

reply to post by benign.psychosis


and let me tell you another thing. there are alot of people that don't report the overtime they work... and why.... because it's the excepted thing to do...and if you don't know that...you are living on another planet or you must have a business where that is standard practice...yeah that's my attitude, i'll tell you what... let me have you at my house for 12 hours and i'll only pay you for 8 hours, and it's the only job you can get and you have a family to support and i tell you it won't happen again... you are still living in the ozzie and harriet age of the 50's

Originally posted by jimmyx
reply to post by benign.psychosis

 

I worked from 6 in the morning to 12 that evening and finally was able to "fix" the problem, my company only paid me for 8 hours..when i called my supervisor to ask why i was not paid for the other 8 hours...he said that i should have dome the the job in 8 hours and that is all the company is going to pay me, since that was the "contractual" agreement.....you know i don't know what company you have worked for or their policies... but believe me there are companies out there that take advantage of their employees ...why ...because they can!!!

Of course, I'm only talking about your attitude as viewed on the message board, which I admit may not carry over into your professional character. I apologize if I have offended you.

Well, did you read the contract beforehand, or even know about it? If it is taking you 16 hours to do an 8 hour job, then maybe you don't have the proper skill level to perform the job in the specified amount of time - or maybe they skimped you on purpose, I don't know. It could even be age discrimination...

I was in the same boat as you about employers not paying me the full amount of time. Actually, this was when was very young, and the only place I worked that my paycheck was skimped. I just quit after I noticed my check was short the second time, and the night before I did, I flooded the entire place :lol

Score one for the employees!

It looks like you have a work history of being with some deceitful companies...have you ever worked for the government? overseas? You might find that overseas government work is more or less fair when it comes to pay, bonuses, recognition, etc.. Even stateside, it is usually much more secure once you get your foot in the door, and having seniority is also a plus. If you are a vet, it's even better. Maybe you should look at some federal job openings.

You could also take the plunge and relocate to another area. I don't think there is much sense in complaining about it, or getting riled up about unfortunate situations because it only instills a type of victim mindset in one.

Just a thought. I do hope you have better luck with your future prospects.

Well I agree with the OP. Not everyone can afford to go to college, thats why people work at walmart and lowes.

Why don't the fast food places pay more? Why doesn't Wal-mart pay more? Good damn question imo, but I'm afraid theirs a simple answer here... greed.

When you walk into wal-mart how many cashiers do you see eveer standing around doing nothing? Zero! Know why? B/c wal-mart is a greedy capitalist corporation and they want everyone working nonstop for minimum wage whenever they are on the clock, same goes for pretty much everywhere else.

I agree too, death to the stock market. It only adds to the greed factor.

IDK why I'm complaining though, just be happy you don't live in China.

[edit on 30-1-2008 by Techsnow]

You really have to ask? It's supply and demand.
There are sooo many unemployed in Amerika that are not being reported because they either gave up, or fell off the unemployment rolls, that most employers are in a glut of labor oversupply. When any commodity is abundant, it gets cheap, and you are just a commodity.
The trick is to not be a "commodity".
For instance, currently ,due to the price of gold and oil, the mining and energy fields of employment have depleted the stock of qualified workers, also soon, due to the aging population, health care workers, especially RN and LPN's, will be in higher demand than they already are. In mosy areas of the country, nurses of most types are already in short supply.

If you have skills that a number of employers need, and are in short supply, you can command a higher price, and pretty much go wherever you wish, if where you go needs that particular skill set.
If you only have skills that tens of millions of people also have, you are a common, disposable, resource.

Don't be a commodity.

Edit--triple post----internet lockup

[edit on 1/30/2008 by gotrox]

Edit--triple post----internet lockup

[edit on 1/30/2008 by gotrox]

Edit--triple post----internet lockup

[edit on 1/30/2008 by gotrox]

Uhh, while most on this thread decided to blame the worker (and of course, in many cases, its an acurate assumption) I will blame the employer.

I work in Aerospace (Honeywell) and we recently went through a phase of "outsourcing" Which is a nice euphemism for exporting our jobs to a cheap labour market so the company can make 38.1 billion dollars in the year instead of 35.

The fact is, most large companies (I say large because small businesses dont have the resources for relocation) see that Asia, Central and South America, and Africa are giant labour pools full of desperately poor people that will work for 18 cents an hour, in horrendous conditions.

Why pay your worker 20 bucks an hour, for 8 hours, plus any potential overtime, when some 12 year old in Asia will work 12 or more hours a day, with no over time or vacation or sick leave, and do it all for 20 cents an hour?

[edit on 30-1-2008 by InSpiteOf]

The Western Worlds current financial problem is inflation, if this becomes hyper-inflation then giving workers more money to spend only feeds the problem more. The main reason that Companies restrict their workers pay is to maintain as much profit base as possible, this is paramount to a business staying afloat. Reversing inflation means you spend less on goods and services and hence the requirement for continuing payrises diminishes.

I say the Govt. needs to keep the tax takings for a few years and burn the money to remove it from circulation. Once the money supply dries up then infaltion is no longer the problem and really the only thing this idea would harm is growth of GDP's. Growth is the reason all our forest's are gone and the minerals have left massive holes in the ground, sustainability is the key to future generations and our children.

reply to post by jimmyx


I apologize if I sounded condecending toward you. I understand your complaint and feel your pain.
To answer your question I am older than you. You seem awful defensive though. I meant no harm. I have been in your shoes more than once and if I was not satisfied with my situation I moved on to another company if they wouldn't get me to where I needed to be. If I have to I will move to another city or state. My point is that we can not rely on business to take care of us. They do not care. In their eyes why should they pay you more money because the economy is crap. They did not run up your debt.
Also I don't care how old someone is, they can always better themselves in their job.
Sorry if I stepped on your toes man. No hard feelings I hope.

Exploitation of employees has been going on for thousands of years. That's why unions were formed, to protect the employee, who has no leverage really in their salary and working conditions. Yes, there are some really good employers out there who appreciate their employees, but most these days aren't that way. Far too many corporations pay their CEO's (many of whom lose money) enourmous sums of money, while their employees make $5.15 an hour and can't pay their bills. Where is the fairness there?
I worked for an insurance corporation several years ago as a transcriptionist, a job which requires excellent spellling and punctuation skills. My Master's degree didn't qualify me to earn any more than the rest of the workers. I also had more experience than most of the workers. While I didn't think that was exactly fair, I agreed to it because I needed the work. But, after I was there for 3 years, getting a 2.5% COLA each year (which doesn't keep up witht the actual cost of living). They hired a new transcriptionist, doing the same job I did, at $2.00 an hour more than any of the rest of us made. Her spelling wasn't very good, nor her grammar or punctuation and she didn't work very hard, nor did she have the amount of expertise the rest of us had. The reason the company gave was that they just realized that they paid their employees much less than other transcriptionists in the area and they needed to raise the pay.
Companies do this kind of thing all the time.
Another thing is that, just because the govt. can't run our country's finances very well, we, the employees, have to pay for it by making less money and doing without - because there are those who say that raising wages would hurt the economy even more. But still, those employees have done nothing to deserve low pay or to have to make up for the feds shortfall, yet they are required to have to live on a shoestring, waiting until the feds solve the inflation problem - which they still haven't solved after 35 years or so of over-inflation.

How much $$ does top management take out of the 'payroll' monies for themselves?

Seems like an overly high percentage to me.

I'm working as a consultant at a company at the moment. The workers there are highly-skilled workers. They are paid for 37 hours and work 55 hours.

I asked one why he doesn't do anything about it, and he said the bosses just say get another job. I asked why he didn't and he told me all the other companies are doing the same thing.

At the same time they have recently moved two of their North American plants to Mexico. The one I'm working at is the only one left in North America. I expect they will relocate it to Mexico too.

This is a trend I've observed since the 90's. Add to this the erosion of the unions and the worker has become powerless. Add off-shoring and the importation of cheap foreign labor and I wonder where it will end. Revolution?

Of course, our governments should legislate against this, but they don't. In both the UK and the USA we only have two parties, and neither party will do anything. The Free-Market is God. Also the media is controlled. Why does the media never ask, 'Why are there only two parties?" Blair promised proportional representation and it didn't happen.

It's better in the government sector, but with cut-backs and privatization, this alternative is rapidly closing.

Welcome to the NWO. It's been happening since Reagan and Thatcher got in.