Increase or Decrease

In the interest of starting a new thread, here are a few thoughts that I have had the last few days.

I am getting ready to start a new job in another week.  5th new full time job in 5 years since retiring from Uncle Sam's boys club.  At least it is going to be a full time job, with benefits.  Unfortunately I am leaving my current job because of government cutbacks.  I don't know very many people that can live off of "we will notify you on the first if we need you this month"  That kind of contract is just begging for an ulcer or heart attack.

I've been thinking about all of the hubba balloo about the increase of the federal minimum wage.  Has anyone thought much about the reciprical?  Let's think about this for a minute.

I have my new full time job coming up.  84 hours per 2 week pay period, with the potential to get up to 120 hours if somone takes a vacation or gets sick. 30% less pay than my current 20 weeks per year job.   I have a seasonal part time job that pays $11/hour in which I average 20 hours per 2 week pay period, if I am availale when they need me and only from February 1 - April 15 every year.  And a second part time job as a substitute teacher.  This pays $70 per day, if I am available ($10.76/hour) (I am available every other week since I will be working 12 hour shifts at the full time job. 

Here are the things to consider.  back in 2011 I collected unemployment for 2 weeks.  Based on my previous employment, I was eligble for the maximum compensation:  $412 per week.  Not enough to cover the mortgage for the month, but at least we wouldn't starve. 

Substitute teacher at $70 per day.  This yields $350 per week, if you manage to get a job every day, for the whole day, not just a half.  What is in the job description for substitute teaching:  Enter a classroom 20 minutes before class starts (unpaid 20 minutes) find out what the teacher has been teaching and what they want you to teach, then follow the lesson plan, assuming the teacher prepared one and deal with kids that know that you are only a substitute.  I always feel bad for the first period kids, because it is during that class that I am reviewing the material to figure out what is being taught and how to teach it. 

My qualifications:
    A BS in Aeronautics
   An MBA in finance and accounting
   An MA in history
   A grad certificate in education and learning
    nearly 3 decades of teaching experience as well as raising 5 children of my own.

here is some food for thought.   $350 week working or $412 unemployment to do nothing?

Now, Once the fed increases their minimum wage, it usually is only a few years before the states are blackmailed into following suit.  Or in the case of the left coast, matching and raising the fed.  So, with my $100,000 in education, I will be making about 66 cents more than the high school drop out flipping burgers if I continue to substitute teach. (I actually get paid less than a kid working at In & Out burger if he/she has been their for 6 months)

Thank you Mr. President for reducing teaching to a minimum wage job!!!!!

Me personally, I would love to teach full time.  The kids that I have been working with are great.  But thanks to the teachers' union, any principal would be foolish to hire me.  Why?  Because I have TOO MUCH education and experience.  They can't afford to pay me.  Not to mention the staffing nightmare that would ensue with the tenured teachers who don't have the education that I do. 

How do we get teaching out of being a minimum wage job?  Well, we give them raises.  But that would entail increasing property taxes.  We have a pretty small tax base in our area, so the increase would have to be pretty significant in order to cover all of the teachers in the area.  This would in turn reduce the residual cash on hand for the teachers since, they are part of the community and would have to pay this increase.  It turns into a net loss when you add it all together.

I was talking to a buddy of mine the other day, who owns and McD's franchise.  It is a fairly lucrative business, although it is getting tighter and tighter.  Most of his employees are high school and college students who work part time. He starts most people at minimum wage and increases it 25 cents every six months until they get to $10/hr. In our conversation he pointed out that it currently costs him $800 per day to open his doors, without paying himself.  This is the cost of building and labor. He has increased costs if he actually sells anything.

He has started doing the math on the new federal minimum wage and the impact it will have on him and his business.  Without increasing what he pays himself, and not providing complimentary pay raises above minimum wage to those already working for him, his costs will jump to $1100 per day to open his doors...before paying himself he loses an additional $9,000 per month.  That is a lot of Big Macs.  The only way to adjust for that will be to increase his prices, which get passed on to his customers and even his employees.  He determined that if his employees at the restaurant 5 times per week during their shift, they will have a net loss over what they are getting paid now, due to the increase in prices and the increased tax witholdings.

I think in reality, the only thing that increasing the federal minimum wage will do is increase tax revenues much more than it will actually help the employee.

Most importantly, does anyone know of many minimum wage jobs which are not supposed to entry level, unskilled in the first place?


Thank you Mr. President, thanks for nothing.