DeathscytheX

Wages seem all out of whack to me now. I have a strong feeling that the more people are going to get paid, the less amount of coworkers they'll have to share the work load with. Sure higher pay generally equals more work, but when it takes away all your free time or you have to do double the work and not get double pay, its complete BS. In the same sense, I think about the $15 an hour minimum wage for fast food workers starting in NY. I wouldn't be surprised if most of those fast food places start running on skeleton crews soon. I've already seen articles show casing new "order your own food here kiosks" at fast food places. Thats one less employee.. and other articles about how the person taking your order at a drive thru can be outsourced to another country like customer service is for many companies. Some person in Indonesia will take your order and input it in the system because McDonalds can pay that guy $2 an hour and eliminate another $15 an hour job. All stores that have salary management are either going to have some less managers or have to change their pay structure to make the money come from somewhere. Of course the money has to come out of the employees somehow, because the CEOs with their multi million dollar jobs will never take a pay cut. And the profit paid out to stock holders will never get decreased.

Interesting changes, I heard a little about this yesterday with the Wendy's Kiosk thing they're rolling out. While I feel it's a good change because lets face it, low-end salaried managers get the hose when it comes to working hours. I know while I was still working at Wal-Mart most Assistant Managers pulled up to or even more then 70 hours a week and were only paid for 50 (most of them making below or right at this base line of $47k) this will have sweeping repercussions once implemented. Wal-Mart will most likely do away with their profit-sharing program to cover the costs (if they don't fuck their salaried managers) which means the hourly workers won't get that nice little bonus every 3 months if they make profit (it's a weird program honestly, I never fully understood it but I never complained about the extra $300-$500 it put on my check when it paid out). They'll probably cut down on their already bloated management staff as well (at the Wal-Mart I used to work at (and probably work at again if they hire me back) they have 4 Co-Managers and at least 16 Assistant Managers (you could easily cut that to 2 Co's and half as many Assistants)). How other businesses will handle this is up in the air but I'm pretty sure that's what Wal-Mart would do (I mean they already run their stores with the bare minimum employees needed). Sadly Wal-Mart's pay increase in my area was pretty shitty. My friends say they received a 2% raise when this all went into effect but then again they are some of the best paid hourly employees in the company (when I left I was making $17.80 an hour after 4 years (4 normal raises) and 6 cost of living raises and other minor increases, my friend is currently making $18.12 an hour. They're lucky also because when the company dropped starting wages they rolled all that money into their base wages so they wouldn't loose it). Not so much anymore as I've heard the starting wages dropped to $12 an hour for days and I believe $14 an hour for nights (down from $15 and $17 respectively, this is due to the oil boom in the Bakken dropping off drastically). This is still more then the national average for Wal-Mart employees but it's a general idea of what at least one Wal-Mart is paying.

That's exactly right. A lot of people don't understand that $15 min wage is bad. These are entry level jobs that kids should be doing, not a way of life. Now it's gonna be harder for young people to get their first work experience because no one is going to want to hire a kid for a hugh wage. If everyone could live comfortably making French fries then you'd have less people willing to work for a more skilled occupation that's a value to society. Human drive is why socialism doesn't work and never will. Star Trek economics will never happen. As for the OT rules, yeah if they increase my wage I see longer hours and less help in the future.