stevehobbes

I’m telling you that you shouldn’t be surprised it’s the way it is. Because it was this way when you started.

Every union seems to do this - they backload pay and benefits. It happens to pilots (until the most recent CBA rounds) and flight attendants too. They get paid literally almost nothing and have to share rooms with 4 other people until they’ve gotten 10-20 years in, in which case they start making pretty decent money.

Teachers are the same. They vote for you to make $30,000/yr with shitty raises, but at 30 years in you’re making $100k/year and will retire with $66k/year for the rest of your life in addition to social security.

Adjusted slightly based on district.

It’s always been like this and you knew it when you started.

Sure, try to improve it and make it better - but don’t act surprised like it’s new.

If only everyone got CEO raises, too bad not everyone is a CEO.

The school districts will start paying more money, that’s how this works. It takes a while, there will be short term shortages before school districts renegotiate the CBA and a lag before more college kids get teaching certificates.

Or states will lower the requirements to be teachers, and hire less qualified teachers, and more middle-and-above income households will send their kids to private or charter schools.

You have a lot more power in the union than you think - at least collectively. The people you elect negotiate the CBA. And then you get to vote on that CBA. Convince your peers to vote no next time until you get a better contract.

Legally prevented from striking… what does that even mean. If you strike they can fire you? If you’re going to quit anyway, who cares? Lots of states (37) make it unlawful for public employees to strike. They do it anyway. And win.

Or don’t, and find a new job.

Teacher salaries suck - but they also sucked 5, 10 and 20 years ago too.

A couple of things. First off, teaching is unique - every public school I’m aware of is unionized. Which is to say there is a collective bargain between the workers and the district. Teachers have far more say in their pay than non-union employees.

Secondly, they can go teach in private schools if they pay more or change careers if they think they can get paid more or have a better quality of life doing something else.

Or they can simply try to get people to vote down their next CBA if they think they aren’t paid enough and force the district to pay more.

Third, I never said anything is “worth it”, but the calculus for teachers is different. The CBA getting voted on by the teachers means your compensation is heavily backloaded towards end of career and retirement. You also have significantly better benefit plans than private sector jobs, because that’s what the union membership voted for.

You can retire in most school districts after 20 years and get paid 2/3rds of your salary for life. Good luck doing that in the private sector. Which is why you’ll also probably get paid less than other jobs with comparable skill sets over those 20 years.

Because if your employer doesn’t pay what you’re worth to other employers, you go to those other employers.

It’s easier than ever to see what jobs are worth as many locations require employers to publish salary bands or hourly rate right on the internet. You can find all the jobs near you that are similar and compare pay without so much as going on an interview.

It’s far more complicated, what is the ROI on the multimillion dollar robot to do pick and place, how long before a packaging or dimension change requires reprogramming, or you stop making part B and instead make part C that the robot needs to be adapted for. How much does labor cost.

There’s a quite a few parameters to analyze, but it is frequently cheaper and makes sense not to automate it, and instead pay someone to stand at an assembly line instead.

But then the whole automation thing…. Good for skilled labor (the people building and programming robots and automated assembly lines), not good for unskilled labor. If you’re not qualified or unable to learn another skill, it’s one more job that disappears.

Not wanting to do something because you have better options does not mean that almost anyone can do it.

Unskilled labor is hard labor. Nothing about it is emotionally easy or less taxing on your body. But you can be taught to do it in a couple hours, hence, requires no hard skills.

There are soft skills that make people better at working a register than others - but the difference is really at the margins.

I don’t know why you think calling something an unskilled job is more derogatory than a menial job.

But can anyone learn your job in an afternoon? No.

You can replace a factory line worker with literally almost any human, you can’t be replaced by anyone who doesn’t have a background in IT, at least without months or years of training.

That’s not ego it’s just reality.

It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a living wage. But if you’re gushing about how everyone is a skilled laborer while talking to someone who makes 1/10th what you do they’re probably going to think you’re a dick.

An unskilled job can be learned in an afternoon. That’s the difference.

The whole point of the term unskilled labor is that it isn’t.

If you’re on an assembly line and you’re putting part A into box B, it takes an afternoon to learn and you’ll be about as fast as someone who’s been doing it for 30 years.

Either part A is in box B or it isn’t. The difference between the best person and the worst person that’s still worth employing is very small, and probably can’t be trained.

You don’t pay extra for someone with experience putting part A into box B.

But they should be paid a living wage.

Not just any keyboard and display, looks like they are gutting old Blackberry Bolds and slapped a pi zero in it.

I mean, this is kinda the free market at work? Nvidia built and dominated a market, and AMD and Intel are pouring billions in to give people an alternative which will drive prices down?

Biden won with like 85% of the vote in Hamtranck.