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Will airlines and the TSA now believe that they hire scum that do nothing but steal from us?
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@Adrienne Willis: Baggage handlers and TSA checkers make very little money. If the pay is low, you can expect a certain amount of what you call \"scum\" to get through the hiring process. Hell, that happens with higher paying jobs too, but it's worse with lower paying jobs.
That being the case, of the thousands (tens of thousands?) of baggage handlers and TSA checkers on the job out there, it would appear to me that this is a not a very common occurance. The majority of them work hard and do their best.
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@HiPwr: Where is your evidence that stealing is \"worse\" among employees with lower paying jobs? Surely you aren't buying into the stereotype that lower-paid workers are less ethical than wealthy execs. Haven't we learned anything in this country?
@WorldHarmony: Companies do not spend the time investigating backgrounds and checking resumes for those they hire for lower paid jobs. Those things cost money and it's not always feasable to spend $20k checking out someone making $7/hour.
Also what percentage of felons (the one's that actually get jobs, that is) leave prison and work lower paying jobs? When a company isn't paying much for a position, they can't afford to be very selective.
It's not some class warefare hate the poor argument, it's just reality.
@HiPwr: They make good money. My Wife was one for a while. $12 an hour plus Good Benefits is not low income.
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@SonicMan: \"They make good money. My Wife was one for a while. $12 an hour plus Good Benefits is not low income.\"
Sorry, but yes, that is low income. I made $12 an hour in 1986 with no experience in anything.
@BZMedia: So someone Making Minimum wage (about $5 less per hour) would be what? Negative income?
It seems like only yesterday (I have to check, it may have been yesterday) that People were crying about how bad Walmart was paying working the minimum wage. How that low income was very bad. But Slap anouter $5 on top of it and its still no good.
@SonicMan: Well, yes. You cannot survive (out here in the Bay Area anyway) on $5 an hour, by yourself. Maybe in South Dakota or something it could work. You'd have real trouble making it on your own at $12 an hour. Minimum wage here means you're living in your mom's basement or you have 6+ roommates.
$25k - $30k income was considered \"good\" (average) by standards in the 80s. Not today. Just because $12 isn't minimum wage, it doesn't mean it's good either. At best, it's low income. At worst, it's poverty.
The issue is, these are the people in charge of our \"security\" at the airports. They are in a position to seriously screw up your life if they choose. And that scares me. If they were paid a decent wage, (and given some actual training and education prior to putting them out on the floor) maybe they wouldn't be so inclined to rip off gadgets out of baggage.
What do the Walmart workers make again? $7 an hour? $8? Our airport security is worth $5 bucks more than a Walmart receipt checker? McDonalds here is hiring for $12 an hour. A TSA agent is worth no more than an entry level McDonalds grunt?
@BZMedia:
I believe unless you live in NYC, LA or some other really high living cost area, 25K/yr can give you(rself) an OK live. As a graduate student I currently make 21K (before tax) per year. that's about 1.5K/mo after tax. I spend 350 on rental (share an apartment with several other students but it's not in basement and I have my own room), about 200 on food (including chips, candies and pop. God bless US for junk food. Just don't eat too much). I donate ~150/mo to charities. I spend about 300 on other stuff like eating out, buy clothes, gasoline, paying online game fee (I play EVE). Usually I can save 500/mo, except for the months I fly back to my homecountry once per year (900 airfare + 600 gifts) and when I go for a vacation (within US). But all after all, with 21K annual income I can still save like 4k per year.
I don't have many of the \"essential\" stuffs my American friends have. My phone is a prepaid and I can't even use the 1000 minutes up every year (Use Skype whenever you can). My watch is a 35$ Casia G-shock. I cook for myself, using real food. If you know how to cook you will find that the \"cheap\" \"food\" those who live on food stamp usually buy is neither cheap nor food.
Many of you may see my life as poverty. But considering I can sleep on a bed under a roof, am never in hunger, and luckily have a pretty good health plan, it IS a good life compare with most of the human being on this planet.
@Bob Lu: I'm glad you're making it, hon, but in a lot of places in the US, you wouldn't be. Also, most people I know who make the money you do would give a kidney if they could have health insurance.
Where I live, I made 15.50/hr at my last job. That was enough for me to pay for a house, a car, and a college education.
Don't assume that just because where you live you need a million dollar just to get a 500 square foot flat, everywhere else must be the same.
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@Bob Lu: In most places in NY 12$ hr is a poverty wage. If these people work at JFK you can assume that they live on Long Island or within the boroughs of NYC. Livings not cheap there.
@Bob Lu: \"share an apartment with several other students\" means you're not paying the full cost of living, let alone supporting a family. Completely different circumstances. When you've got a live-in girlfriend (or spouse) and the rent, electricity, internet, etc. is only split 2 ways, then we can talk about whether $21k is enough.
@SonicMan: That adds up to roughly $25k a year before taxes. In New York. If that's not low income, I'm not sure how you would define it.
@Shivved: Isn't Minimum in NY still $7.50....Many of those MC-Minimum jobs you will not get great (or any) benefits....
@Adrienne Willis: When people hunt for the cheapest airline ticket airlines hunt for the cheapest employees.
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In 2008, Richard H. Anderson raked in $17,442,655 in total compensation.* In the previous year the CEO of this company made $359,223. Total CEO compensation has increased by 4756%.
CEO of Delta for 2008.
Stupid consumers trying to find lower prices!! They brought this theft on themselves.
@Fresh-Fest-1986: So the thieving is condoned at the highest levels of the organization. That level of compensation is clearly theft from the shareholders considering that the company didn't even turn $17M in profit in 2008.
@Fresh-Fest-1986: Ok...so that works out to less than $0.05 per passenger, what's your point? Also, total compensation isn't the same as salary...it includes union distortions. Stock OPTIONS are reported as full compensation, even though he had to use his own money to buy into them! Anyways...the more a CEO has invested in an airline, the more of a vested interest he has in not running it into the ground like the past CEOs did.
His actual salary was ~$650,000.... The CEO of the Red Cross made $675,000. Considering he is in charge of the largest airline in the world, I'm ok with tossing his nickle his way each time I board one of his planes.
(PS, the head of ALPA received more than $2,000,000 in direct cash compensation last year...some food for thought)
@RedwoodFlyer: Any chance you realize that unless he's a complete moron, he wouldn't excercise those options unless they were \"in the money\"?
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@Bzmedia: $12/hour is POVERTY??? Maybe in certain locales, but not in a lot of places. Where I come from, $12/hour is considered a pretty decent wage. Not everyone can get into a nice cushy salaried job making $60K a year.
$12 is practically DOUBLE minimum wage. In many areas, if you can budget effectively, you can do fine on $12 an hour. Heck I made just over $10/hr at my last job and didn't have any cash flow issues. It's not about how much you make, it's about living within your means.
@dragonfire81: 12 dollars an hr * 40 hours a week = 480 dollars/week * 4 weeks a month = 1920 a month before taxes, maybe about 1700 after taxes depending on locality. In the I-95 corridor from Boston to DC, that's not going to get you much. Heck there are some locations where 60K isn't enough money to live. Especially when you have college loans to pay, a car payment, etc etc. That's the thing of cost of living, it varies soooo wildly in a country as vast as ours.
I read at the beginning of the year to be \"middle class\" in NYC meant making 120K a year....
@sponica: That seems to be the issue here. $24k a year in most highly populated areas of the country is not a living wage. Let's put it this way: the living wage in your area is probably close to the average salary of the low-level police officers, teachers and firefighters in your town. If the city pays more, the taxpayers scream, if they pay less, they can't get the people to fill the positions. In NYC that's probably around $50k-$60k/year.
@bwcbwc: The sad irony of your claim here is that until LAST YEAR, rookie cops for the NYPD made $25,100 a year.
@dragonfire81: $10 - $12 dollars an hour is fine, if you enjoy living in a 350 sq ft studio apartment with no windows, eating Top Ramen and Jack Mackerel out of the can, drive a '72 Pinto with a green door and never go anywhere or have anything nicer than college dorm room furniture and old Def Leppard concert t-shirts. Personally, I aim a little higher than that.
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@BZMedia: the job before this one i made $9.50 an hour and lived in a 741 sq ft 1 BR, drove a 2001 mazda and had enough to go out to eat once in a while at a moderately priced restaurant. i wouldn't try to do that if i was supporting a family but for a single person in the mid atlantic area it was a pretty decent wage
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@BZMedia:
You said BAY AREA. In the Bay Area, $12 is peanuts. I make almost that here in MO, and I own a house and make a car payment. Okay, it's a tiny car payment, but whatever.
If I were to move back to the Central Coast, I'd need to be making a lot more than twelve fracking dollars an hour.
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hmmm i cant see delta ever working with the TSA helping the consumers