Work seems to be picking up sightly...

[Dave.L]

quote:

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how long ago did your wife leave you?

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LMAO.....Never married and it's probably obvious why. I make it very clear to any new girlfriend too that business is a major priority.

[Mike S @ S4A]

One of the real killers (in Mass anyways) is workers compensation insurance. Rates are based on "payroll exposures" and audited to death.

I managed operations at a shop for 7+ years.

 

To make it brief; this year you get busy and give your guys overtime. next year your insurer jacks your rates because of increased exposure.

Then your guys ask about raises for all their hard work with no mishaps last year. how do you tell them that the money's in the pocket of a desk driving parasite because of your legal obligation to insure them just in case?

I despise the insurance and financial industries precisely because they profit on fear, no facts.

then the guys get p.o'd and think the owner's being cheap and the morale starts to go down...

A tough situation all 'round. No disrespect to anyone posting here as an employee but If you haven't been an owner you don't know what it's like....I liked the line about loss sharing -

when things are good the owner gets rewards,

but he's ALWAYS responsible for whatever goes wrong, whether at fault or not.

[Greg_J]

And that's why he gets more money. Yes we know this there is more risk, hours, taxes, energy in being an owner. I give huge credit to them based of statistics and the amount of business failing, it's a huge risk, and it has it's rewards.

 

The problem with the "lost Sharing" idea is you hire me for a service, did I work any less hard this year then the years before? I don't get paid what you make.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Problem:

 

The gummint and insurance companies are taking a bigger slice of the pie every year. That leaves smaller portions for both the business owner and the employee. We're all working harder and longer just to try to keep up with where we were, but there's no way we can match the true inflation rate of 14% per year. Yes, the Federal Reserve is "printing" (most are electronic only) 14% more fiat notes every year. I was making $20/hour when I graduated from tech school in '96, and able to get by nicely on about 20 hours per week. If I got a 14% raise every year I would now be making over $100/hour.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

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We're all working harder and longer just to try to keep a desk driving parasite employed.

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There... that looks MUCH more accurate even if I do say so myself.

[Greg_J]

Matt,

Just wait till we all become one big happy country.

I think that's the goal of this administration, to destabilize the economy so much that there is no choice to abandon the US currency and adopt a North American currency. In abandoning the currency leaving the countries the US owes holding the bag.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I'd rather the US and Canada become 1 country than for the US and Mexico. I've already seen the outcome of that experement. It's called Los Angeles and it AIN'T WORKIN!

[mgsanchez]

quote:

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those are metric hours since he's from canada.

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Del, that's some funny stuff.

quote:

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When it comes to $9/hr that's what I was paid when I started...

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Everyone has to start somewhere. When I started in this business I was making minimum wage at the time. I got my first pay increase when they raised the minimum wage.

quote:

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...did I work any less hard this year then the years before?

---

It's not about working harder than the years before, it's about working smarter than the years before.

 

[ 07-14-2009, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: mgsanchez ]

[gcode]

quote:

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When it comes to $9/hr that's what I was paid when I started...

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$1.05/hour drill press operator 1973..

after 6 months they gave me a dime raise.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I started at $8.00/hr in 1991. Not too bad for back then.

[Dave.L]

James, I would have thought you were a bit older than me (I'm 39) and I started my design career around then for about the same wage. Back then a single guy could actually live on that wage and do OK. What a world Huh?

 

BTW, I wish all the best thru this tough time.

[htm01]

$4.35 in 78,man i thought i was rich!

[Mr. Wizzard]

I don't blame business. I blame government. My family barely gets by on one income. My wife homeschools our kids right now. How much of a raise will I need? We can't afford to build a house right now, but Obama makes us pay for someone else who can't afford their house!

 

I should have got a mortgage I couldn't pay for years ago. If we buried ourselves in debt we had no way of paying off, we would kicking back while someone else pays for it! Shows what working hard and being responsible will get you!

[X-L Engineering Corp]

I think it was $4 something back in 1981 blasting, deburring, straightening and polishing parts.

Still at the same company all these years?

[Joe788]

quote:

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I should have got a mortgage I couldn't pay for years ago. If we buried ourselves in debt we had no way of paying off, we would kicking back while someone else pays for it! Shows what working hard and being responsible will get you!

---

And that is why communism doesn't work. Why work twice as hard when you get the same reward for being a lazy leech? (Sounds sorta similar to some other organizational type, doesn't it? ***coughUNIONScough***)

[Mr. Wizzard]

From each according to his means, to each according to his needs. I believe that's how it goes.

 

The Federal government wants to follow the failed economic principles of Socialist Countries as did California. See how well it worked out for them? (Sorry Joe.) They have bustling manufacturing societies...... or not.

 

How can honest, hard-working people continue to have an incentive to produce when the rewards are taken and redistributed to lazy bums?

 

There is a slight bit of comfort in hoping there will continue to be work out there for us because there's nobody willing to do it anymore.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I turn 40 in December Dave. How about you?

 

quote:

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I don't blame business. I blame government. My family barely gets by on one income. My wife homeschools our kids right now.

---

Right there with you! 1 income and we home school too! Keep up the fight!

 

quote:

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We can't afford to build a house right now, but Obama makes us pay for someone else who can't afford their house!

---

I'm offended by your racist hate speech j/k

[BrianP.]

Why do we have to understand exactly to be better than "clueless" or " know what it's like". We don't know exactly how Mastercam works or understand how our machines interpret the code but we know it works and we like it.

 

The bottom line I think we will all agree on is that here in the U.S. manufacturing some time ago became something that is looked down on. They do not even advertize machinist jobs here uner the Construction and Trades catergory. Somehow machining stopped being a trade. For a long time we were under the General Help listing until they created a Manufacturing catagory. Very rarely do you hear anything from our politicians or the media about how we need to resurrect our manufacturing industry. And when you do it is a blurb that is quickly passed over. Building things and being creative is what made this country great. It's a shame that it seems to have been forgotten.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

When we as employees at the bare minimum try to have just a shred of empathy(notice I said empathy not sympathy) for what our employers go through on the administrative side, it's not the bed of roses that a lot of people think it is. True, they voluntarily took up the challenge (and thankfully so), the politicians heroin addicts are the real schmucks more often than not. Our rage should be against the machine, more than the boss.

 

JM2C

[Dave.L]

James, I'll be 40 in January.

[txmusicguy]

quote:

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LMAO.....Never married and it's probably obvious why. I make it very clear to any new girlfriend too that business is a major priority.

---

I was that way for the first half of my adult life, but found my family and friends were there more often for me than my company was. Don't get me wrong I give my employer a 100% but they aren't central in my life. Faith, family, and country come first. Dang I hope I just didn't turn this into a religious thread.

[Guest]

quote:

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I started at $8.00/hr in 1991. Not too bad for back then.

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i use to be an underground coal miner from 1979-1985.i started off at$8.09/hr.and when i left in 1985 was making $13.71.man i had some cash then.started in this trade in 1986 at $4.00/hr.i wasnt too proud to start over but man was it tough.

[Zbuilder]

Does everyone who works overtime get payed this overtime on a separate check? This keeps overtime taxes lower & takehome pay increases.

[Dave.L]

quote:

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Does everyone who works overtime get payed this overtime on a separate check? This keeps overtime taxes lower & takehome pay increases.

---

You are fooling yourself, it all comes out the same at the end of the year.

[Greg_J]

I made $9 in 1996 when I started, and $18 when I got my papers in 2000.

 

My overtime has always been on one cheque, but in Ontarion I was paid weekly and in Alberta I;m paid bi-weekly. I had a job offer at a shop that paid monthly, and offered a float if you needed money during the month. Weird.