I've advertised paying 35+, if I could find someone to replace myself I would go $50 a hour. This er I was advertising starting at $25 with no experience. It's not just a pay thing. It's not just so simple to pay more.

There is a reason the southern border is left open and it's not only votes.

When I ask for help or advice, be sure to also find where I called the person or you the quintessential example of why things are so bad. Life is a resource race no matter how you look at it and instead of viewing money as the ultimate resource I chose to focus on other things that would help me.

It's a union shop. I could take a company job but have been here long enough to see how they get treated and know better.

What 17 years gets me. 4 weeks vacation and seniority based shift, job, and vacation day picks. I make the same as a new hire that's in my same job classification and I'm happy with that. The pay and benefits are good and I enjoy my job. I planed on retiring here at 57. But we were sold and now I will never have 30 years with either company so my 30 and out is useless.

I know starting a new place I will not be at the same level I am now. I figured a 10 to 15k a year cut would be expected, But I also won't take a job where I'm struggle to get buy and my family's lifestyle has to change drastically. And that's the point of contention I have. Every place is crying for dedicated dependable employees, but wants to keep then at a struggling slave wage then wonder why they can't get the quality of employees they want. If not for insurance I can work for myself and make more cutting trees, grinning stumps, mowing lawns, and light land shaping than I can working at all of the Jobs I have interviewed at so far.

I also understand it's nearly impossible to find someone with a positive mind set, that's dependable, and s self starter. So I can understand employer frustration. I experience it myself when trying to hire help when I ran my tree trimming business on the side. I literally finished one job early have my first help meet me at my 2nd job of the day, after 3 hours I sent that one home because he couldn't Handel the pace I set and was dragging. I called a different guy that showed up after lunch, within 2.5 hrs I had him setting n the shade trying to get him to cook down befor he had a heat stroke. Once he was OK he asked to take off I paid him and sent him home. I continued untill just befor dark when I finished the job. I was paying very well and cash. But the two guys that appeared in good shape just could not Handel the work demands.

But I do name a line on one place that appears to be equivalent to what I currently have on some areas and better in others. But it's a long hiring process and what I have heard is fron a couple of guys at church that work there. It sounds promising and I'm optimistic. I have another 3.5 hours of testing in a few weeks. I'm hopeful all my questions will be answered then and that I will have an offer after the first of the year or in February. Fingers crossed. 30 miles is much better than 127.

It's a good thing we didn't build the wall. We need the workers.

Come on in amigos.

Now let's end all welfare.

Guess that’s sarcasm? I look at it as I like my job (money) so much that I really don’t want to retire. Maybe if things go a different direction later on I might reconsider. But why retire if you truly enjoy your job.

No I wasn't being sarcastic. I hate having to travel for work. Long commutes every day would suck.

I believe he is on the clock being paid for his windshield time and enjoying his pod cast on the way in the company vehicle and company paid for fuel.

I cannot find any help here. Yesterday even tried a gal who wanted to just come watch what we did and see if she wanted to do that for a job. Never showed up. I have hired about a dozen people this year and not one made it past 30 days. I have had everything form no call no show to having fire one guy for selling drugs at work and threatening one of my good guys. We live in a good area. There are plenty of people but a lot of the young people just don't want to be told they have to get out of bed at 7 and be at work at 8. There is not a work ethic at all in them. Then they call themselves WOKE and treat us like we are the problem. I have refused to work for anyone with a Biden or Obama bumper sticker now. I had 3 competitors got out of business in the last 2 years. Things are hard to get now for us because our suppliers have labor shortages too- L

In some cases people can not afford to work. On Hilton head Island SC rent and property prices are through the roof, so the folks that work there had to move off the island into Blufton and commute to work. Now Blufton is catching up with the high prices and folks moved further away and drove an hour plus every morning to get to work in order to find affordable housing ..... Now with the high fuel costs, they are in a catch 22 situation. if you live far enough away that you can afford the rent of a place to live, you cant afford the fuel to get to work. Move closer to use less fuel, and the rent will be to high to leave enough for groceries. The logical solution is for some folks to say, screw it and live of welfare and food stamps and make a little money on the side.
If fuel prices go higher, I have to raise my hourly rate to make to trip to the coast worth it for me. I guess at some point people will not be able to afford my services I'll have less customers and travel down less frequent using less fuel.

I agree, build the wall! Allow in vetted workers via work visa which would be the proper way.

I’ll tell you what, I am a 34 year old father of four, (two of my boys are autistic)a husband, (I’ve been with the same girl since I was 17)I have 5 years of heavy equipment operating experience, have worked all over the upper Midwest installing conveyor belts, is ok at welding, very highly motivated, excellent attendance, independent, loyal, respectful, driven, a team player, would rather work for a small business than corporate America, and am willing to relocate to pretty much anywhere to make the American dream come true for my family. I would prefer Alaska. I’ve been doing everything in my power to keep my family together through everything that’s happened to us, and to this country. I confidently feel without an ounce of arrogance that I’m worth a minimum of $30/hr. (I would need a decent health insurance for my family)If this is what you’re looking for, what’s it worth to you? P.M. me if you’d like to talk. I can provide work history and references. Like wanna be said, I’ve been in pursuit of a job that I’d never retire from. I’ve always wanted to carve out my own future and forge a good life for my family, I’ve got the motivation, I just need a mentor. Thanks,
Aaron

Aaron,

When you apply for jobs, that should be the minimum you are asking for, simply put. Don't be concerned about what they say the starting rate is, everything in business and really in life is negotiable. It's up to you to convince the hiring manager and/or boss that you are worth whatever rate you set for yourself. The thing you need to understand is that the way business works is that for any given task especially for construction, there is a set rate that whoever owns the business charges the customer. This means that if you are a heavy equipment operator for say a bulldozer, there is a rate the business owner charges the customer, and then what you get paid. There may be other modifiers in there that make the price go up, but just in plain english, for somebody making $30 an hour, they are charging a minimum of $50 an hour to perform the work, if not higher.

If you are looking at certain businesses that employ heavy equipment operators, you can help yourself by searching for any public bids they have entered with city, county, state or federal governments and see the rate they are charging for your specific specialty. This will give you an idea of what the top end for a certain company may be, but keep in mind every location is different, and even the public bids may not be truly representative of the entire picture. I do know though if you have a good pitch, and talk with 20 different heavy equipment companies, you stand a great chance at getting one to hire you at the rate you are worth as long as it is doable with market conditions. Alternatively, there is nothing preventing you from starting your own business and offering the the same service and building your own empire. I recommend it.

Very Respectfully,

Matt

Thank you MattLA, I appreciate that!! I’d love to start my own business, is that something I should go to school for to understand the business side of things? Or should I try to find a guy I could work under that I could eventually buy out when they want to retire?

Guys like you are hard to find . Keep looking because someone out there will appreciate you .


The government hand outs to worthless parasites has diminished and undermined the buying power and efforts of the true American worker .

If you think I wanted that stupid never-built wall, we are not in agreement.

But I do agree we need a system for more workers but I do not want a flood of people--just the right amount of workers. Clearly there is demand.

Unfortunately too many of my fellow Americans are lazy bums that sit around and collect welfare. Some here even if they do not admit it.

For the most part UE is a state run system so make sure you know what your states' policies are and if they have changed drastically since COVID and or is they are using federal monies instead of state generated funds.

One would think that with a significant labor shortage that we would be able to get past the cultural and political issues and design and manage a workable immigration program, but we would rather complain and finger point then do that. Also immigration is a huge money maker for political parties on the opposite ends of the issue. Parties just make tons of money using immigration to raise political campaign funds.
One would also think that we would be willing to spend some real monies helping to train many of our citizens on how to manage life and work and also get them some basic skills. We seem to either want to subsidize people to little or nothing or to not have any safety nets at all. IMO there is a lot of middle ground that may well benefit all of us. We also need to find ways to train and keep labor in the rural and semi rural areas and help the smaller businesses succeed. Today they labor force is migrating to the larger metro areas where job creation and more life opportunities are available. We need to find ways to take advantage of lower cost housing and other aspects of life in our semi rural and rural areas. The rural areas also need to be more tolerant of those that have different societal and cultural views or the migration will continue. If our policies and politics does not change we at least need to address immigration as transient migrant labor may well be the only labor that will be working in rural America. Even more so than today.

Bryce

Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner.
Take todays job…45 mile drive to the prison past a WMA and through country backroads…2 hours to complete work…close enough to hit a little town with an awesome lunch buffet…45 miles back to my office. I can stretch more than 3/4 of the day out and getting paid to do it and listen to podcasts the entire time for the most part. Actually moved this job until today because Fridays are fried catfish at the lunch buffet, lol. Sometimes I have to remind myself this is work.
Was this my “dream job” as a child? Heck NO. Life just worked out where I learned some skills through an Uncle and this job sorta jumped out at me. It’s raised a family and a wonderful life for them.
Gets back to what I said earlier, most don’t give a job time. Most want immediate gratification and be at the top. You have to work your way to the top. Don’t take that as I’m bragging or at the top, just the top of as far as I care to go. Only thing above would be management, and I wouldn’t take the pay cut or stress to take that position, lol.
And as I also said, nothing is absolute. We could get a new CEO next month that decides to take an entirely different direction and my job could go back to when I first started…just ride that pony until it tips over then pull up on those reins to get her back up, lol.

Bryce you touch on some great points. Thing is everything is set up against them now. We used to have Home Ec and a class called Echo Family that taught us how to interview for jobs, balance a check book, savings, we had to carry around a bag of flour for two weeks and treat it like a baby, and so on.

We had wood shop, metal shop, power mechanics, forging, etc. All these classes are gone now. Kids were force fed they had to go to college to have any chance to succeed in life while simultaneously they took away all the other options for them, hello massive student loan debt and no skilled trade training. I won't even get in to the indoctrination.

Imo, I think we have enough here to fill the jobs, the ones that are here that could fill them don't want them because they have "issues". Instead of giving them a free pass and bringing in foreign workers, we should make it mandatory someway for them to train. Also we need to put these classes back in schools. Academia has failed our kids in many ways, on purpose, and we let it happen.

As far as small business' go, if the Gov wanted them to succeed, they would stop regulating them to fail. Instead, support them for growth. I think we have a messy, junked up backyard that needs cleaning before we go messing around in someone else's yard.

Some folks are working under the table for cash. They're sick of forfeiting 17%+ in income taxes PLUS taxes on everything they buy and every vehicle and home they own annually. I've heard it said that when it's all said and done, about 50% of your money goes to taxes in one form or another.

What type of work do you do?