Do you make a living wage at your job in Humboldt County?
Check out this living wage calculator to find out.
The Humboldt Herald
Provoking Humboldt County since 2006
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June 25, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Ummm…That would be no. Close though. And I like to think I have a decent job for around here.
June 25, 2009 at 5:44 pm
These stats do not represent the “self-employed” “class or type” for employment/wage calculating purposes. These stats appear to only represent the “non self-employed” “class or type”. In essence, the self employed are “under(not) represented” when it comes to statistics…..
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
June 25, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Be interesting to be able to track government jobs including benefits to the private sector jobs including benefits also.
June 25, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I guess it pays to stay in school.
June 26, 2009 at 6:41 am
education = guess work?
It does not pay to have no job after taking on financial debt to “pay-off” State employees in exchange for a career based on the premise of debt acquisition?
Jeffrey Lytle
McKinleyville – 5th District
June 26, 2009 at 7:11 am
Huh?
June 26, 2009 at 10:01 am
This county is stuck in the late 80’s when it comes to wages! Small/Local Business owners don’t have a clue.
And you wonder why there are so many grow houses here…
June 26, 2009 at 10:14 am
Maybe with conditions being what they are, with the onset of the GOP FLOP, people around here will be more supportive of raising the minimum wage. Seems to me that the Democrats and the Greens would be all in favor. It will take an effort of a political party and at least two or three local unions to get it done.
Oh wait a minute I forgot! Obama promised to raise it to $10.00 an hour. I am sure he is working on it.
have a peaceful day,
Bill
June 26, 2009 at 10:16 am
Off topic, Heraldo, but I am wondering if anyone else is having trouble reading the online TS? Everytime I click on a story to read it, the same page shows up saying that I am not connected to the internet. Anyone else have that happen today? Guess I’ll have to resort to some magic…
June 26, 2009 at 10:18 am
When I was circulating petitions a year ago to raise the minimum wage in Eureka, one drumbeat against it was that “raising the minimum wage will destroy the economy!” I guess that argument is “off the table” now. We are just at the START of a big depression. The last great Republican Depression lasted over 10 years, and unemployment didn’t peak ( and the stock market didn’t reach its low) until five years in to it. We are still in year ONE.
have a peaceful (and more prosperous) day
Bill
June 26, 2009 at 11:24 am
It’s a tough call. Should government dictate wages in those industries that traditionally pay the lowest wages thus forcing some of those businesses to become unprofitable forcing them to shut down? Is the trade off of fewer jobs but slightly higher wages in those remaining worth it? Traditionally those industries with low wage jobs aren’t high profit in nature nor is a high skill set required of employees. What is the overall benefit to society and how can it be measured?
June 26, 2009 at 11:41 am
Frequently on this blog I read about supporting local mom and pop businesses. Most small retail businesses are unable to pay high wages since they have insufficient margins and volume to support that level of cost.
June 26, 2009 at 11:52 am
America created enormous wealth in the last ten or twenty years. It all went to the already-wealthy.
This is not news, and if you’re not sure about it, a few clicks over to the government’s own web pages will give you more statistics than you can shake a stick at.
The weird thing is, everybody seemed to celebrate this class victory, because “the stock market was going up.” It never occurred to anyone in the mainstream media that if the stock market was going up, that meant that a larger share of productivity was going to investors, and a smaller share to workers. A neutral media would have consistently pointed this out.
The absolute brilliance of America’s ruling class is to convince workers that they, too, can get in on the party. Maybe not now, but real soon. Remember how Bush was going to let everyone invest their social security funds in the market?
The main social trend in America during my lifetime has been the so-called “liberation of women.” In other words, it now takes two working-class incomes to raise a family, while women still mostly do the housework and child-rearing.
Any more victories like this, or like the election of Obama-the-redeemer-(of-the-bankers), and we’ll all return to slavery.
June 26, 2009 at 11:58 am
Anonymous 10:01am stated that “Small/Local business owners don’t have a clue”. I respectfully disagree. Small/local business owners have to deal with a lot of regulation, workers comp costs, Lawyers ready to sue you out of existence because the handrail in your bathroom is a half inch too high or too low, unpredictable materials costs and lots more. The clueless ones went broke long ago and the ones left are the hardy survivors of a hostile environment. And many local folks owe their jobs to them.
June 26, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I understand your point Da Man,but risk is inevitable in owning a business. I just believe hard work and loyalty should be recognized by more employers here. Pay raises and perks boost employee moral and in turn improves production which then improves profit.
Just a thought.
June 26, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I totally agree with you of course. And high employee turnover can be the kiss of death so it totally makes sense to provide appropriate employee pay and benefits. My hesitation has to do with government mandating these. That’s all.
June 26, 2009 at 2:37 pm
These figures are completely unrealistic. How can $98 per month suffice for medical care when the cheapest policy is $400 a month? Minimum wage and living wage are far, far apart.
June 26, 2009 at 5:11 pm
you need a new insurance person.
June 26, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Gee! Maybe those discussions about trying to keep “living wage” jobs here might mean something! Could our port really be a diamond in the rough?
June 26, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Unless you grow, you cannot live above the poverty level, unless you are working for Arkley to supress the future.
June 27, 2009 at 1:10 am
Wow! The average rate for a manager in this area is about 35-thousand dollars a year?
I should get into management.
Operations Manager sounds good.
June 27, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I love the wages for “one adult supporting one child”.
WTF??
Last time I checked it took 2 adults to make one child.
June 27, 2009 at 2:07 pm
There’s a difference between “support” and “make.”
Single parenting is far from an anomaly.
June 27, 2009 at 4:05 pm
11:48, I assure you that those aren’t the only choices! I don’t grow pot for profit, nor do I work for Arkley (nor did I have any savings at all when I moved here, nor inheritance or other outside income, nor do I make my living from tax monies), but I do make a decent living and have a pleasant life and reasonably secure future.
It takes hard work, ambition, sacrifice and some ingenuity, but many people can find a skill, trade or occupation that creates real wealth, and contributes to society’s needs.
Don’t give up on yourself, there ARE other options!
June 27, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Which is not to say that everything is hunky-dory in our economy or that we shouldn’t do more to help those who are struggling: It’s not and we should!
June 28, 2009 at 11:08 pm
$8 / hour X 40 hrs / wk = $320 / wk before taxes and probably $285 after
This is a hard wage to make a living on in the state of California. I’m imagining this means…no car, sharing a house with at least 2 or 3 others, and eating rice and beans. Come on.
And I second the statement made earlier that single parenthood is not unusual. Wake up to the real world, Maria!
June 29, 2009 at 11:07 am
Burger flippers are not worth $8. Cashiers are not worth $8. These jobs are not even worth $5 per hour. Why do we need to set an arbitrary floor to how much unskilled workers can be paid? If a business were allowed to set its wages too low, everybody would go work for the business that had a slightly higher wage. In this environment, people without employment could easily find a $3 or $4 / hour job with responsibilities that they could handle. No minimum wage would encourage competition and increase employment. Instead, we discourage competition by forcing employers to lower their managerial and skilled workers’ wages in order to afford to keep their peon positive drug test worker clowns.
There is immense hypocrisy among the bureaucrats who support the minimum wage as they are served by voluntary interns who work for $0 or a “stipend” which is just a clever way of paying volunteers below minimum wage. These politicians make the wage laws yet never have to worry about their own budget. How can politicians possibly understand profit, loss, wages, insurance, etc. when they simply vote to make other people deal with it?
This is another reason why under the table jobs in Humboldt County are so popular. You’ll never hear an October horticultural manicurist talking about a living wage… they know that their only responsibility is to meet or exceed their quota and do that enough times to survive until next fall.
June 29, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Not unusual but who cares? Where is the other parent? I care not a whit to idiots that can’t manage to stay together to support what they created. And don’t start on me about abusive spouses..Is that the norm? NO!
Hey YOU PICKED the parent of your child .
Somewhere out there is the other parent who is NOT paying for the child they created. I don’t care.
The made the decision to have sex, be responsible and raise your child.
The #1 problem in America obviously causing almost all the others.
I have no patience for all of these idiotic immature morons. None.
Live with the decisions you make , people.
June 29, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Wait on more thought it IS UNUSUAL!!By accepting it it causes people to freely think that raising a child alone is right. It IS UNUSUAL and WRONG.
Unacceptable!
Usual is a child with 2 parents!!!
For the sake of children and our future it IS NOT RIGHT!
June 29, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Pssssssssh, you’re not right, maria.
Calling people names won’t help them make better life decisions. Personally, any time I hear arguments whose basis is that someone is an “idiotic immature moron,” I think jeez, this person making this argument is an idiotic immature moron.
June 29, 2009 at 2:52 pm
So, I actually looked at this data.
$676 dollars a month on food? Are these kids pot smokers or what?
June 29, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I think the minimum wage should be HIGHER, not lower or eliminated.
It’s easy to say that flipping burgers “isn’t worth” $8 per hour, but the fact is that it still takes a human being to do it (or to cashier, or whatever) and as noted above, that’s not really enough to get by on, much less to get ahead, not be reliant on govenment services, etc.
If it takes a person to do a job, then that person needs to get paid at least what it takes to afford basic necessities. I figure that’s at least $10/hr. If the price of burgers has to go up a little bit to cover that, then so be it. Otherwise, like WalMart, the business is really just being subsidized by the taxpayers who have to pay for social services for the sub-living-wage worker.
Anyway, who would you rather have making your burger, a sick, overtired, resentful worker, or a healthy worker with a somewhat positive attitude. Actually I don’t even eat burgers anymore, but when I was eating them I know what my answer was — I’d rather have a healthy worker handling my food.