Libs demand more than $20 an hour delivering packages

American Thinker ^ | 06/30/2018 | Ed Straker

[SeekAndFind]

How much is unskilled labor worth? For liberals, you might think the answer is an astronomical $15 an hour, the minimum wage many states have set, destroying jobs that cannot provide that much value. But for libs, $15 an hour is just the starting point. The Atlantic wrote a sob story about someone who took a part time job delivering packages for Amazon for $18 an hour (which would eventually go up to $25). Her anger, and indignation, explains what is wrong about the liberal entitlement mentality.

The Amazon Flex program lets workers deliver packages as independent contractors. They can choose when and for how long they work. It's an extremely flexible job that accommodates the need of people who have irregular part-time schedule. The tradeoff, of course, is that it is not like a full time job with full benefits, and contractors must pay costs (fuel and car repairs) themselves, which does eat into earnings. But it is still a generous payment for unskilled labor. But what irritated the Atlantic writer the most was that "good jobs" for unskilled labor are being replaced by independent contractors who are not being paid the same generous wages as they were in the past as employees

"Flex workers get no health insurance or pension, and are not guaranteed a certain number of hours or shifts a week. They are not covered by basic labor protections like minimum wage and overtime pay, and they don’t get unemployment benefits if they suddenly can’t work anymore."

And why should they? They aren't full time employees.

"One Amazon Flex driver in Cleveland, Chris Miller, 63, told me that though he makes $18 an hour, he spends about 40 cents per mile he drives on expenses like gas and car repairs. "

[SamAdams76]

As the nation began to industrialize an unskilled worker could get a job in a factory sweeping floors, moving around boxes and equipment, and doing other menial directed tasks. Those workers who displayed good attitudes, were highly productive, and showed up for work every day on time would eventually be taught a skill. If they continued to produce they had opportunities to move up to higher skilled jobs or even into management.

That's exactly how I did it. Without a college education, I now hold an executive position. The secret is this: Show up on time every day with a positive attitude and volunteer for any extra duties or overtime. Never bang in sick. Never cop an attitude. Give 100%. Eventually you will get noticed and developed for promotion. Companies are STARVED for employees like this and will be eager to move them up the ladder. If not, you are working for the wrong company.

30 years since I washed dishes and bagged groceries, I now oversee an entire region of 11 branches and over 600 employees and many of the branch managers who now work for me were also go-getters that I recognized from the ranks and moved up. They are now the ones who make me successful in my current position.

[Alberta's Child]

The Uber driver and Amazon contract delivery carrier do not have the same opportunity to sacrifice and grow as the floor sweeper in a factory 50 years ago.

What you're saying here is that an independent contractor today doesn't have the same opportunity for success as a wage-earning employee. I don't know if that's correct, but that mentality explains a lot about what is wrong with the U.S. today.

Go back over your description of American history, and you can see clearly where things went off track. Your "model for success" suddenly transformed from a free, independent farmer to a wage-earning employee who was willing to spend the rest of his life working for someone else.

Maybe that's an inevitable result of industrialization, but I would suggest that this shift from free, independent people to a nation with a massive middle class that relies entirely on someone else for their employment is a big, big part of our problem today.

[Robert A Cook PE]

And the government “gives” these contract drivers 0.51 dollars per mile for EVERY MILE driven to offset these “expenses” of insurance, gas, repairs, and depreciation! (Of course, this assumes they are actually filing tax returns, and not just taking welfare payments as well.
Lies and exaggeration.

Again.

[FreedomPoster]

I think it’s a job for people who are bad at math, similar to Uber.

[I want the USA back]

They want free college and high pay for unskilled work. Let them go to Venezuela.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The left must see some sort of gun I don’t — the one that MAKES people take these types of positions.

The upper middle class lifestyle has been depicted as "the norm" throughout all of our media advertising and fictional entertainment for decades, now. If one is not achieving it, it is easy to see how one can come to the conclusion that it is not one's own fault - that someone must be conspiring to deprive one of it.

[unlearner]

“Am I the only one that sees a phallic symbol aimed for a hole in their logo?”

Yes. Subliminal messages are not effective when people can actually identify them. (But they are most effective when they are very close to the threshold of awareness.)

[unlearner]

“Am I the only one that sees a phallic symbol aimed for a hole in their logo?”

Yes. Subliminal messages are not effective when people can actually identify them. (But they are most effective when they are very close to the threshold of awareness.)

[ridesthemiles]

Welcome to the world of being essentially self-employed.

YOU pay your own taxes.
You provide your own benefits
You pay your own expenses

But- YOU also get to pick WHEN you want to work.

YOU do NOT get ‘IT ALL’.

I put in many an hour on another person’s timeclock.

I went out on my own in 1980, and I paid for all my office supplies, computer & software, lights, rent, gas, auto repairs & registrations. I have vehicles that get a maximum of 14 MPG. BUT- they are paid for !!!

I paid for my own health insurance & life insurance & vehicle insurance.

I never had a problem “scheduling a vacation’ because I have never done that. I did go places during those years, but it wasn’t a PAID vacation.

I did get to pick my bookkeeping clients, & got to drop those I didn’t trust. I scrambled for clients & worked out of my home.

I also got to often WAIT for my check from them because most of them were small businesses. Got stiffed by a couple of them, and I hope they die a horrible death. One stiffed me for over $6700. He lost a lawsuit & thought I shouldn’t get paid because HE lost. I could NOT change the facts in his financial records. BUT- He certainly paid his lawyer.

I charged by the hour-—NEVER a minimum. Give me clean paperwork that I can read & your bill will be much less.

There were many nights I worked until past midnight to meet all the payroll deadlines all my clients had. To the best of my knowledge, NONE of my clients ever were audited for work I did.

I make $20 an hour now & have since the last time I gave myself a ‘raise’-—in Jan of 1989.

THAT is OVER 29 years ago.

Match that, you whiners.

YOU have no investment in the business, only in your portion of how many hours you work. When you work an average of 78 hours a week as I have done in the past, you show me those records.

BTW- I OWN all my vehicles—property—personal property —and my animals.

[ridesthemiles]

Wait until they find out that THEY have to pay BOTH parts of the Medicare & FICA taxes...over 15%.

[ridesthemiles]

I got quite a few clients by NOT charging $50 an hour. 2 clients still on the computer. One for over 48 years. The other for over 45 years.

I must be doing something right..........

[ridesthemiles]

And the government “gives” these contract drivers 0.51 dollars per mile for EVERY MILE driven to offset these “expenses” of insurance, gas, repairs, and depreciation!””

Keeping track of the actual expenses may come out to your advantage. With the cost of insurance & registration today, 51 cents per mile isn’t enough.

[Alberta's Child]

All the best to you.

My standard billing rate is over $200 per hour, but that's just the nature of the work I do. I work plenty of hours every week, but I'm not "paid" (i.e., by a client) for all of them ... or even half of them!

:-)

[palmer]

And you spend a small fortune on coffee and snacks, it’s a high energy job especially in hot weather.

Poor planning. You need to carefully spend $20 on the weekend to make enough snacks for the week. Otrherwise you will be spending $20 a day on junk food because that's all you get in convenience stores.

[Yaelle]

Am I the only one that sees a phallic symbol aimed for a hole in their logo?

---

Maybe. I only see what looks like a highway intersection. You may need to go have sex soon.

[HotHunt]

Get your mind out of the gutter.

[lastchance]

“And why should they? They aren’t full time employees.”

Here is the problem with that blanket statement. Often employers (not asserting this is true in this case) really walk a thin line on what defines an employee v independent contractor. They do this to avoid costs such as worker’s comp, and other government mandated expenses. Just declaring that a person is working as an independent contractor does not always make it so. There are certain criteria set by IRS and others to determine status.

It does read as though Amazon meets this but many businesses do not. Newspapers those bastion of Liberal sympathy for union demands and higher minimum wage is one great example. Their carriers are “independent contractors” without hardly any true independence.

[Hardastarboard]

That’s all I can think of when I see that stupid thing. I always wonder if they did it on purpose.

[lastchance]

The government is not giving them anything. They are simply not taking monies for taxes that are a legitimate expense.

[gigster]

Not to be braggadocious, but I was a handy man in Charlevoix Mi. several years back for a very wealthy couple who owned a magnificent log home on Lake Charlevoix. She was a stay-at-home mother to three, and he was an investment banker in St. Louis. My girlfriend used to laughingly claim she pimped me out to get me my job with them. The bottom line is, I was paid the princely sum of thirty-five dollars an hour; UNDER THE TABLE(!) to work basically about five hours a day for them. That's one hundred and seventy-five dollars a day to do what I call hang pictures. They treated me like a king, and I lived Like one.