Janitors trail in incomes, study says

Boston Globe ^ | September 6, 2002 | Marcella Bombardieri

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bolstering union claims that janitors have suffered greatly from the growing gap between rich and poor, a Northeastern University study shows that while college-educated, white-collar workers' incomes rose 30 percent over the past two decades, the janitors that clean their offices saw just an 8 percent boost in total earnings.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This is the path immigrants take. The path they always have taken. But LIBERALS want them to remain dependent on the state so they can count on their votes.

[RWG]

She's told him to be patient; it will take her at least a month to save for the calculator.

So she can put aside $25 a week, a hundred a month, 1200 a year. I can't. My 1200 a year pays for illegal immigrants.

[avg_freeper]

I would have never guessed that people who choose to clean toilets for a living would make less than doctors and lawyers. I guess we ought to fix this then.

[Ken522]

I remember being a janitor - minimum wage was all we got, and I was glad to have even that!

[cajun-jack]

said they send home $225.oo per month and have only $83.00 in the bank....while it is admirable to help your family when you can, it isn't right to send your money out of the country and then whine to the american people that you are broke...but i can just hear a lot democrats crying right along with them and saying we must steal more from the taxpayers to help these poor people. The old saying "ain't no free ride, lunch, etc" doesn't seem to exist anymore....there is only 2 things i have ever been given in my life and they are 1. a hard time 2. a sad story

[Cincinatus' Wife]

They send home $225 to family in the Dominican Republic each month, and have only $83 in the bank.

Things could be worse. If they can send money home, they should be buying their own insurance.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[bandlength]

"janitors tech workers in almost all cases are employed by subcontractors and have no opportunity for job training or advancement."

p.s. most tech workers would be glad to get $10 an hour in upstate new york, if there were only enough $10 an hour tech jobs to go around.

[banjo joe]

p.s. most tech workers would be glad to get $10 an hour in upstate new york, if there were only enough $10 an hour tech jobs to go around.

That really gripes me. Ya bust guts mastering difficult tech skills, study and attend classes in the evenings after working all day, learn every new "hot" programming language that comes along, work all kinds of unpaid, uncomped OT (because you're a "professional") and then what? "We will continue leveraging our overseas resources (read: some dude in India will do your job for cheap)". Yeah, I shoulda stayed a janitor - how much self-discipline, going above and beyond, dedication, etc. does that require.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

Things could be worse. If they can send money home, they should be buying their own insurance

Excellent point. This couple is supporting a family of 5 here in the US plus several others in the Dominican Rep through the $225 per month.

They are making ends meet & are sending money home.

Enough of the sob story, already!

[Eagle Eye]

Don't forget the $2-$3/hr that they get from the rest of us.

[jimtorr]

Pena came to this country for a better income, yet it hasn't turned out the way she expected. ''I'm living day by day, working to be able to eat for that day,'' she said. ''I thought that it would be better than it is.

Well, another get rich quick scheme has failed.

They send home $225 to family in the Dominican Republic each month

If they can send money home, I guess they are doing all right, after all.

If you want to make more money, lady, get a better job!

[Fundamentally Fair]

Bolstering union claims that janitors have suffered greatly from the growing gap between rich and poor, a Northeastern University study shows that while college-educated, white-collar workers' incomes rose 30 percent over the past two decades, the janitors that clean their offices saw just an 8 percent boost in total earnings.

Here's an idea: Develop some job skills.

I made minimum wage once and knew that it wouldn't support the lifestyle that I wanted. Because of this, I made choices and took actions to get me where I wanted to be. What a concept, huh?

[dagoofyfoot]

Janitors trail in incomes, study says,

This headline must have come from "The Onion"
Don't you just wanna' get in somebody's face and go "DUH!

[Dutch Boy]

In some ways a janitorial job is just the ticket for some. I have a cousin that was pretty much a screw up in school. He got a job in Xerox as a janitor. Once he matured and calmed down he used their education training programs to go back to school. He then when to college on their dime. After years of hard work, being in the right place at the right time, and bull headed determination he succeeded. He went from cleaning toilet bowls to running a marketing group.

The moral is that you have to take advantage of everything that crosses your path. You can not wait for others to make you successful. Only you can do that.

[KansasConservative1]

Janitors trail in incomes, study says

No S#IT, I could have told them this without a study...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Don't you just wanna' get in somebody's face and go "DUH!

Exactly! LOL

[boris]

The only correct price for a commodity or service is the free-market price. What the purchasers are willing to spend for the service.

Janitorial jobs might just as well be performed by robots--and eventually will be. There are already toilet-scrubbing robots, etc.

Robots don't join unions, require benefits or agitate for "living wage" laws and a lube job every month.

Why is a given person qualified only for work that the market has discounted to the minimum possible cost? Has that person failed to study? Failed to acquire or follow a trade? Become involved in drugs? Become pregnant at 16?...

If you have nothing to offer to employers other than mindless movements of your extremities, you should not be surprised that you don't make as much as a brain surgeon.

Attempts to increase minimum-wage or "living wage" notions simply impose a tax on every consumer so that some preferred group (illegal aliens, for example) are compensated at an artificial--and hence incorrect--level.

--Boris