[Myrddin]

I've been salaried since 1980. No unions. In my current position, I earn 7.68 hours of vacation for every 80 hours billed to the customer. In reality, I work 60 to 75 hours every week for a 40 hour pay check. I have 450 hours of vacation on the books with a max limit of 480. I still have "use it or lose it" holiday from Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas plus two floating days to take this calendar year. Once I accrue 480 hours of vacation, they stop crediting. Finding time to take off without destroying the delivery schedule is very difficult. Since returning home to Idaho, I've put less than 100 miles on my Harley. I routinely rode 1300 miles a month in San Diego. That's disappointing.

My income is good, but I've lost years of time with my family. My oldest son passed during the 5 year "trip" to San Diego Two of my favorite dogs died. I was only home two weeks each year in that time frame. The house is mortgage free in Idaho, yet I was paying rent to live in a rented bedroom in San Diego to avoid unemployment. My family had the resources they needed monetarily, but I was reduced to a daily phone call. Not ideal.

[Mr. Douglas]

I was a COBOL programmer for Nordstrom in 1996. I worked 350 extra hours on a project and was thrown a $250 bone at the end for the work. It drove me into contracting. Immediately I made more (I was getting a $47k salary from Nordstrom and my contract rate was $27 an hour. Works out to slightly more, when you take into account the hit for holidays and vacation.

But within two years that bumped to $55 an hour and was at $125 an hour by the turn of the century. I’ll not be so specific with what transpired after that other than to say it came back down to around what it was before that spike, but now in KY I at least get time and a half for any overtime.

And the thing is, if I work a single extra hour, I log it and get paid time and a half for it. It’s what I love about contracting.

Of course, I’m almost 63 and have no health insurance (since the exact day Obamacare took effect), but it’s so expensive that the 8% rule keeps me from having to pay the penalty.

Meanwhile, I get hints at how much the employees around me make. It’s far less money, but they have all those nice intangible “benefits”. And yes, I’m being sarcastic.

Just give me the raw dollars and let me decide how much time I want to take off, insurance options, etc...

[Mr. Douglas]

BTW, that all comes from a ten month $2100 COBOL/IMS school. No college.

[Mr. Douglas]

Most important BTW: It was ALL the Lord’s doing. There is even a bonafide miracle in there...

[mdittmar]

Two of my favorite dogs died

You should join a Union,they would pay to bury your dogs.