Why work has failed us: Because companies aren’t sharing the profits

[Vincenzo Corleone]

There is also "in-shoring" for work that cannot be done offshore, in the form of bringing in overseas workers under various programs (such as the H1B Visa program) where they do not have to pay them as much. I have noticed a great rise in the number of nurses from overseas in the last 10 years. Companies are constantly lobbying for an increase in the H1B Visa program to bring in more tech workers form overseas. Many of these types of workers are then paid on a lower wage and benefit scale - paid as contractors and not as employees.


Many Megacorps claim they have openings and cannot find skilled workers for good paying paying jobs, while laying off many who have those skills or can quickly obtain them. I cannot help if this is just "smoke and mirrors" sometimes It strikes me more as a effort to lower the wages for some of these jobs.

+1

While lobbying Congress for more H-1B visas, industry claims H-1B workers are the "best and brightest". Come payday, however, they're entry-level workers.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) put out a report on the H-1B visa that discusses at some length the fact that the vast majority of H-1B workers are hired into entry-level positions. In fact, most are at "Level I", which is officially defined by the Dept. of Labor as those who have a “basic understanding of duties and perform routine tasks requiring limited judgment". Moreover, the GAO found that a mere 6% of H-1B workers are at "Level IV", which is officially defined by the Dept. of Labor as those who are "fully competent". This belies the industry lobbyists’ claims that H-1B workers are hired because they're experts that can’t be found among the U.S. workforce.

The wage rules for H-1B and green card sponsorship are broken down into Levels I, II, III and IV, with Level III being the median. For software developers, the most common type of foreign tech worker, the green card data show the following percentages of foreign workers at Levels I or II making below-median wages:

Amazon 91%
Facebook 91%
Google 96%

These firms, putatively in the vanguard of advanced technology and certainly in the vanguard in Capitol Hill lobbying regarding H-1B, are paying almost all of their foreign workers - supposedly, the "best and brightest" - wages below the median for the given region.

The game is not rigged? Yeah, right.

 

[GravitySucks]

H1Bs keep computer and engineering waged low so the best and brightest will go into other fields which will create a shortage of engineers which will require a raise in the H1B quotas.....

 

[oldphd]

The Wikipedia article on Nardelli is interesting.

Haven't seen anyone mention that after his HD time he went on to Chrysler...

Chrysler
On August 5, 2007, he became chairman and CEO of Chrysler, which had recently been taken private by private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management. His annual salary at Chrysler was $1, with other compensation not publicly disclosed. (It's rumored that the terms were that he wouldn't be paid unless Chrysler succeeded. If they did succeed, he would be paid a salary along the lines of $30 million.)

On February 17, 2008, before his first Daytona 500 race as Chrysler CEO, Nardelli guaranteed that Dodge would win the race for the first time since 2002, and that he would award a $1 million bonus to the Dodge team that did it. Ryan Newman, the driver of the #12 Alltel Dodge, fulfilled this promise, and his car owner Roger Penske collected the $1 million bounty.

On December 4, 2008, in an appearance on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Nardelli was asked, "So what do you say about the argument that the Japanese, the Germans, Koreans make better cars than the Americans?" He responded, "We spent about half a billion dollars in the first several months. Our warranty costs are down 29%. It's an interesting comparison because in the hearing today, going around the panel, the majority of the Senators said that citing specific vehicles that they own that they've got 60, 70, 80,000 miles. The comment was you guys are making them too good and therefore, we're not buying vehicles and we're contributing to your problem. That was from the Senators on the committee today."

On March 17, 2009, Nardelli said that Chrysler Financial would require a second round of loans. On April 21, 2009, it was alleged by an unnamed "federal watchdog agency" that a $750 million loan from the government was turned down, on the grounds that it would have required that executive compensation be capped. According to contemporary media coverage "as part of the economic stimulus package, Congress approved compensation limits, and the Treasury is working on clarifying what the firms must do to comply with the rules. In other words, the executives were asked to sign the waivers without knowing what specific limits the Treasury might set." On April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The same day, Nardelli announced that he would leave the company as soon as the bankruptcy was over, and his replacement was announced (Sergio Marchionne), who would likely face a pay cap.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

The homeless issue in San Francisco and LA is huge. Many of the homeless are students or the working poor. There is no need to make up impossible situations. There are over 100K homeless in California. LA declared a state of emergency homelessness so apparently the politicians don't feel the issue is made up.


Politifact has a good article on the myths surrounding homelessness -

https://www.politifact.com/californ.../dispelling-myths-about-californias-homeless/

Homelessness is directly correlated to to rent prices, not gumption - "For every $100 that rents go up in Sacramento, and in cities like Sacramento, we see an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness of anywhere from 15 to 30 percent."

 

[Fedup]

The homeless issue in San Francisco and LA is huge. Many of the homeless are students or the working poor. There is no need to make up impossible situations. There are over 100K homeless in California. LA declared a state of emergency homelessness so apparently the politicians don't feel the issue is made up.


Politifact has a good article on the myths surrounding homelessness -

https://www.politifact.com/californ.../dispelling-myths-about-californias-homeless/

Homelessness is directly correlated to to rent prices, not gumption - "For every $100 that rents go up in Sacramento, and in cities like Sacramento, we see an increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness of anywhere from 15 to 30 percent."

From what I can tell the homeless people here in California are from other states, they were bought a one way ticket to California. People were poor years ago, but we had less homeless people then.

Don’t forget I speak from experience, my family was poor once in the 70s, we had 6 people in 2 bedrooms apartment. My mom felt sorry for my brother’s friends and let them stayed in our apartment until the neighbors complained and they kicked us out. I’m not buying poor=homeless. Mental illness and drug usage probably have something to do with it, and not rent prices.

There are many steps in between before one gets to the homeless level. I met one Persian woman at 24-hour fitness, she was injured and lost the use of her shoulder, she was on disability, an unfortunate event, she lost her apartment, but she slept in her car or stays at her friends house some days, shower at the 24 hour fitness.

Btw, in our hood here, the homeless area was demolished and they found 5000+ needles. Decide for yourselves, I won’t read any propaganda.

 

[target2019]

Let us not ever forget Chainsaw Al.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_J._Dunlap
Loved his German Shepherds, though.

 

[aja8888]

I run a division of megacorp that manufactures high tech electro optics. My troops surprise me on a daily basis. Smart, dedicated, want to grow. And very skilled. I think they are fantastic. They need some care and feeding (and there are always the PITA ones), but mostly they just want to be part of something important and make a fair wage. And they want to be led, not used and abused. Never once has it come up that my total comp is 20x the average line worker's pay.

And don't get me started on the young college kids. I restarted our intern program last year and have had 19 interns roll through the factory since then. One word: Awesome! Our future is in good hands. Every single one of them stepped up and made a real difference while they were with us. We gave them real work to do and in every case, they exceeded our expectations.

My years as a Plant Manager of a large manufacturing plant led me to the same conclusions. We made custom flexible metal hose assemblies out of stainless steel and bronze. Many of our new products (and they were high tech weldments) were developed by junior folks. Our summer interns also were a blessing and seeds for future employees.

 

[audreyh1]

I wonder about US competitiveness long term as companies are no longer managed with long term in mind, and a professional management class is looking for quick stock boosts that let them cash out and run. Companies don’t invest as much in themselves anymore and employees are no longer seen as valuable assets worth training well and motivating.

I’m fortunate that the high tech company I worked for was run by the original visionary founders and that I got to experience the growth from being small.

 

[MuirWannabe]

I wonder about US competitiveness long term as companies are no longer managed with long term in mind, and a professional management class is looking for quick stock boosts that let them cash out and run. Companies don’t invest as much in themselves anymore and employees are no longer seen as valuable assets worth training well and motivating.

I’m fortunate that the high tech company I worked for was run by the original visionary founders and that I got to experience the growth from being small.

Audrey,
Don’t think you’ve ever said, but I’ve often been curious what tech company you retired from. Certainly not my business if you prefer not to share.
Muir

 

[JoeWras]

Training. That's another issue.

After the 01-02 tech crisis, MC could not "afford" training for a few years. It was becoming obvious that hiring newbies with the target skills and laying off expensive existing employees was one way to fill the gap.

This was strange! I think the costs worked out on paper in favor of this way. But it wasn't true because it didn't include the cost of onboarding. Nevermind the morale kill.

Anyway, to MC's credit, they reversed that idea and started paying for some training again, although much more limited than before. It was better than nothing.

 

[Bigdawg]

Don't be a Patrick....View attachment 29499

In your world no one would/could/should ever volunteer for anything because that zero dollar volunteer pay check doesn't pay enough for a person to live? I had a paper route when I was 12. Shared a house with my parents. Washed dishes on a two month break while transerfering colleges. Yup, lived with parents. Was a doorman while in college while living with 2 roomates. Those low paying McDonalds jobs were never meant to be careers or jobs that you could supprt independent living on. They were meant as short term stepping stone jobs as you moved on and up in life. Anyone who expects a job like that to support independent living is a fool.

 

[audreyh1]

Audrey,
Don’t think you’ve ever said, but I’ve often been curious what tech company you retired from. Certainly not my business if you prefer not to share.
Muir

Yes - I never share that, too personal. It's a medium sized tech company today. It was tiny which I started. It wasn't Dell Computer - LOL!

 

[audreyh1]

Training. That's another issue.

After the 01-02 tech crisis, MC could not "afford" training for a few years. It was becoming obvious that hiring newbies with the target skills and laying off expensive existing employees was one way to fill the gap.

This was strange! I think the costs worked out on paper in favor of this way. But it wasn't true because it didn't include the cost of onboarding. Nevermind the morale kill.

Anyway, to MC's credit, they reversed that idea and started paying for some training again, although much more limited than before. It was better than nothing.

I'm sure this is one of those hard to measure intangibles that can easily be ignored by bean counters. But any founder knows how critical it is to establish and grow a corporate culture, really incorporate newbies into it, and have a lot of knowledge passed down through mentoring.

 

[HFWR]

Those low paying McDonalds jobs were never meant to be careers or jobs that you could supprt independent living on. They were meant as short term stepping stone jobs as you moved on and up in life. Anyone who expects a job like that to support independent living is a fool.

Though I agree, it’s worth noting that an IQ of 100 is considered the mean intelligence, meaning that half the population is below that, and, frankly, are not destined for university. Someone has to flip the burgers, clean the toilets, dump the garbage, etc., and often it’s those with few other options...

 

[Fedup]

What happens when we have robots with higher IQ than 100. Those jobs will be gone. I personally think we should close all McDonalds places, it’s bad for everyone’s health. A cost to society.

 

[GravitySucks]

In your world no one would/could/should ever volunteer for anything because that zero dollar volunteer pay check doesn't pay enough for a person to live? I had a paper route when I was 12. Shared a house with my parents. Washed dishes on a two month break while transerfering colleges. Yup, lived with parents. Was a doorman while in college while living with 2 roomates. Those low paying McDonalds jobs were never meant to be careers or jobs that you could supprt independent living on. They were meant as short term stepping stone jobs as you moved on and up in life. Anyone who expects a job like that to support independent living is a fool.

Well unfortunately those McDonald jobs are now held by adults and over 40% of their U.S. employees receive government assistance to stay alive.

And no I'm my world volunteer work does happen. I volunteer a little every year.

 

[audreyh1]

What happens when we have robots with higher IQ than 100. Those jobs will be gone. I personally think we should close all McDonalds places, it’s bad for everyone’s health. A cost to society.

Millions of people love to eat there. They continue to be successful. Do you think people would find healthier meals if denied McDonalds? I doubt it.

 

[audreyh1]

In your world no one would/could/should ever volunteer for anything because that zero dollar volunteer pay check doesn't pay enough for a person to live? I had a paper route when I was 12. Shared a house with my parents. Washed dishes on a two month break while transerfering colleges. Yup, lived with parents. Was a doorman while in college while living with 2 roomates. Those low paying McDonalds jobs were never meant to be careers or jobs that you could supprt independent living on. They were meant as short term stepping stone jobs as you moved on and up in life. Anyone who expects a job like that to support independent living is a fool.

What if those are the only jobs available to a significant percentage of the population?

 

[RobbieB]

Of course. They would go to Burger King, Jack, Wendy's, Carls, Taco Bell.

 

[audreyh1]

Of course. They would go to Burger King, Jack, Wendy's, Carls, Taco Bell.

So you shut down all the fast food and pizza joints. Then what?

Nuts!

I don’t eat there. But folks are going to find someone to sell them junk. Even if it’s the eateries in the grocery stores or the food courts in the mall.

 

[Fedup]

Millions of people love to eat there. They continue to be successful. Do you think people would find healthier meals if denied McDonalds? I doubt it.

Successful means nothing. They are a cost to society in terms of health cost. Maybe we should close all non healthy eating places. I’ve not been eating at this place for years. Why are people who work there not feel guilty for working there. They are feeding people junk food and still get paid at $11 an hour. They should be put in jail for harming the public, instead of coming here complaining they don’t get paid enough. Just my take on this.

 

[Fedup]

So you shut down all the fast food and pizza joints. Then what?

Nuts!

I don’t eat there. But folks are going to find someone to sell them junk. Even if it’s the eateries in the grocery stores or the food courts in the mall.

I think we should shut down all Dunkin Donut places, all pizza places, all fast food places. Healthier for the public in general. Less costly to society.

 

[audreyh1]

I think we should shut down all Dunkin Donut places, all fast food. Healthier for the public in general. Less costly to society.

Yeah, right. Like that’s going to work.

Food police will not work.

 

[Fedup]

Yeah, right. Like that’s going to work.

Food police will not work.

I know it’s not going to work, but why don’t people who work here apologize to the general public. They need to say, they know They are serving bad food, they just can’t help it, but they need a job.

 

[RobbieB]

Might as well re-institute prohibition on alcohol and add tobacco.