Friday
Aug152008
Why do the uneducated make more than the educated?
Friday, August 15, 2008 at 9:17AM
This is a subject that makes me angry every time I think about it. To be honest, I'm not sure that it's a valid issue and I look forward to someone offering an explanation or rationalization.
Why do low-skilled workers get paid more than an aerospace engineer with a comparable amount of experience? And then when they get laid off from these positions, they get hugely compensated. I think it was Ford who recently laid off a number of their senior workers, and if they had been there for 25 years they received something like $100,000 and $30,000 voucher towards a car. Their salary when laid off was probably $75-85,000 a year. TTC cashiers start at $55,000 a year, streetcar operators can make up to $120,000 a year. The people below are making more money than you just standing there.
by David Topping
When the last round of auto layoffs occurred, they interviewed a woman who was working at the plant in Windsor. She was obviously distraught, and asked where she would be able to get another job that paid $60,000 a year, but didn't require that you have a high school education, or be able to speak English well. In my opinion that job should not exist. And if it does, I should be making substantially more, if only because I can spell.
by zen
I don't have a problem with people earning a fair wage, what Walmart pays it's employees is disgusting. But I do have a problem when it seems that a 4 year university education in engineering only gets you a nicer working environment, as opposed to a higher salary.
by foundphotoslj
And this isn't confined to engineering by any means. We have philosophy majors working at Starbucks, people from other countries with PhD's in nuclear chemistry driving cabs. Even after spending 8-9 years in Canadian university to earn a PhD in Sociology would barely earn you more money than if you had spent that time at the Honda plant in Alliston.
I wouldn't change what I do. In fact, I like it more and more every day. The hours are flexible, I can work as hard as I'd like, it's low-stress, and the greatest physical danger that I'm faced with every day is burning myself on the coffee machine. That said, I find it to be a horribly disappointing statement about our society that my education and intelligence are less valuable than the ability to stand at in a factory watching robots assemble cars.
by Vince Chan
by Changhua Coast Conservation Action
Why do low-skilled workers get paid more than an aerospace engineer with a comparable amount of experience? And then when they get laid off from these positions, they get hugely compensated. I think it was Ford who recently laid off a number of their senior workers, and if they had been there for 25 years they received something like $100,000 and $30,000 voucher towards a car. Their salary when laid off was probably $75-85,000 a year. TTC cashiers start at $55,000 a year, streetcar operators can make up to $120,000 a year. The people below are making more money than you just standing there.
by David Topping
When the last round of auto layoffs occurred, they interviewed a woman who was working at the plant in Windsor. She was obviously distraught, and asked where she would be able to get another job that paid $60,000 a year, but didn't require that you have a high school education, or be able to speak English well. In my opinion that job should not exist. And if it does, I should be making substantially more, if only because I can spell.
by zen
I don't have a problem with people earning a fair wage, what Walmart pays it's employees is disgusting. But I do have a problem when it seems that a 4 year university education in engineering only gets you a nicer working environment, as opposed to a higher salary.
by foundphotoslj
And this isn't confined to engineering by any means. We have philosophy majors working at Starbucks, people from other countries with PhD's in nuclear chemistry driving cabs. Even after spending 8-9 years in Canadian university to earn a PhD in Sociology would barely earn you more money than if you had spent that time at the Honda plant in Alliston.
by rickz
I wouldn't change what I do. In fact, I like it more and more every day. The hours are flexible, I can work as hard as I'd like, it's low-stress, and the greatest physical danger that I'm faced with every day is burning myself on the coffee machine. That said, I find it to be a horribly disappointing statement about our society that my education and intelligence are less valuable than the ability to stand at in a factory watching robots assemble cars.
by Vince Chan
Reader Comments (13)
Sure, you can spell! But do you know grammar?
And I quote, "I don’t have a problem with people earning a fair wage, what Walmart pays it’s employees is disgusting." I feel like that comma is all wrong and it's 'its'.
Of course, here's my question: How much will you be earning after 30 years as an engineer? Probably a whole heck of a lot more than $60,000. So it's not right to compare what you are making now to a woman that has probably worked at that plant for a huge portion of her life. I agree she made far more than she should have but let's at least make fair comparisons.
I think that should be a semi-colon. Maybe.
What is with semi-colons anyways? They are the bisexuals of punctuation.
And after 30 years most autoworkers are making over $80,000 a year.
That's a guess. But one based on some really good rumor and speculation.
Yes, it should be a semi-colon there.
You will usually use the semicolon to link independent clauses not joined by a co-ordinating conjunction. Semicolons should join only those independent clauses that are closely related in meaning. (I did not write that obvi. Source: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/semicoln.html)
Must you make everything sexual, Errric? Hah.
A guess based on rumours (you are Canadian, right?) and speculation? AKA Did you just make that up?
I think this rant would be more warranted coming from someone with an arts or social science degree that has (sadly) very little practical application in the working world. You have a degree that allows you some choice in where you work, and your salary is only going to increase dramatically with time. Someone working at an auto plant with a high school education is getting paid to do much of the same assembly line work, day in and day out, for years. And they are the exception to the rule. Less-educated, unskilled workers generally make crappy wages. So quit yer complaining.
p.s. you couldn't pay me enough to be a bus driver in this city.
Firstly, my bisexual joke was funny.
Secondly, I prefer "guess based on some really good rumor and speculation", to "made up". But that's really just a distinction without a difference.
Thirdly, in my opinion arts degrees aren't about getting a job, they are about learning and studying the human condition. There is a draft post on the way about the difference between education and training.
And lastly, it's just a huge kick in the balls when you get out of a 4 year Engineering program to earn less than your younger brother who took a 9 month millwright program in college. And I actually got a job right away. It took some of my friends over a year and they are still making a fair bit less than me.
But yes, I appreciate that I'm just bitter. The grass is always greener and all that jazz.
yes the bisexual semi-colon was funny.
Now I see why I don't dare post anything braver than my opinion on pretty things on my blog lol - turning into a bit of a scrum out there!
Good on you for sharing your opinion!
Oh this isn't even a scrum! Go back to the video games argument! That was epic!
Where is your blog Chantal? www.potterypainting.co.uk?
You don't make money by being educated, you make money by having things that other people want, whether that's "knowledge and skill" or "willingness to do jobs others won't". And, frustratingly, it rarely matters how much *you* value your assets, it's how much *others* value them. In my experience, often the latter is valued much higher than the former. That's simply market economy.
And yes, your semicolon joke was funny.
Yeah Ian, logically speaking I agree with you. I guess I understand why it works that way, it just bothers me on a philosophical level.
I just don't like the idea of living in world where a garbage man gets paid more than an English Professor. I realize that no one wants to be a garbage man, but I'd argue the English Professor contributes more substantially to our society.
I like what you said about the arts. As a way to gain insight into the "human condition." And you are not even involved with the arts. But I would add that too supply and demand is smarter than most any one person.
I make $32 an hour union negotiated + 16/hr that I negotiated = $48/hr(+full union benefits). I am technically an a/c mechanic in NYC, but I end up doing most of the engineering, and electrical-mechanical controls in my company. (self-taught)
I dropped out of a city community college because I never went to class. College was very slow and boring to me. This environment teaches one to be a part of a large bureaucratic institution of self entitled drones, who, with degree in hand and massive debt, demand a big check.
My SAT was 960, which makes me semi-retarded, in the eyes of our esteemed educated work force.
My tenant (I bought a 2 family house in Brooklyn, worth $750000, with a mortgage of $300000) dropped out of college and went to the semi-slow DeVry (a technical 'college'). He make $120000 a year as an IT director.
If my company stopped bidding on work now, I would have work until mid 2011.
I didn't write this to brag, but to wake up people to the real world. Unless you are gunning for a professional job, that actually pays money, you degree is worthless. If your degree is not Ivy League (or at least recognized as an exceptional school), it is merely extended High School.
Supply and demand is a major factor too. When the earth is producing millions of lawyers a year, your individual law degree is worth a step above McDonald's.
"It is my life passion"; nobody cares except grandma, and the people whom you want to impress.
Society still sees me as a dumb grunt (with bad grammar and sentence structure), the ladies don't want a "guy who puts windows A/C units into windows". The stigma prevail, but I don't care.
Our education system is not geared for people like me.