Employee Raises Taken Out of Owner Profit and Pay

[Gilchy]

The table I posted was very clear.

The average wage a working single male makes in Canada is about 31K a year, has been for years and years.

There are figures for unemployed, retired, ect.

The average age of a working single male, according to the page you linked to, is $49,500. The $31k was for all unattached individuals, working and non-working, male and female.

According to those stats, the average increased from $26,000 in 1992 to $31,500 in 2011, or 1.1% a year, approximately the same as CPI.

It would be interesting to see the numbers for the last three years, as the recovery from the recession charged ahead.

Also, all these numbers were net of income tax. Gross wages were higher.

[logicalview]

I have been saying this needs to be done on a large scale for years. It can be done and it should be done.

That's the beauty of living in a free society. You have the freedom to pay your workers whatever you want, and the market can decide if it's enough. If you don't pay enough, you won't hire anybody. This guy will no doubt have a lineup at his door of people wanting to work for him, so that in and of itself will guarantee that he has a large pool of talent to pick from. Good for him for doing this, though I'm sure he's already so rich that his current salary doesn't really matter, and he'll cash in big when he sells. Will the company that takes over continue to pay low-level low-skill people these kinds of wages? I would doubt it. So they should enjoy it while it lasts, or better yet (though I doubt this will happen either) they should re-invest their earnings into learning new skills and getting better educations.

[logicalview]

From a politically socialistic view point I agree Jenny, of course it "can" be done.
There is nothing stopping any employer from redistributing wealth generated thru their profitable business, but in general human greed won't permit it.

Spoken like someone who has never put their house and their balls on the line to get a business going. If it were so easy, everyone would do it. It's easy to point at someone who risked significant amount of personal capital and quality of life and had it pay off and say that they have "human greed" issues because they won't just give everything back to people who have done nothing of the sort, but until you've walked a mile in their shoes, you should probably just shut your yap.

Just because it's the morally correct thing to do to enhance societies level of happiness doesn't make it happen.

And that's your opinion. Who says that just paying people a lot of money for low-skilled jobs equals happiness? A lot of people can be quite happy on a lot less. Happiness is a state of mind, and who made you the governor of what is "morally correct"?

So in the long run this discussion will render down to how to force employers to do this.
Realistically the only way I can think of to make that happen is thru taxation.
We all know where that discussion will lead.

Well hopefully it leads right into the crapper. As countries like Venezuela have proven time and time again, you take away the incentive to create jobs through stupidly high tax rates, and entrepreneurs would just walk away. Would this Price guy have started this company if the idiotic government was poised to steal 80% of his income right off the hop? Of course not. That's just brain-dead tax policy.

[Ford4x4Truck]

Don't you guys get tired of constantly making condescending comments about how if people want better pay they should get an education and upgrade their skill-set?

This seems to be the go-to response for an extremely large group of posters here and these posts are made in EVERY topic about wages.

I just can't fathom that people truly see the world with this sort of nonsensical black and white mentality.

There are tons of people out there with marketable degrees and many skills and still can't find work or are stuck in some dead-end minimum wage job. It's especially true for places like Kelowna where there's almost literally nothing here. You're basically a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or something like an accountant, or you're at one of the billion retail places here and probably making next to nothing.

But I know, I know, all these people making nothing are just lazy and should go back to school. They're probably too busy texting or whatever and not applying themselves or blah blah (insert other generic insult about poor people here).

[Captain Awesome]

There are tons of people out there with marketable degrees and many skills and still can't find work or are stuck in some dead-end minimum wage job. You're basically a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or something like an accountant...

If you know any accountants making min. wage, can you ask them to contact me? My wife's workplace has 3 openings at the moment and they can't seem to find anybody qualified.

[36Drew]

If you know any accountants making min. wage, can you ask them to contact me? My wife's workplace has 3 openings at the moment and they can't seem to find anybody qualified.

They probably aren't paying enough.

[Ford4x4Truck]

They probably aren't paying enough.

Or demanding 5+ years experience or something which obviously recent grads (or students in co-op programs) won't be able to meet.

[Hassel99]

Don't you guys get tired of constantly making condescending comments about how if people want better pay they should get an education and upgrade their skill-set?

No, never.

But you forgot one very important one....willing to move where the work is.

[fluffy]

But you forgot one very important one....willing to move where the work is.

Exactly. If there's no opportunity here...

[flamingfingers]

^How do we know that this is actually a factor? How do we KNOW that there are jobs and opportunities to move to? Where are the job-seekers who say they WILL NOT move to a place where there is a job?

This is akin to saying: "Well, if you don't like it here, move to North Korea/China/Iran..."

In other words, what you are saying is a cop-out.

[Ford4x4Truck]

Exactly. If there's no opportunity here...

How silly of me. I forgot that it's incredibly cheap and easy to just up and move to a completely different city / country.

I guess I also forgot that some people are tied to a certain location due to taking care of an ill family member / a million other possible reasons.

All of the generic "advice" makes sense on paper, but you guys always seem to completely neglect the fact that life has variables. I personally think it's ridiculous to make blanket statements about working hard and going to where the work is, etc. Yes, it'll work for some people - won't work for others.

[flamingfingers]

Employee Raises Taken Out of Owner Profit and Pay

Well, while some champion on the business person 'putting his balls and his house on the line" in order to start a business, is his "business success" based solely on his own singular effort?

I would put forward a rather novel concept - that his 'business success' was due to his employees. Unless of course the 'business owner' was the only person available. All day. Every day. Bought product, sold product, managed inventory, ordered, kept the books, did the banking, swept the floors, and was never sick a day in his/her life.

A business success requires the commitment of the start up owner of course; however, his continued success and his prosperity is borne on the backs of his workers - a portion of that success should be shared by the workers who were instrumental in his success.

[Captain Awesome]

They probably aren't paying enough.

So ... the accountants then decide to work min. wage jobs to spite them as our 4x4 friend trying to suggest?

That's some logic you have, bucko.

[fluffy]

How silly of me. I forgot that it's incredibly cheap and easy to just up and move to a completely different city / country.

I guess I also forgot that some people are tied to a certain location due to taking care of an ill family member / a million other possible reasons.

All of the generic "advice" makes sense on paper, but you guys always seem to completely neglect the fact that life has variables. I personally think it's ridiculous to make blanket statements about working hard and going to where the work is, etc. Yes, it'll work for some people - won't work for others.

You have a solution ?

[goatboy]

There are tons of people out there with marketable degrees and many skills and still can't find work or are stuck in some dead-end minimum wage job.

What would you consider a "marketable degree"? I would consider a marketable degree one that gets you a job.