Shocker, they are hiring a bunch of warehouse pirates and are paying at the bottom of the living wage scale.
As I said on my podcast last night, when anyone says ‘affordable housing’ it makes me cringe. I HATE THOSE TWO WORDS TOGETHER.
We don’t have an affordable housing issue in Sioux Falls, we have a wage issue. When is the city going to start asking new employers to pay living wages? The city, county and state have poured millions of tax dollars into Flopdation Park, shouldn’t those same people deserve a decent job?
Warehouse work isn’t easy, and those workers deserve a lot more than $15-$16 an hour.
Another industry in Sioux Falls bilking taxpayers for infrastructure costs and returning the favor with trailer park wages.
Not only low paying, but some of the positions are also part time. That means no insurance, or PTO, or 401k plan.
Well, at least they are telling us their wage scale, that’s a start. But what we need is a City ordinance which requires all employment ads to mention a company’s wage scale, so that wage inflation can begin. It’s the only way, along with local political leadership demanding better wages from our employers, that wages have any chance of going up in this town in the near future… The Chamber and the Rotarians in this town also need to start heeding Neel Kashkari’s advice from his visit last summer to SF, which was to start raising wages to address the low unemployment and lack of workers situation in this town…. and the sooner the better it would actually be for all…..
#WeCouldUseSomeWageInflationNow!
I agree, it’s hard to make it for this wage. However, these are valuable jobs. Untrained workers can start at this wage. I’d hope they get a significant raise after 6 months and benefits after a year. There are many transient jobbers one must cull before a good worker is found. Some only work long enough so they can resume unemployment benefits. There’s a serious problem with drugs here. Finding good employees for work such as this is a process of iteration. This type of job could be a fresh start for those trying to clean up their act. It would be a good reentry into the work force for paroled prisoners. For a company to endure frequent turnover, a low starting wage balances the impact. A good employee will be retained with raises that improve their quality of life and respect for their job.
$16.00/hour is actually a pretty good starting wage for warehouse work. We start people at $12.00, and get good people.
One of the biggest problems facing SF is low income. Another is crime. The two go hand in hand. Give a worker hope instead of despair, and turning to drugs may not be an option they want to partake in. Despair is a dark dark thing. How does despair set in? Well, part time jobs with no benefits is a powerful motivator to despair. No insurance. No benefits. No future. The city itself contributes to that hopelessness. One out of four. Ity workers are part time. That means a job that averages about $12 an hour, annualized to not more than 28 hours a week. That my friends is despair. Do not believe the rantings you hear about these being just college kids picking up some summer work. Most of these 400 part time jobs are occupied by adults hoping that carrot the city dangles in front of them leads to a full time job. Very rarely happens.
Jon, yes, if it is full-time hours with health benefits and investments. $15 is at the bottom of the living wage scale where about $20 is about average.
My bigger point is that tax payers have thrown millions at Flopdation Park and in return we get some warehouse jobs. Not equitable to the tax payer at all.
Sioux Falls is actually a better cost of living climate than many cities. A big problem here is leasors impose rent control and entry level homes cost more. The developers prey on the middle class such that their income is insufficient. The feds have tried to help by funding apartments and condos. Developers have learned to associate this money into middle class upstairs residential with a prime retail ground floor. The $15/hr crowd ends up still living in slums until they can afford to move to MSP.
Excuse me while I swim/tennis indoors on a bright sunny day. Is there a $100 concert I can go see at the Denty? I hope nobody steals my tent under the bridge while I’m gone.
If you start people at $ 12.00, then they are probably on food stamps too, which means your capitalist business is as well, indirectly….
Having hired in manufacturing and warehouse before, advertising as “full-time and part-time positions available” generally means, “We’d like to hire reliable FT employees, but will hire PT if that’s all that’s available,” at least among my peers and myself that were also hiring in those fields. Per MIT’s “Living Wage Calculator”, $10.30/hr is all you need to make if working full time to live in Minnehaha County. $15/hr for a full time position is probably above market for a general warehouse labor position in Sioux Falls.
http://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/46099
I can tell you that there isn’t a single warehouse in Sioux Falls that is going to start a new employee with no experience at $20 an hour.
$10 an hour a living wage in Sioux Falls? LMFAO!
Jon, and you just explained why SF is turning into one gigantic affordable housing apartment complex, with dropping sales tax revenue, expanded food banks and half the kids on free and reduced lunches.
“…if working full time to live in Minnehaha County….”
Yah, that is probably right if your apartment rent in Sherman, South Dakota (Minnehaha) is $ 300 a month.
“$15/hr for a full time position is probably above market for a general warehouse labor position in Sioux Falls”….
Well, as far as that quote is concerned, I have heard you can survive in this town with those wages, but only survive….. At best, it is only the beginning of some kind of wage inflation. We still have much work to do on this issue beyond our back breaking laborious warehouse jobs, however…
Would like to see Jon and J spend 6 months living in SF on
$10.30 an hour.
They would be looking for a second and possibly a third job in no time! BTW, that would be just in order to survive with the basic necessities of food, shelter and transportation.
J, living proof the system sucks!!!
Why is $20 an hour the magic number? Why stop there? Why don’t we demand that businesses pay inexperienced general laborers 30? Why not 40?? That way we’ll all have new cars.
Some article from local media (possibly KSFY?) I read in the last year put it at $12/hr for a single adult as a living wage in Sioux Falls. That’s probably more accurate than $10.30/hr. Couldn’t track down the article. Yeah, there’s not much fun money but your payroll can only be so expensive. Would you like 5 people employed at $24/hr or 10 people employed at $12/hr?
Not new cars jon. Just a living wage. The kind of wage that can keep your children from being shamed at school because they need assistance.
why pay your employees enough to feed the kids when you know the taxpayers will feed the kids for you?
I’ll ask again… where does $20 an hour come from? Why stop there? Why don’t we demand that inexperienced laborers are paid 40? 50?
+ all u can eat shrimp?
Jon,
“Barney Fife” once said that, “If you give them 45, then they’ll want 55.” He was speaking in reference to speeding, but your both right.
However, that should be the least of our concerns right now, because right now in this town the employers are the only ones really getting what they want….. time after time….
Actually, the new car idea is a good one too. It is what capitalists often call or is a part of planned obsolescence.
I think you know the capitalists, they are often the ones who own factories, figure out ways to get consumers to buy their products, suppress the wages of their workers, and all at the same time too….
As local employers, Jon and J demonstrate by their comments that they are a part of the problem and not a part of the solution.
Unfortunate for our community…