Jobs Americans won't do -- even at $34 an hour?
 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

What do you guys think. I'm not sure what to believe. $34 an hour = $68K a year.

Its their fucking problem, Why do we care? And i hate generalities like "Americans do this, do that". Fuck it!

$68K is not huge for Orange County, living cost 's as high as in Manhattan.

More importantly noted: The landscaping business makes enough money to pay crews of 10-20 people 34 bucks an hour.... hmmmm... time to switch business ideas maybe?

Because it deflates the idea that certain jobs would be filled by Americans if the wages were high enough.

I'm still not convinced that this is a 'representative' case though. Maybe the company featured in the article just wasn't advertising enough in the right places.

Read the entire article. Pay attention to "No one qualified is applying."

That isn't saying that Americans won't take the job, but since they don't have 15 years experience doing landscaping, they are not qualified.

The company in question is in Riverside, CA not Orange County.

Lloyd, read the title of the story "A Job Americans Won't Do, Even at $34 an Hour -- Some landscape firms rebut claims that higher pay, not immigration reform, is needed." :thumbsup

I read the title, that is written to get readers. Then I read the article.

Odd, up here in Canada, 34$/hour and your rich... especially in US funds.

I think Americans WILL do that shit if they need to

well, i found it interesting, it provided info on this issue but failed to offer a solution to it.

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"Managers in the business explain it as a cultural shift, saying that native-born, middle-class Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds tend to look down on manual labor. That leaves immigrants to do the work.

"The people I grew up with 40 years ago expected to work hard physically," says Bob Wade of Wade Landscape in Laguna Beach.

"This is a pretty pampered little town. The kids don't expect to work hard," Wade says. "A lot don't expect to work at all. They just float."


Telling Americans there are jobs they won't do isn't necessarily a way to endear yourself to them. Addressing a group of union leaders in Washington last month, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the members of his audience wouldn't pick lettuce even for $50 an hour.

When some in the crowd angrily dissented, McCain demurred: "You can't do it, my friends." Three dozen demonstrators later showed up at the senator's Phoenix office, bearing lettuce-picker applications as well as heads of lettuce.

Yes... But the part about "no one qualified is applying" you mentioned came from this portion of the article: "Our difficulty in hiring is horrible," says Cathy Gurney of Sierra Landscape & Maintenance in Chico, north of Sacramento. "We've been advertising for a supervisor, which would pay $15 to $25 an hour with full benefits. No one qualified is applying." It is not in reference to the Smallwood company that is offering up to $34 an hour.

There was no mention of 15 years experience, as you mentioned in a post above, for the Smallwood company in the article.

I don't mean to bust balls :winkwink:

I have gone on enough job interviews to be able to read between the lines.

Thats funny....i know abunch of farm boys & rendecks who do these very jobs...for much less than $32 an hour...who would beg to differ on our inability to do these jobs.

Living in Georgia for a year, i can tell you first hand...EVERY landscapper in a 100mile radius of me was either white or black.

And they got paid a fuck of a lot less than 32$ an hour...and were mad happy with their 18$ an hour.

illuminati propaganda

It's all relative to where you live.

yup yup

not all of us live in orange county...with skateboard kids & little princesses walking around

some of us live in working class hoods...where people come home dirty & sweaty...without pocket protectors & glasses

these politicians have spent too much time on the hill

You may be right. Regionalized labor market. Maybe the labor supply in that neck of the woods is very tight or the labor for that industry is very tight. The Smallwood company owner admitted that the only way to get more people is to poach them from another company.

I'd do a landscaping job down there. Up here in the great white north its a half year gig. You end up being up all hours of the night in the winter plowing parking lots and shit. You couldn't pay me enough to do that up here.

i agree with baddog she isnt telling whole story. my brother in law works at a windows plant in wi loading trucks for $14.50 a hour. this done by hand in a unheated and un air conditioned warehouse, he is white and 22. their are lots of americans that will do that work no sweat. For these companies hiring illegals is cheaper, no benefits, if they get hurt on the job they have no liability.

That's pretty tough work digging all day in the hot sun.I don't think many people can do it

That's because most people consider manual jobs, even if they pay high LOW CLASS, I just made a threat about class in America and all everyone says is "who cares about class in America?" Obviously people do because no one wants to do landscape or pick lettuce. Whatever.

A friend of mine is Paid 1000.oo a day for driving a truck in Iraq.

Thats not bad!

I must agree with baddog, the article is probably not telling the whole truth... it says UP TO $34, so that may mean $17/hr base-rate with $34/hr for working overtime or something...

Even if you make 70k a year, if you do landscaping that still puts you in the blue-collar lower class. You might not be poor and you might afford a house and car but your still not considered middle-class if you do manual labor.

Most americans are conscious of status and want to move up on the social class ladder.

LOL.... so true, fuckin Americans are exactly like this.

maybe all us americans are holding out for management positions

she isnt paying hourly anyways. the $34/hour is probably what an employee made doing 5-6 yards on one block in one hour. the rest of the day they made $4/hour when you factor in LA traffic

Exactly ho long is the life expectancy of a truck driver in Iraq?

oh yea, good call, it might be $34/hr when they actually do work, but driving from one lot to another may be not paid, so they might average $20/hr or less...

Yea it's true, I hears a lot of plumbers make a lot of money, over 100k...

But no matter how much they make they are still considered blue-collar and will probably have difficulty getting into the country club :helpme

I wonder if that's the GFYer that post's here girlfriends company? I forget who it was but a few weeks ago someone here posted about his girlfriends landscape company paying 35/hr but couldn't find help.

Maybe people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth

I'll find you people to do manual labour for 70k/year 24/7

You offer any typical grunt worker around here $35/hour I bet they would be damn glad to take it. I think it's all about what local prices are, I bet renting a house in the area or even trying to buy one would be about the same as a $10/hr labor person here in Florida.

$70k ain't rich - that's middle-class. Unless you live in Dildo, Newfoundland.

I agree. I think 250k-300k and up would be considered upper-middle but still in the MIDDLE CLASS, not UPPER.

* Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth.
* Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own lifetimes.
* Upper-middle class. High-salaried professionals (i.e., doctors, lawyers, corporate executives).
* True-middle class. Professional with salaries and educational attainment higher than those found among lower-middle class workers (i.e.. professors, managerial office workers, architects)
* Lower-middle class. Lower-paid professionals, but not manual laborers (i.e., police officers, non-management office workers, small business owners).
* Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual labourers. Also known as the "working class."
* Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working poor."

According to this the job of landscaping is considered "upper-lower class" which is only higher than the homeless, but that's still lower-class even if you make 100k a yr.

Also, I wonder why that chart puts architects in middle-class, they have had graduate school training and went to school past 4 yrs... Plus a lot make as much as doctors too.

because the chart is bullshit.

That chart isn't accurate lawyers can make anywhere from 50k to millions

same with doctors

depending on location and skill level

according to that chart Bill Gates is lower upper class