January 17th 2008
Maybe, just maybe, you should pay more
My favorite Tennessean blogger Aunt B has a somewhat horrifying semi-transcript from a Tennessee House Agricultural committee meeting from January 15th of this year.
Beyond what she notes, I was a bit horrified at the wages that were being earned. 7 to 8 dollars an hour to start? Long time employees making 12 to 14 and hour? I know I hail from an area with a significantly higher cost of living, but I get paid to sit inside and handle other people’s money all day. My wage is between the high and low points and I feel underpaid. I felt underpaid when I made $9.50 an hour at FedEx loading trucks, and that was inside a warehouse that had water, Kool-Aid, ice and bathrooms all on the premises.
I believe Mr. Swafford when he says that his pay rates are just about industry standard; otherwise, he wouldn’t get any employees. I do think that he and the Tennessee representatives he’s talking to underestimate a couple of things.
First, and I grant that I have precisely no first hand knowledge so I’m likely talking directly out of my ass, I think they underestimate just how bad the conditions are in the home nations of the immigrant workers. The workers might not be making a great, good or even living wage here, but the conditions of work and life in general are better. Plus, there’s that whole American Dream thing we keep talking about here, how with hard work you can build a better life. Mr Swafford’s workers sure are doing the hard work.
Second, I think they underestimate how easy the system is for even moderately educated whites to navigate. I know that if my bosses decided tomorrow that they no longer wanted my services, it wouldn’t be hard at all for me to find another job (barring catastrophic stupidity on my part, like my firing stemming from my committing a crime). I’m a reasonably intelligent young white male, if all I want is to have a job, getting one’s not going to be an issue, and I won’t have to take one that requires large amounts of physical labor. Sure, I can if I want, but I’d expect the pay to be significantly better than jobs that only require me to show up and occupy a space in a factory line or as a fry cook.
(I want to reiterate that I really don’t know how the wage rates map from Chicago-land to Tennessee, so again, I might just be talking out my ass)
I don’t have either the time or the brainpower to respond to the last part of Aunt B.’s post, so I’ll quote it and leave you, the reader, an opportunity to gawk at the train-wreck inherent in the statement:
“I’m going to make one more comment with this. I’m not going to address Mr. Swafford with this but I’m… but this is, uh, this shortage of workers and, uh, especially in the agricultural field and, uh, in other jobs… that may or may not be a little more temporary in nature… seasonal in nature… Since 1973, we have killed fifty million unborn children and if we hadn’t done that, maybe our labor problems would not be as severe.”
