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Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

economist.com

151–160 of 606 posts

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One way to handle it is to be upfront with your employer. This tends not to work. It's a medical condition. Employers need to provide reasonable accommodations if you're able to fulfill the job. Are you able to do the job on a slightly shifted schedule? Chances are it's the case. > It makes scheduling meetings extremely difficult. Morning standups are out. How many of you have weekly standups? Could do afternoon st…

> Employers need to provide reasonable accommodations if you're able to fulfill the job. How does an individual make sure that rule is enforced?

Start with putting in an effort with the employer, and your final means would be the justice system. It's the law. But you could start with the manager, move on to HR, move on to the courts if you need to. And don't skip levels. Only elevate as necessary.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#152
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

illegals dont have SSNs. EMployers have to run ssn verification before they hire you. These checks are instant and this will popup immediately. Can they still hire you - well maybe for janitorial -> manufacturing jobs I'd say highly unlikely.

This is definitely not the case. E-Verify has existed for a long time, but is still not mandatory [1]. Employers are supposed to have employees fill out an I-9 form that verifies employment eligibility, but the penalties for noncompliance are at most $1,100 per form -- basically slap on the wrist territory [2]. The irony here is that the anti-immigration wing of the Republican party is now in open conflict with the b…

like literally every job Ive ever applied they've everify on me. im illegal in the past - I know how it works.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#153
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Past performance != future performance But it's the best signal we've got. Ignore it at your peril. Perhaps you are too young or live in too modern a world to understand how dangerous rare events are. Constructive paranoia has helped select evolutionary survivors for a very long time. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/science/jared-diamonds-gui...

Drug test measure whether you smoked weed anytime last weeks, up to three months if I recall right. It has little to do with whether you are high first day on the job. It has more to do with drug war then with incidents.

It’s more to do with liability/lawsuits and insurance premiums than drug war.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Last week one company setup interviews with 20 possible new workers. One showed up for his interview, and one wandered in the next day. 18 nonshows. I bet you'd get approx. 0 noshows if you bumped salary. > Another local company is seeing 50% of new hires failing their first drug test. So don't give drug tests? > Anecdotaly, about 20% of new hires under 30 don’t understand the concept of showing up on time (or at a…

The thing about manufacturing jobs is that they often involve operating heavy machinery. Drug use and intoxication drastically increases the chance of death or dismemberment - for the inebriated, or often, others around them. As a pilot, I seriously don’t care if you show up to work high or not - unless you’re doing maintenance on the jet I’m supposed to fly.

Drug tests don't test for intoxication. They just test test for something that correlates somewhat with having been intoxicated sometime in the recent past.

Better is to use impairment testing. An impairment test is a test of cognitive function, alertness, reaction time, hand-eye coordination and similar objective things that actually correlate well with how well you can do your job now, instead of sometime in the past.

On top of that, impairment testing can catch when you are impaired for reasons OTHER than intoxication. If your aircraft mechanic is not fit to do maintenance on your jet that morning because last night he found his wife sleeping with his best friend, they argued all night, and she announced that morning she is getting a divorce, leaving him a tired, emotional wreck who will make mistakes left and right at work...an impairment test can catch it. A drug test cannot.

In addition, generally there is lag between drug testing and results. Impairment testing can be quick (a few minutes) and cheap so that you can do it to every employee, every day at the start of their shift.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#155
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Field sobriety tests are like polygraph tests: highly subjective, easily influenced by bias and have little to no scientific backing.

Neither are drug tests for determining whether or not someone is high when they show up to work.

I agree. However, I'd rather get pinged via a quantifiable metric like BAC than someone's opinion regarding my perceived impairment.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#156

Does every paragraph needs to rephrase that it isn't thanks to Trump? Maybe I'm wrong but lately it seems every US media outlet needs to mention him this way or another in every topic possible (positive or negative light)

> Maybe I'm wrong but lately it seems every US media outlet needs to mention him this way or another in every topic possible (positive or negative light)

Yap noticed that as well. It's as if they have to say "Trump" or "Russia" and then get on to the main topic just to get the article approved for publication. I mostly noticed that with NYT, WaPo and HuffPo for example.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#157
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither are drug tests for determining whether or not someone is high when they show up to work.

I agree. However, I'd rather get pinged via a quantifiable metric like BAC than someone's opinion regarding my perceived impairment.

If BAC tests pinged you as drunk three weeks after having a drink, you really wouldn't.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#158
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

illegals dont have SSNs. EMployers have to run ssn verification before they hire you. These checks are instant and this will popup immediately. Can they still hire you - well maybe for janitorial -> manufacturing jobs I'd say highly unlikely.

That comment is naive at best - do you really think that the majority of undocumented immigrants in the US can't find jobs? Why else would they be here, and why would their numbers dwindle during times of high unemployment? If you really doubt that illegals can work in manufacturing, try googling for 'immigration bust factory', or similar stories.

nah - depends. some can - some cant. I've seen it both ways. I was able to get a job even when my everify checks came back as ineligible.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#159

>> "Anecdotaly, about 20% of new hires under 30 don’t understand the concept of showing up on time (or at all)" Don't kid yourself. Those new hires are at other jobs making more money. I am booked for a roofer in feb 2018 (fingers crossed - friend of a friend). Blue skills are in extremely high demand. And those guys are working extremely hard making really high incomes (400k+). These guys are highly paid and are not…

I always read these ridiculously high salaries and laugh. Your average HVAC worker is not making $400k. I do know people in construction/HVAC/plumbers/electricians and it's the bosses making that money, not the grunt workers. The people on the front lines still make good money, for some easily approaching $100k/year, so there's not really a need for embellishment. That isn't to say that it's unattainable, but it's ak…

"tenured engineering managers"?

http://thestartupconference.com/2017/03/25/the-350k-google-s...

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#160
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So don't give drug tests? While I agree that drug tests are a scam as a white collar worker, I do think they're necessary from a liability perspective if you're in construction, manufacturing, or driving a company vehicle. I fully support the use of recreational drugs on someone's own time, but you have to weed out (forgive the pun) those who are under the influence when loss of life or limb is a risk.

I would be okay with drug tests that didn't fail you for weed. That can show up on a test weeks after it's been consumed. The drugs that would actually significantly impair you (alcohol, opiates) clear out of your system in hours/days.

TBF weed will significantly impair you. Driving a car or operating machinery on weed is super dangerous.

Just not weeks after consumption...

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