Graybeard comments on the post about Florida's new minimum wage. He points out that there are many people who currently earn less than $15 an hour who are going to suddenly find themselves making minimum wage. I have been writing about this stupidity for over
In 2016, the Miami Dade school system was looking for people with a 4 year STEM degree to teach STEM classes for $14.58 an hour.
Starting pay for a paramedic who was not a firefighter was $14 an hour in 2002, when minimum wage was $5.15. By 2012, paramedics were starting at $13.25 an hour, but minimum wage was $7.79. Even though minimum wage had increased by $2.64 in the previous ten years, paramedic wages had fallen by $0.75. Those who support minimum wage increases mistakenly believe that a $2 increase in the minimum wage will mean that everyone else gets a $2 an hour raise. It doesn't work like that. The term for that is called "pay compression."
To become an EMT, you have to attend EMT school, which usually is a 12 week course with 110 hours of classroom training and another 32 hours of internship. You must pass the National Certification exam for EMTs.
To attend paramedic school, you must first be an EMT. The school lasts a year, requiring 1,200 hours of classroom training and 400 hours of internship. There is also a two part exam that must be passed with an 80 percent or higher.
Those paramedics are not going to be happy to discover that their wages are not going to rise anywhere near $2 an hour. How are you going to convince people to attend school and accept more responsibility when they won't be paid for their efforts?
Yup. I would get paid more for flipping burgers than I was getting paid after working as a Medical Assistant for 10 years, dealing with some pretty difficult people.
ReplyDeleteLinked back from my place - thanks for those real numbers.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the real world people...
ReplyDeleteI have friends who run a pizza shop and have trouble getting and keeping employees. They start at $9 an hour. The employees constantly push for more pay while doing no more work... My friends can't afford to pay any more unless productivity goes up...
Every year, they have workers quit to go on public assistance because the workers think they'll make more on it. It was particularly bad earlier this year when Congress' temporarily upped unemployment...