Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
So...You think unions drove up market demand and minimum wage expectations, and not the booming oil industry and private sector?
Sure thing.  |
No, the expectation of people in unrelated industries that they should make more on the sole basis that other people living in close proximity to them are making more drove up wage expectations. Life isn't cost plus, it's demand pull. You're worth what value you can provide your organization regardless of whether or not your neighbor makes more because his/her industry is doing well at the time. Any other compensation scheme causes interference in the market at arriving at fair compensation.
I bet you were pissed a year ago to two years ago that you made way less than your peers working for oil companies and probably felt that since you were similarily educated you deserved what they made. Well now you most likely get to keep your job and continue to work reasonable hours as opposed to us on the other side of the street where people are getting laid off and the ones that don't have to pull 60-70 hour weeks to keep their jobs. You traded job security for higher earning potential. You're peers who took the cash most likely will be rewarded for taking this type of risk, but they'll have to put up with more volitility in their incomes. Same goes for other people working non-oil and gas related jobs.
Some view equality as equality in opportnity as opposed to equality of outcome, mainly because it allows a means to reward people who are willing to make the most of their opportunities.