scrubbedexpat091

I meant, I don't want work in an ER or on a medical floor, so being an RN isn't as ideal, and as of how the system works today, I don't see any benefit of being a registered nurse vs registered psychiatric nurse, and my long term goal is work in community based mental health, but hospitals are the stepping stone for experience to get to that point.

Long term, psychiatric nursing is the best fit.

dishwashing

Bleeding hearts and all, salutations to Tirytory. This is a consumerist society, with rat wheels running one after another in a big pyramid scheme. If more people lived like Tiry i.e for more human values rather tham only money/prestige, I'm sure it'd be a much better world. OK I'llgo take my pills now.

Shard

Might be flogging a dead horse here, but this article explains the structural changes in the labour market (UK, but probably applies to Canada too).

Bleak figures show a relentless slide towards a low-pay Britain | Business | The Observer

MrFloyd

A clear point in the voices in this thread in terms of improving your position is confidence, the biggest barrier between being able to do something and actually being able to do it. A lucky break with the right opportunity, knowing the right people, getting that first chance is an immense boost to a person's confidence and the chances of improving their employable value.

Confidence only comes from external validations of success - not from within. It's not innate and it's very easy to forget where it came from.

Apologies for coming in so late. Too busy preparing for the move myself

scrubbedexpat091

Minimum Wage Hike Won't Kill Jobs, Might Create Them, CCPA Study Says

Shard

That echoes the experience in the UK when MW was brought in 1999. Of course, the trick is to set at the "right" level.

Aviator

It won't, so long as prices rise to pay for it.

Shard

Too microeconomic a view. There wasn't excess price inflation in the UK post the MW. At a macro level the better paid workers have higher productivity, spend more, production increased, economies of scale, bigger pie and all that.

MW has always been a contentious issue in economics, but as the research JS flagged indicates, real world behaviour sometimes counters textbook theory.

ExKiwilass

I agree with raising hte minimum wage

scrubbedexpat091

Even some companies are realizing it makes more sense to pay their employees more, and that as a whole it will benefit the company more.

Gap announced it's raising it's min. wage to 10 per hour in 2015, and no employee will make less then that. For someone in a state at 7.25/hr working 20 hours a week that is an extra 2,600 a year roughly.

To many that may not seem like a huge amount, but for someone making 7.25/hr that is a huge difference in income.

Wal-Mart is neutral on min. wage hikes on the official level, however in the last round of increases in the US, Wal-Mart financially backed democrats who were supporting and working to raise min. wage, and this indicates to me Wal-Mart isn't exactly opposed to a higher min. wage they just wont say it, most likely to keep investors off their backs about it.

Wal-Mart does however disagree with only forcing large employers to have a higher min. wage, but they are not openly against an increase across the board with every sized company included.

According to the article below, it appears Wal-Mart has more or less learned min. wage is too low, out of 1.3 million US employees, only 4,000 make min. wage.

Now how many of that 1.3 million are store employees, I have no clue, but i am sure they have more then 4,000 store employees in the US.

I will give Wal-Mart credit in Canada, they will credit you for experience, so pretty much anyone not a teenager will be paid more then min. wage. My GF was hired there as a cashier and offered 11.60/hr, when she left she was at 12.30/hr.

I was offered 12.25/hr to start but turned it down for a hotel since hotels are nicer then retail.

Are prices really going to go up much for groceries when the stores are for the most part already paying above min. wage?

Seems the biggest will be in fast food, but really we can pay a few cents more for a burger or coffee.

I don't for the most part ever see huge increases in most places when min. wage goes up.

I think its way overblown by those who have the money, and could spend a bit more, but just don't want to because well min. wage doesn't benefit them directly.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/artic...lot-strategies

I am not an expert, and I don't say anything I say is fact, but I am very price aware, and I don't notice increases prices overall anytime min. wage has been raised, so I do think its way overblown by the anti-raise min wage crowd.

Take care of your employees and they take care of you. There is a reason customer service at companies with good pay, benefits and work environment almost always have better customer satisfaction rates then competitors being cheap and treating employees like they are a pest.

Aviator

Higher paid workers can be more productive, however some just want more money for no further input. Putting up wages and getting the same output, requires higher prices or reduced costs elsewhere, which put pressure on the supply chain to reduce costs and further squeezing margins, which ultimately may lead to fewer businesses in the market place, less competition and rising prices.

What raising the minimum wage also does is to create a larger pool of unemployable workers, those who are unable to be as productive as others and consequently get left behind, particularity workers with some impairment.

BristolUK

With those at the top being the best example

ExKiwilass

Ironically, Walmart and mcdonalds aren't doing so well as their main customers are low wage workers, as those wages are stagnating - or so said the cbc today.

JamesM

Real world behaviour has always countered text book theory.

All economic theory is based on "ceteris paribus". Like science it is based on a controlled environment. However in the real world nothing is held constant.

A minimum wage is detrimental to profits which is detrimental to shareholders. Whether this has any negative implications on unemployment, inflation and other important economic factors depends on who the shareholders of the firm are.

I'm personally a big fan of co-ops or making employees shareholders.

scrubbedexpat091

A couple of airlines tried that in the US in the 90's, the one I worked for required employees to invest 10% of their monthly income into company stock from 1984 at start up until 1993 ish when the company went bankrupt.

In the end the employees lost their entire investment through not fault of their own, management on the top end made stupid decisions which nearly brought the company down.

Probably one reason why Wal-Mart is indirectly supporting an increase.

I know a lot of low wage earners in the US go to dollar stores now, there they carry almost anything you need including dairy, produce and other foods.