the impact a $15 per hour minimum wage on the trucking industry

If the cost of goods has gone up 14 times in my lifetime, yet wages have gone up 4 times, the real problem isn't wages. The problem is your currency is losing its value.

 

Well, since the 1971 wage is a lie by about double, why should I belive the car price isn't either?
Here is the averages of income...
National Average Wage Index

 

Direct from the bureau of labor statistics. Like I said, average current wages are roughly four times this amount. Some make less, and some make more, but not by much.
Meanwhile, the dollar lost 90% of its value.
Union Wages and Hours : Local Truckdrivers and Helpers, Union Wages and Hours: Local Truckdrivers and Helpers, July 1, 1971 : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 1756 | FRASER | St. Louis Fed

 

Mega carriers aren’t meant to be a career. They are resume builders, like McDonald’s. People #####ing that they don’t make 15 an hour for unskilled labor and demanding we pay them more so they can live off of a job meant for 15 year olds to save for their first car, I mean get real. We need mega carriers to train new drivers. They are the only ones who will take that risk. Every job outside of a mega carrier requires experience. Well where are we going to get it? They either train drivers who stay on, move to another company or are lost to attrition. They are completely necessary. And by the way... if it wasn’t for them knocking the freight rates down, nobody would be able to afford cheap plastic #### at Walmart anymore.

I don’t care what type of trucking that you do, it’s not a job requiring any serious skills that anyone can’t pick up. It’s a joke how people act as if we are some super intelligent race of drivers. The only reason we are safer than the soccer mom with her cell phone and her latte is because we driver more miles in a week than most people do in 3 months. We see more people cut out of wrecks than they do. We aren’t special. We have experience doing a simple task.

We are overpaid. At least, I am.

 

I am sure your boss would be more than willing to cut your pay...just gotta ask.

 

Here are the car prices for reference.



The CTS-V price is for a stripped down base model with zero options.

 

I guess you are.

 

Not the first time this has happened.... I've been hearing the same stuff every decade. It won't be the last time it happens.

 

But they do pay that decent wage number. Even a newbie is making 700+ at the megas. What is the cheapest paying big carrier? Western express? They pay what? 28 cpm to a guy with no experience? At 2500 miles that's exactly 700. And that guy starts getting raises at 3 months. That 400 dollar figure that gets tossed around is what trainees get. Do you really think a student learning the skill should be paid the equivalent of a 36,400 dollar salary? That's like me sending my daughter to college and expecting the college to pay her for attending class.

I'm not saying that id settle for the entry level wage of the big carriers, but its not like they are paying 5 bucks an hour either. For an entry level position the pay is not that darn bad when compared to other industries. Heck i remember back when i was in my mid twenties a buddy of mine i went to school with got his first job as a commercial pilot. He was making 19k a year. This was about 99 or 2000. Without researching i couldn't tell ya what entry level pay is for commercial pilots but I'd bet ya a steal dinner its no more than 30 to 35k. Entry level pay sucks for all industries, not just trucking.

 

Way off on pilot salaries.
Airline Pilot Salary, Career Information Pilot | Phoenix East Aviation