Know Your Worth And Move Up

Sweetheart and I were talking about minimum wage and how hard people work for 8 hours a day to get this. Now it is not the employer's fault that people are willing to work hard for 8 hours and get paid minimum wage. In fact if the employer cannot get people to work for minimum wage, the employer will have to raise the pay rate or find someone else. Until she/he can't, then the pay has to raised whether the employer want to or not.

Case in point: While in nursing school I worked at various hospitals in clinicals. One hospital I worked in one clinical rotation, the nurse I was assigned to work with for the day had a master degree in registered nursing, a new grad. She was paid $15.75 an hour.  She was concerned as she thought she would make more, because her student loans and living expenses left her little to save.  She was discussing her dilemma with me. Now I must make a point here, the higher your education in a nursing degree, the more you are liable in a court of law should a mistake be made with a patient under your care.

The Certified Nursing Assistant for that wing of the hospital heard the nursing student and whispered to me "I make $22.00 an hour." I asked, "How long have you been here?" She said, "Two years." I asked, "What pay did they start you at?"  She, "$20.75."

Obviously the hospital had no problem hiring nurses but they did have a problem keeping CNAs.
Fair? Yes. That is what that new grad agreed to.  I saw this at other hospitals as well. Veteran nurses after years of experience making less that two year new grad nursing students. What to do? Find another job that pays more, it is out there you have to look for it.

Now this brings me back to my Sweetheart, he has always worked. He has had good positions of employment and not so good, but in every employment he has found a way to be happy. A a true negotiator of business, he has worked smarter, added value to the position and asked for more money. He has got it. As an observer of this, I can say, he calmly negotiates. He doesn't scream unfair, he honestly went to work and happily did every task, whether he liked it or not. He finds a way to make fun out of his work.  When the work did not suit him for any reason, he found another job before leaving this one.

He now has his own business, after years of watching and learning from his employers, he is happy all the time in business for himself. He says,"He could never go back there, he knows too much now."  The one thing he really knows is that there are many ways to make more than minimum wage but you have to find that job that pays more or start your own business. It is a mindset. "You can do it" mindset.

Can anyone do this? Only if you try.

Thankful to have had this "happy man" in my life to teach me through example how to be happy in employment situations. He has helped to raise my own self-image.

What I have taught him? I asked him, "Spontaneity, no need for keeping up appearances when you know you are honest and have a good heart."

I'd say that is correct about me.

He cared for others too, but he expressed it more after being with me. Some men can be like that. 😉

And now a word from The Little Mermaid...