Books win money, we know. Why the need to pay help so cheap?

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Another Day, Another Dollar
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Most clerks get paid little we see/read. If the books are making good money, then why not treat the clerks with more income?

Please explain.

Thanks
 

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If nike are making shitloads more than cr books, or for that matter any multinational manufacturer of goods or service provider, then why are they paying the clerks peanuts?

Why should books be any different when that is the modus operandi of mostly all bussinesses?
 

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That's easy General. Just take Wal-Mart for example. They make all the cash and have driven many a department store and mom and pop joints out of businesse and they don't pay their help anything.

A huge corporation or even middle to small size businesses will pay their help as little as they can get away with as long as the people keep coming through the doors. Wal-Mart is a f**king dump. There's always shit all over the aisles and they have 3 check stands open and 10 people in each line but they're making loads of cash so they don't care.

It's the same pretty much everywhere. Service sucks but in the books case, as long as they have a warm bodies in the chairs then they will continue to pay them shit because they can.
 

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Maybe on the States standards they don't make good money, but in Costa Rica sportsbook people including clerks hold the best jobs in the country.
They make 3 times what the normal physical labour workers make here in CR.
Alot make American cash weekly, no taxes.
If the industry left the country theyd be making far less, and working harder, If indeed they could find work at all.
 

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The only 2 common reasons why a business will pay more than it feels it has to for employees: it's the law or it's supply and demand. Very basic. If employees don't like it, they can move on. I personally would have faced a cut in my salary of 20% if I hadn't already planned to retire this year anyway back in May, and I would have quit before taking that cut (it was being done to consultants company-wide), but i wasn't pissed at the company, my salary was damn good after years of it being driven up in the computer industry. Supply and demand.
 

Another Day, Another Dollar
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Thanks for the feedback. I assume just typical crap. The rich get rich and the ones helping them get rich should just be glad to have a roof.
 

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Well, General, I don't know about CR but if it's so bad then can't the employees form a union? Or is that simply not done in CR, or would the intimidation level be too high for it to work? One other comment - no one as far as I understand it is forced to work for those wages, correct?
 

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A union...not likely....people are lining up to make the wages being offered, if you speak fluent english even semi fluent, as I stated before your making way more than anybody, in fact during high season, the clerks can rake in as much as lawyers get paid In Costa Rica.
 

Another Day, Another Dollar
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Not sure about Unions, but the situations are built where a paycheck is needed and it is very hard to get a group to stand strong together in fight of right these days. I do not think anyone is forced to work for $4 per hour but seems that is good for CR. I think book owners should pay more. That's my opinion and my style. Hell, maybe $4 per hour will buy a porche in CR.
 

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come on guys....its all supply and demand. We have doctors, lawyers, and university professors clerking because they make double or better their regular jobs. Clerks pull $250-300 per week in season while the average national wage is $75. and under CR law you pay 40-55% in bonuses...extra month pay at Xmas, vacation, 10 paid days off, caja (22% to med insurance and social secrity.

Be serious....these folks are taken care of, and are busting down the door to get in. I have at least 10 applications for every position
 

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I hear you, but General, you're coming from the point of view of an American used to higher wages and a higher base standard of living, correct? Well, I am certainly not defending the books on this, but as Habsman says, if they're lining up and those are excellent wages for the area, then both sides are happy - the books who moved there and the people who may never have had a chance to earn that kind of money before the books came in. Same situation as a Ford plant in Mexico - if Ford had been forced to pay American salaries in Mexico, they never would have gone there, and those workers never would have had a substantially increased standard of living. Once can obviously argue in the case of Ford that those happy Mexican workers come at the expense of lost American jobs, but then that's another discussion.

Bottom line is that if the clerks are happy, where is the real problem?
 

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Easy to say General when the salaries aren't coming out of your pocket.
 

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It depends, but basically if you work anywhere for a long period, your salary increases.
The books who've been here the longest with loyal clerks.
Some of my friends are making 10 bucks an hour clerking at several different books.
 

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General, the real reason why they pay so cheap is.... because they can. The post about Wal-mart hit it right on the head.
 

Another Day, Another Dollar
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It's all good discussion men. Thanks.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Bottom line is that if the clerks are happy, where is the real problem? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wish we could get many opinions from them, but I think their bosses prob read here
icon_wink.gif


icon_cool.gif
 

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Jazz: "If employees don't like it, they can move on."

Not if there's nothing to move on TO. Not, If clerks get paid peanuts everywhere. That's not supply and demand, it's called superexploitation.

And for what soccerbob mentioned, i couldn't agree more, it pisses the hell out of me to go my local posh upper class department store of super market and have wait 20+ minutes in the quee just because some big jerk of a ceo wont pay a couple more clerks per hour, and have to go aroung the aisles looking for something for ages with no employee there to help me out, just so they can clean up, what $2000 more per month when their profits are in the range hundreds of thousands.

Supply and demand is a very simplistic "law" that even economists themselves have neither properly defined nor unilaterly accept.
 

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Jazz: " Same situation as a Ford plant in Mexico - if Ford had been forced to pay American salaries in Mexico, they never would have gone there, and those workers never would have had a substantially increased standard of living. "

I disagree. If ford had not gone there then the mexicans would keep their natural resources and labour force to themselves and would be far better off. With, what, a 500%-1000% difference between the average wage for a worker in mexico and that in the states (let alone the co.'s not having to pay for social security, lax standards for industial accidents, less taxation), and the price on the end product not being much less when sold in the state, i roughly guess-stimate that Ford must make something like 250% or so extra profit, really cleaning up here. Where does that extra money come from? The mexican worker of course.
 

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soccerbob

wal-mart is a bad example. when sam walton started wall mart he took care of all of him employees when they went public most of his workers became millionairs because of stock options. now it is a huge company and can not afford to pay huge salaries. they employ unskilled people that make minimum wage that our govt sets. they employ millions of people that would other wise have no jobs.

some sports book workers are pd decently if they have the knowledge and skills they are allowed to move up the food chain. some of the problems are they are not willing to go above and beyond to make more money. they are content. there is the problem. they can't make the kind of money they are making anywhere else. this is the problem in 3rd world countries. not for all but the majority. imo
 

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