It’s been a while since I’ve checked but I recall health plans costing companies, on average $7/year and ~3x that for family plans
Here’s an article about a UPS driver explaining how their hourly wage in the $40-45 range accounts for about $92K of annual income. The rest is figuring in benefits, including healthcare, plus potential overtime and so on contributing to the total figure that a UPS driver “can earn up to”.
from an international perspective: DHL does the very same thing for international shipments … $30+ for an automated exchange of an electronic file to customs.
I am pretty sure the use the whole logistics chain just as an excuse for this, as they laugh all the way to the bank.
just like you, a hard, no purchase from me for intern. orders shipped with DHL
And don’t get me started on $500+ items … there you need a customs agent, which is basically taking your goods hostage for as long as he wants and then presenting you a ridiculous ransom bill for paperwork (that can rival the good’s worth and is what you 'mericans might be acustomed to receive from an emergency bill from a hospital) … worst part, they charge you like $20,- per day for storage of package the size of a soccer ball and if it takes them a week, you are out $140 just for storage…
I hate the whole “if you include benefits” and “earn up to” corporate-speak. They were training a bunch of managers on a presentation about how our pay was competitive and I groused that I hadn’t hired anyone dumb enough to buy this crap.
+1
mr. top mmgt guy answer me this question:
what is the medium take home of your drivers? … everything else is not data, its anecdote
Why would you be satisfied with that information that tells you nothing? Even assuming you mean a ‘median’ take home. The figure you ask for likely wouldn’t tell you the actual pay for a any employee. The problem here is that people don’t know the extent of their compensation package. Talking about maximum income based on overtime is misleading, but including the value of insurance and pension benefits is necessary for employees to understand how much they are making. Leaving out that information is simply a way for businesses to cut employee compensation behind their backs.
That’s been counter to my experience, and I suspect most peoples. The only time a company has told me what they were paying for benefits was to poor-mouth while explaining cuts in other areas, typically salaries. And even then, no one offered specific numbers - just vague claims that costs have gone up.
That’s why it has to change. Employees have to demand transparency in compensation.
Several companies that I’ve worked for have tried to help me “better understand my total compensation”. Sometimes that’s education to justify the state of things. Sometimes it’s an excuse for increased “cost sharing” for health care. I get it.
But some of the benefits provided simply don’t apply to me. I already have a financial planner, so their service doesn’t help me. I don’t want kids, so the fertility service doesn’t apply. And so forth. So trying to sell me on the total compensation package doesn’t make sense to me.
I care about my salary and I care about my benefits. I don’t care about the benefits that I don’t want, other than how it might make for a better work environment because my co-workers are happy.
If I had any demands, it would be for a divorce - removing this stuff from employer packages and doing universal health care and gov’t retirement plans. That would better for everyone than employers offering me magic beans under the guise of a benefits.
That would be great. But companies offer other worthwhile benefits. The problem is that company discussions of compensation packages are intended to mislead. @Digital_is_the_new_Analog brings up the inequities in benefits for people who don’t need them. Actual insurance costs are rarely discussed in favor of talking about how much a payout might be. The payout on a claim is not the benefit, the cost of the insurance is the benefit. People with families covered under their health insurance may be receiving several times the insurance cost of an individual. That can amount to thousand of dollars a year difference.
The reporting on this reminds me of the Walmart bonuses story from five years ago. Remember that one?
Some outlets breathlessly reported – in their headlines, at least – on the “$1,000 bonuses” that would be handed out to rank-and-file associates. Yeah. About that. Folks who bothered to read down into the articles saw this bonus schedule:
More than 20 years of service: $1,000
15 to 19 years of service: $750
10 to 14 years of service: $400
5 to 9 years of service: $300
2 to 4 years of service: $250
Less than 2 years of service: $200
I’m half-surprised some Walmart executive didn’t tack on a super-duper-tip-top level of >50 years of service = $100,000 just to fool gullible headline writers into writing the inevitable “up to $100k” headlines.
Medians, people. Research or otherwise model the median figures and lead with those. Please.
I’m not “offended” they make that much. I’m offended that I don’t. I’ve got nearly 40 years into a engineering career in a large company, and I don’t make that. I start to think, maybe I made the wrong career choice?
But it would explain how thirty somethings on House Hunters have budgets approaching $1M, and I don’t think I could afford that today.
This whole thread just reeks of sneering classism. How dare they make that much! Don’t they know their place?! The article must be wrong, it includes benefits!
There is all ready a thread in Great Debates for that.
Nonsense. Please quote anyone in this thread who implied concerns with salary or status in a negative way. Isn’t it true the article was misleading?
My simplistic thinking is: hire more drivers, and pay them all a little less. Still good wages, and the hours wouldn’t have to be so overwhelming. That probably sounds anti-labor.
You might change your mind after doing it for a while. I did.
I drove a UPS truck for a few years. Most of us realize that jobs are harder than they appear, at least once you try doing them. But I think the difference in perceived .vs. actual difficulty is much higher for UPS drivers. I still rate it as the most stressful job I’ve ever had. I’m talking about day to day, when everything’s going normally.
I’ve worked as a flight instructor, bus driver, EMT, offshore rigs, and various forms of engineering. None of them had the daily stress of driving a UPS truck. You leave the terminal every morning with a variable number of packages destined for a (somewhat) random set of addresses and the strict admonition that you deliver them all. Period. Do not come back with them. You also have pre-planned dedicated pickups (at factories etc.) that you’re obligated to meet – and these have strict arrival times. This means every day is a constant balancing act between delivering, abandoning a neighborhood in time to make pickups, and trying to ensure you don’t miss anything.
Do I have time to get one more delivery before I leave for WalMart? Can I finish this neighborhood and not have to return? It’s a minute-by-minute risk analysis along with a kind of mental linear algebra as you plan routes.
And all this is done in city traffic. You spend your entire day fighting traffic, construction, road closures, decisions about where you can park without getting cited, angry drivers honking as you stop downtown, etc. And you do it in a big truck with open doors and no heat or A/C.
FTR: I looked at my SS earnings back then, and I made $23,000 in 1980. Guessing about OT, I probably made $9.00/hour ($33 in today’s money). If $49/hr is the actual average, it’s a real improvement for them. A rare bright spot as most salaries seem to lag inflation nowadays.
If your salary is how you judge your career choice, perhaps. I could care less if UPS drivers actually made $170k a year.
That wasn’t my point, but that’s ok…
Well, it wouldn’t be the first time (and won’t be the last) I missed a point. 