Mthom
Prodigy
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Well, like I said, pay in relation to working conditions. 75k seems a bit much for a garbage man... What's the cost of living around you?
Walmart Raises Minimum Wage to $10 - Why Not EMS?
- Thread starter MMiz
- Start date
gonefishing
Forum Deputy Chief
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To live above poverty in my area is figured for one adult $11.37 an hour minimum.
$23 to $24k before taxes.
Mthom
Prodigy
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... I don't know enough about garbage men to comment any further lol
gotbeerz001
Forum Deputy Chief
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I know that in municipalities, Public Works are the LAST to be on the chopping block; even higher than Police and Fire. Crime may surge, homes may burn but the garbage and **** will be mitigated.
gonefishing
Forum Deputy Chief
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LOL nobody wants to walk into a pile of adult diapers outside a con home am I right!?
PotatoMedic
Has no idea what I'm doing.
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Sanitation has been the best thing for public health in human history.
Mthom
Prodigy
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^Can't argue with that.
akflightmedic
Forum Deputy Chief
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So we are going to call BS on the analogy because in your little pocket of this huge country it is automated and unionized? Just checking...
gonefishing
Forum Deputy Chief
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Just pointing something out and actually alot of the state is the same way so not just a tiny pocket but one of the largest states in this country.
akflightmedic
Forum Deputy Chief
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You sure speak confidently for such a large state...just sayin.
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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That's the truest thing anyone has said in this entire thread!
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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We should all have this conversation over beers... And I want to sit next to @irishboxer384
irishboxer384
Forum Captain
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id be too busy blind drunk and talking to the urinal
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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Averaged salaries:
Garbage man (mean) $24.60/hour (latest stats 2014) (40 hour work week) http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag562.htm#earnings
EMT/Paramedic $15.17/hour (mean specific to ambulance services)(latest stats 2013) (greater than 40 hour work week) http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292041.htm#nat
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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I'm so over going in circles about this. I've already stated that I have mostly sided with the business owners.... But I still think overall the wages should go up A TAD... For all of us.... And yes I understand the mechanisms preventing that.
Its that way around central Texas as well, if not all of Texas. If not 70k, they certainly make more than teachers here.
RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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Sanitation employees are the beneficiaries of strong unions, a distasteful and very necessary job and modern apathy towards waste management. Most of us will go our lives without needing EMS more than once, or will be able to make arrangements for care. Even the chronically-ill do not generally need EMS daily- but trash? We all make some, every day. It's literally unavoidable. And for most Americans, we can't just toss it outside or burn it due to where we live, so we collect it. The catch? There's no nobility in garbage disposal in sanitation. It is literally dealing with trash and feces and nasty, disgusting things. There's no one volunteering to do it, no one getting an adrenaline rush off of it and not a lot of people looking to do it. In many places, it's either a city monopoly or a private service that does it and recruits people with the prospect of a stable job. It's got great pay and benefits because it's both dangerous and distasteful and it's important that it be consistent- and they have unions willing and able to literally leave the trash on the sidewalk if their demands aren't met. It's a lot more acceptable to leave a Hefty bag full of trash next to an overflowing dumpster because they're not paying you than it is to leave Grandma passed out on the floor.
Sanitation is one of my personal backup plans if I ever need to leave EMS. It's great money and great job security.
Sanitation is one of my personal backup plans if I ever need to leave EMS. It's great money and great job security.
SandpitMedic
Crowd pleaser
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I'd like everyone to stop what you're doing...
Read the first post of this thread... And the one above mine......
What.the.****.does that have to do with EMS?
Every job has its pros and cons. To you, a garbage man is on high above the policemen and the firemen and all of us here at EMTlife.... To me.... My profession is worth more than garbage.
Taking your ill or injured mother, father, son, daughter, wife, grandma, best friend to the hospital rates second to taking out the trash?! Seeing drowned, burned, and abused children while you miss your own child's birthday/concert/graduation due to work is akin to the filth of removing household waste?! You likened the garbage man to the septic tank cleaner (feces)? I've yet to see a garbage man with fecal matter on his hands.... (I see a lot of garbage men- our ops building is .25 miles away from the local garbage plant/depot/ops or whatever you want to call it.) Thrusting on grandmas chest and cracking ribs, telling a mother there is nothing you can do for her dead SIDS baby, and looking a child in the eyes as he asks you if his mommy is okay as you enter the house.... That measures up to picking up your old newspapers.?! Oh and they should be paid more because of strong unions and a lack of adrenalin?! Like the adrenalin you get when you get a rush of air after a needle decompression and see someone take a big fat breath of fresh air (not that garbage air)?! Or the smell of burning flesh?! Or is that unlike the rush or air that swoops around and smells like trash when the garbage man dumps his load...yeah, very similar..... I'm sure the RN midwife who couldn't even manage to put oxygen on my first pedi-code from a home birth rates somewhere between me and the garbage man in your eyes.
I could spend 99% of my time sitting in my truck eating cookies and watching Netflix or shuffling grandma or running BS ETOH calls, but it only takes one time of me running on YOUR ****ing kid after he accidentally shoots himself in the face with the handgun you left unsecured....and THEN I rate HIGHER than the garbage man.?
I'm not here to get rich, but I should be able to support my own family without working 60 hours a week!
This is AN EMS WEBSITE! I expect to be under appreciated by society and by the community because they don't know what we do! They don't understand what we see. I'm not whining... I can handle myself and the tough aspects... But when I come here and see my own people belittling our own profession?!?!
This is ********.
You have all lost perspective. You're burn't.... WasteManagement inc is waiting for you! GTFO.
If I get banned so be it... I've tried to be rational with you people... But you're too ****ing greedy and you've forgotten why you signed up for EMT class to begin with. it's rediculous. Your opinions, while you're entitled to them, suck.
Check yourselves. If you had a time machine to go back and say that garbage (literally)to yourself you'd be ashamed of yourself.
Read the first post of this thread... And the one above mine......
What.the.****.does that have to do with EMS?
Every job has its pros and cons. To you, a garbage man is on high above the policemen and the firemen and all of us here at EMTlife.... To me.... My profession is worth more than garbage.
Taking your ill or injured mother, father, son, daughter, wife, grandma, best friend to the hospital rates second to taking out the trash?! Seeing drowned, burned, and abused children while you miss your own child's birthday/concert/graduation due to work is akin to the filth of removing household waste?! You likened the garbage man to the septic tank cleaner (feces)? I've yet to see a garbage man with fecal matter on his hands.... (I see a lot of garbage men- our ops building is .25 miles away from the local garbage plant/depot/ops or whatever you want to call it.) Thrusting on grandmas chest and cracking ribs, telling a mother there is nothing you can do for her dead SIDS baby, and looking a child in the eyes as he asks you if his mommy is okay as you enter the house.... That measures up to picking up your old newspapers.?! Oh and they should be paid more because of strong unions and a lack of adrenalin?! Like the adrenalin you get when you get a rush of air after a needle decompression and see someone take a big fat breath of fresh air (not that garbage air)?! Or the smell of burning flesh?! Or is that unlike the rush or air that swoops around and smells like trash when the garbage man dumps his load...yeah, very similar..... I'm sure the RN midwife who couldn't even manage to put oxygen on my first pedi-code from a home birth rates somewhere between me and the garbage man in your eyes.
I could spend 99% of my time sitting in my truck eating cookies and watching Netflix or shuffling grandma or running BS ETOH calls, but it only takes one time of me running on YOUR ****ing kid after he accidentally shoots himself in the face with the handgun you left unsecured....and THEN I rate HIGHER than the garbage man.?
I'm not here to get rich, but I should be able to support my own family without working 60 hours a week!
This is AN EMS WEBSITE! I expect to be under appreciated by society and by the community because they don't know what we do! They don't understand what we see. I'm not whining... I can handle myself and the tough aspects... But when I come here and see my own people belittling our own profession?!?!
This is ********.
You have all lost perspective. You're burn't.... WasteManagement inc is waiting for you! GTFO.
If I get banned so be it... I've tried to be rational with you people... But you're too ****ing greedy and you've forgotten why you signed up for EMT class to begin with. it's rediculous. Your opinions, while you're entitled to them, suck.
Check yourselves. If you had a time machine to go back and say that garbage (literally)to yourself you'd be ashamed of yourself.
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RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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Sandpit, we're not greedy, at all. I sense a lot of motivations are the same, and yes, I really enjoy helping people. That's why I choose to do this job.
Sad fact of life is that we're not paid for what we do, the horrible things we occasionally see and do or even the stress of what we put up with or the responsibilities we have. We're paid based on what the market for our labor is willing to pay us. If we were paid for what we put up with, CNAs, fry cooks, soldiers and first responders would be kings. But let's look at the labor and educational requirements for those menial positions- minimal, if any. Compare that to your high-earning professions that require years of study to even enter.
Everything you pointed out is horrible, PTSD-inducing high-octane nightmare fuel, but what worth does it have? What worth does your work have, particularly if your sole function is to provide transport? It's not worthless by any stretch of the imagination, but what financial value are you going to put on managing resuscitations that are rarely successful in the first place? What financial value are you attributing to your daily functions? And who is paying for it?
The sanitation industry benefits everyone daily and their absence is immediately notable. Police ostensibly provide a public benefit to everyone. Fire departments are deliberately highly visible and good ones cut insurance rates for property, saving money. What does good EMS do for the community that doesn't involve medical care?
Sad fact of life is that we're not paid for what we do, the horrible things we occasionally see and do or even the stress of what we put up with or the responsibilities we have. We're paid based on what the market for our labor is willing to pay us. If we were paid for what we put up with, CNAs, fry cooks, soldiers and first responders would be kings. But let's look at the labor and educational requirements for those menial positions- minimal, if any. Compare that to your high-earning professions that require years of study to even enter.
Everything you pointed out is horrible, PTSD-inducing high-octane nightmare fuel, but what worth does it have? What worth does your work have, particularly if your sole function is to provide transport? It's not worthless by any stretch of the imagination, but what financial value are you going to put on managing resuscitations that are rarely successful in the first place? What financial value are you attributing to your daily functions? And who is paying for it?
The sanitation industry benefits everyone daily and their absence is immediately notable. Police ostensibly provide a public benefit to everyone. Fire departments are deliberately highly visible and good ones cut insurance rates for property, saving money. What does good EMS do for the community that doesn't involve medical care?
RocketMedic
Californian, Lost in Texas
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Dissection time!
-If I could go back in time, I'd have invested in desalination, water drilling, hydraulic engineering and water-efficient sanitation. Why? Because I have realized that Priority #1 isn't patients, patient care or even being a professional paramedic. Priority #1 is personal prosperity, which encompasses financial security, personal happiness and security. All else is a means to that end. "There is no honor in poverty."
-If I could go back in time, I'd have invested in desalination, water drilling, hydraulic engineering and water-efficient sanitation. Why? Because I have realized that Priority #1 isn't patients, patient care or even being a professional paramedic. Priority #1 is personal prosperity, which encompasses financial security, personal happiness and security. All else is a means to that end. "There is no honor in poverty."