Political Discussion

I was just reading about Tip Inflation on another forum. @Indymisanthrope, I expect to see that quote from you. I am baiting you here.

Basically, leaving a 15% tip is no longer considered acceptable. Most people are leaving 20% or 25% minimum.

In addition to this, square no longer has 15% as a pre selectable tip option. They only have 20%, 25% and 30% as well as leave a custom tip. Meaning you can't leave 15% without doing a custom tip and doing the math yourself. In some cases, restaurants are preselecting 30% as the default tip for Square if don't change the tip selection.

If the percentage of what you should tip is going up. Doesn't that mean there is a problem with wages and maybe these people are not being paid enough?

Tipped workers are for sure liking this. Most say they prefer tips of wages because they would never make as much with wages as they do with tips.

But to me, that just reinforces that there is a problem here. We don't pay wages high enough for people to make a living.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I was just reading about Tip Inflation on another forum. @Indymisanthrope, I expect to see that quote from you. I am baiting you here.

Basically, leaving a 15% tip is no longer considered acceptable. Most people are leaving 20% or 25% minimum.

In addition to this, square no longer has 15% as a pre selectable tip option. They only have 20%, 25% and 30% as well as leave a custom tip. Meaning you can't leave 15% without doing a custom tip and doing the math yourself. In some cases, restaurants are preselecting 30% as the default tip for Square if don't change the tip selection.

If the percentage of what you should tip is going up. Doesn't that mean there is a problem with wages and maybe these people are not being paid enough?

Tipped workers are for sure liking this. Most say they prefer tips of wages because they would never make as much with wages as they do with tips.

But to me, that just reinforces that there is a problem here. We don't pay wages high enough for people to make a living.
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But aren't food prices going up? Then if a restaurant raises their menu prices shouldn't the percentage norm remain the same? I understand that not all business - food or otherwise - are currently passing costs onto consumers but absolute percentages shouldn't change as the relative number fluctuates with price changes.

Of course, that's not an argument as to whether or not the entire model is flawed. But at face value it doesn't make sense to change percentages that way.

But what does it mean to be acceptable? I didn't think 15% was really the acceptable ground floor to begin with. I'd always used 20% as my baseline and adjusted up or down based on service. But, evidently, others use 15. And when I can very well leave a restaurant and tip zero with no retribution then therein lies a problem.

Not to mention the ubiquitous tip jars or electronic asks for tips in places that those used to not exist. Tipping is the wild west.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.reuters.com

Russia calls for return to 'peaceful co-existence' with U.S. like during Cold War -Interfax

Russia and the United States should return to the principle of "peaceful co-existence" like during the Cold War, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

What exactly does this mean? Does this mean we have reverted to "cold war" relations?
Click to expand...

That happened at least 10 years ago, relations between Russia and the rest of the world are worse than they’ve ever been.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
www.reuters.com

Russia calls for return to 'peaceful co-existence' with U.S. like during Cold War -Interfax

Russia and the United States should return to the principle of "peaceful co-existence" like during the Cold War, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

What exactly does this mean? Does this mean we have reverted to "cold war" relations?
Click to expand...
“The foreign ministry added that it was open to honest and mutually respectful dialogue with the United States and that hope remained that normalcy in relations between the two countries could be restored, Interfax reported.”

Do Russian “officials” understand the meaning of the word? Do they not see they are the cause of their own problems right now?
 
epyon415 said:
“The foreign ministry added that it was open to honest and mutually respectful dialogue with the United States and that hope remained that normalcy in relations between the two countries could be restored, Interfax reported.”

Do Russian “officials” understand the meaning of the word? Do they not see they are the cause of their own problems right now?
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We ignore the lies we tell ourselves everyday here. What's a few more in a foreign country?
 
Overall prices are up 7.9% in February 2022 compared to February 2021. Grocery prices are up near 20%.

Near record high inflation continues to persists and now the price of oil/gas is skyrocketing which is going to drive the price of everything else up.

The cost of housing/rent is up 15% to 30% in many areas.

Companies are still pulling in record profits.

Meanwhile, we have companies saying no raises this year because we are in uncertain times. Other companies saying they are giving very generous 2 to 4 percent raises to their employees this year. But the reality of it, most people have essentially taken a pay cut over the last year. Even if they got a raise.

There are plenty of stories out there about employers paying more and money out there to be found. But most of the time this means moving between companies. Staying put is not going to land you that big raise. There are signs that this favorable job market is slowing down.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Overall prices are up 7.9% in February 2022 compared to February 2021. Grocery prices are up near 20%.

Near record high inflation continues to persists and now the price of oil/gas is skyrocketing which is going to drive the price of everything else up.

The cost of housing/rent is up 15% to 30% in many areas.

Companies are still pulling in record profits.

Meanwhile, we have companies saying no raises this year because we are in uncertain times. Other companies saying they are giving very generous 2 to 4 percent raises to their employees this year. But the reality of it, most people have essentially taken a pay cut over the last year. Even if they got a raise.

There are plenty of stories out there about employers paying more and money out there to be found. But most of the time this means moving between companies. Staying put is not going to land you that big raise. There are signs that this favorable job market is slowing down.
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It’s a war time economy. You’re likely going to be having the best of it in the US with your domestic gas and oil reserves, you’ll just have price hikes. In Europe the boycott of Russian gas has our govt already tip toeing around the possibility of fuel rationing if this goes on medium term and as it we are already over €2 a litre for petrol. Let’s face it it pales insignificance when put next to what Ukraine is facing.
 
Joe Mac said:
It’s a war time economy. You’re likely going to be having the best of it in the US with your domestic gas and oil reserves, you’ll just have price hikes. In Europe the boycott of Russian gas has our govt already tip toeing around the possibility of fuel rationing if this goes on medium term and as it we are already over €2 a litre for petrol. Let’s face it it pales insignificance when put next to what Ukraine is facing.
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True. But other than the gas hikes I mentioned just recently skyrocketing. Everything else listed is "pre-wartime".

Meaning it was already bad, and only going to get worse.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
Overall prices are up 7.9% in February 2022 compared to February 2021. Grocery prices are up near 20%.

Near record high inflation continues to persists and now the price of oil/gas is skyrocketing which is going to drive the price of everything else up.

The cost of housing/rent is up 15% to 30% in many areas.

Companies are still pulling in record profits.

Meanwhile, we have companies saying no raises this year because we are in uncertain times. Other companies saying they are giving very generous 2 to 4 percent raises to their employees this year. But the reality of it, most people have essentially taken a pay cut over the last year. Even if they got a raise.

There are plenty of stories out there about employers paying more and money out there to be found. But most of the time this means moving between companies. Staying put is not going to land you that big raise. There are signs that this favorable job market is slowing down.
Click to expand...

I love the narrative about how it was a "job seeker's market", because it hasn't been a job seeker's market in 50 years. People demanded more money because they were putting their lives at risk, and those increases in pay ended up not even keeping up with inflation.

HOWEVER, and this is me, as a friend, talking to you, @RenegadeMonster, as a friend. I work for an evil monopolistic company that's been know to be terrible to their employees. Even my employer realized the dire talent shortage and gave us raises, fully funded our bonuses, and promised not to raise our health premiums for next year. If your company isn't giving basic raises (2-4%), you seriously need to look elsewhere.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
True. But other than the gas hikes I mentioned just recently skyrocketing. Everything else listed is "pre-wartime".

Meaning it was already bad, and only going to get worse.
Click to expand...

True but a pandemic economy is in effect a war time economy and has caused a lot of the shortages that have driven those prices up. The next few years are not going to get easier that’s for sure.
 
nolalady said:
I love the narrative about how it was a "job seeker's market", because it hasn't been a job seeker's market in 50 years. People demanded more money because they were putting their lives at risk, and those increases in pay ended up not even keeping up with inflation.

HOWEVER, and this is me, as a friend, talking to you, @RenegadeMonster, as a friend. I work for an evil monopolistic company that's been know to be terrible to their employees. Even my employer realized the dire talent shortage and gave us raises, fully funded our bonuses, and promised not to raise our health premiums for next year. If your company isn't giving basic raises (2-4%), you seriously need to look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

2017 was the last year my company gave annual raises which they called "cost of living adjustments". The only way to get a raise now is a promotion. Some departments, such as creative and account have people get raises every promotion cycle. Departments like mine, often get shafted. Out current pay band structure also would have you a VP in 1 to 2 promotions. And as they have said plenty of times, not everyone can be a vp, they would be too top heavy. What is badly needed is a restructuring of titles and pay bands have have more tiers to grow into.

My company has been taking a lot of questions from concerned employees about pay and the cost of everything going up. So $1,000 bonus for everyone national employee appreciation day was the direction they went to try to retain talent and ease things. But they continue to say their hands are tied by our holding company. They can't give raises outside of one promotion cycle a year. And budgets have been set by our holding company. So many departments don't get a budget the allow for promotions.

They tried to do a pay band restructuring last year. Something they have been working on for 5 years. They had a third party company conduct an audit of cost of living and competitive pay around each office and create competitive pay bands and move everyone into them.

But that findings were more of a insult than finally. The competitive pay data the new pay bands were based off of were based off of out of date data and not the current market. And to add more insult to it, what it found is most everyone was paid below the pay bands they are in. Last years raises were to bring people into the floor of their pay band. And depending on the department, a pay band can span 10k to 20k before the next pay band. So yup, everyone got brought up the floor of the payband, and without annual cost of living adjustments there is no way to make more without being promoted into the next pay band.

I did get an extra 2k a year added to my salary last May from this, but I'm still short of what I made in 2019 when I was OT eligible. I had a title change / promotion in 2019 that eliminated over time and I actually made less at the end of the day.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
There are plenty of stories out there about employers paying more and money out there to be found. But most of the time this means moving between companies.
Click to expand...

nolalady said:
If your company isn't giving basic raises (2-4%), you seriously need to look elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Yep, this is where I'm at. My wife has been getting definitely one, sometimes two increases a year ranging 2.5 to 7%. I went without one for a decade, then the last two years they've been 1%.
They typically give the increases here in June. So I will be patient, see what comes in June and if it's 1% or less, I'll schedule a meeting and ask for more. If denied, I think it's finally time to look elsewhere. There are a lot of us here that are upset; morale is low and people are taking to sneaking out early, doing less, and other passive-aggressive ways to offset their being upset with management.
 
Also, my company has a lot of boomerangs. People have left and came back 2 or more times. These are the people who are making the best salaries.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
2017 was the last year my company gave annual raises which they called "cost of living adjustments". The only way to get a raise now is a promotion. Some departments, such as creative and account have people get raises every promotion cycle. Departments like mine, often get shafted. Out current pay band structure also would have you a VP in 1 to 2 promotions. And as they have said plenty of times, not everyone can be a vp, they would be too top heavy. What is badly needed is a restructuring of titles and pay bands have have more tiers to grow into.

My company has been taking a lot of questions from concerned employees about pay and the cost of everything going up. So $1,000 bonus for everyone national employee appreciation day was the direction they went to try to retain talent and ease things. But they continue to say their hands are tied by our holding company. They can't give raises outside of one promotion cycle a year. And budgets have been set by our holding company. So many departments don't get a budget the allow for promotions.

They tried to do a pay band restructuring last year. Something they have been working on for 5 years. They had a third party company conduct an audit of cost of living and competitive pay around each office and create competitive pay bands and move everyone into them.

But that findings were more of a insult than finally. The competitive pay data the new pay bands were based off of were based off of out of date data and not the current market. And to add more insult to it, what it found is most everyone was paid below the pay bands they are in. Last years raises were to bring people into the floor of their pay band. And depending on the department, a pay band can span 10k to 20k before the next pay band. So yup, everyone got brought up the floor of the payband, and without annual cost of living adjustments there is no way to make more without being promoted into the next pay band.

I did get an extra 2k a year added to my salary last May from this, but I'm still short of what I made in 2019 when I was OT eligible. I had a title change / promotion in 2019 that eliminated over time and I actually made less at the end of the day.
Click to expand...
Do you mind me asking what you do for a job? Do you work in tech or computer science in some way? My company is constantly hiring and mostly remote people. I've been getting raises every year, one year only 3%, but it has mostly been 5-6%. It does help that we're one of the largest privately owned companies in the country so the markets don't influence business decisions. If you were looking elsewhere I could probably recommend you.
 
wokeupnew said:
Do you mind me asking what you do for a job? Do you work in tech or computer science in some way? My company is constantly hiring and mostly remote people. I've been getting raises every year, one year only 3%, but it has mostly been 5-6%. It does help that we're one of the largest privately owned companies in the country so the markets don't influence business decisions. If you were looking elsewhere I could probably recommend you.
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I'm a web developer and I'm currently working for an advertising agency.

When I started they only hired mid levels and had quite a few senior levels. All senior levels have been laid off and now we only higher junior levels.

So the different levels are Junior Developer, Developer, Senior Developer, VP, SVP, EVP of the department. Currently we have no SVP or EVP and the one VP is taking on the roll of both the SVP and EVP that left and they have no plans to back fill.
 
RenegadeMonster said:
I'm a web developer and I'm currently working for an advertising agency.

When I started they only hired mid levels and had quite a few senior levels. All senior levels have been laid off and now we only higher junior levels.

So the different levels are Junior Developer, Developer, Senior Developer, VP, SVP, EVP of the department. Currently we have no SVP or EVP and the one VP is taking on the roll of both the SVP and EVP that left and they have no plans to back fill.
Click to expand...
There's loads of jobs like that and software engineers. I actually don't know if web/software are the same thing because I'm not one of those folks haha. But take a look here if you're interested. Really good pay, excellent benefits, good PTO. Almost all of them are remote. I can push you along if you do apply!
 
wokeupnew said:
There's loads of jobs like that and software engineers. I actually don't know if web/software are the same thing because I'm not one of those folks haha. But take a look here if you're interested. Really good pay, excellent benefits, good PTO. Almost all of them are remote. I can push you along if you do apply!
Click to expand...

There can be a lot of overlap, or none. It all depends on the programming languages being used.

Looking at the Software Engineers posting, Java, React JS, Angular JS, Mysql and some others are all stuff I know and deal with and have experience with. Though I have no experience with Pega, Kafka, Kubernetes & Helm which are also listed under job requirements for experience.
 
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