Like many of YOU, we have had children who got their first jobs in Ocean City. Not one of ours were ever paid minimum wage!
What Governor O'Malley and Jim Mathias haven't educated YOU on is this. Locals are paid more because they speak good english. Because they show up for work on time and are REWARDED with additional pay when an employer can depend on them. Hmmmm, interesting IDEA!
What you don't know is this. The foreign workers get less pay and in most countries where they come from, minimum wage HERE is a small fortune, it's true. Here's the deal though. Guess what, their employer doesn't have to pay medicare, Workers Comp, Social Security, unemployment taxes and so forth. Ocean City employers make a small fortune off the foreign workers.
The BIG problem there is, OUR money isn't REINVESTED back into our economy as the majority of the foreign income goes back to THEIR Country.
Now, considering the Eastern Shore CANNOT provide enough employees to fill ALL of the positions in Ocean City, this is the ONLY way businesses can survive there. It still does NOT mean that IF they were to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour that we'd have enough people here on the Shore to fill those positions.
Ocean City Employers already take care of the locals, income wise. Raising the minimum wage 30%+ will actually cause more harm than it will do good there. If you've raised your kids right, they'll do just fine without the help of the government intervening.
46 comments:
Are you reading this, Gov. O'Malley??
Ok I challenge some of this.
You say :
Now, considering the Eastern Shore CANNOT provide enough employees to fill ALL of the positions in Ocean City
Americans in the 17-32 age category are the highest unemployed. Also it has been a long standing and known issue that because the kids have to go back to school before labor day, that also create a shortage for employers.
I do not feel there is sufficient data to state that we can not fill the jobs with the citizens we have here.
It is all about money and employers know they make out hiring foreign exchange students. And the students often go home empty handed because it costs so much for them to provide for themselves living here on 7.25 an hour for the summer.
The system with foreign workers is broken.
Besides not paying those taxes that come with hiring a citizen, those foreign workers need a place to live.
They get packed 4 to a room inside some of these rentals. And it's not uncommon to see the living room turned into a bedroom, too.
So the company that "imports" the workers will often turn into a rental agent or landlord. They know what/when their workers get paid, and extract a pretty penny out of them.
It's really hard to compete as a local when foreigners work for less, come with federal subsidies, and end up being more like an indentured servant than a local worker.
OC can fully staff itself by paying the right market rate. Heck...Wicomico County can do it just by their own job losses since 2007. But OC will never want to pay a decent when it's cheaper to bring in foreigners.
Rich fatcats like you Joe want to keep the little man down while you line your pockets with the sweat of our brow. While you made yourself a millionaire with your businesses, did any of your employees become millionaires? You became one of the elite 1% because of the work done by the 99%. Do the math, Joe. It's time for people like you to give back.
There's a lot of truth in what you say about housing. I have desperately tried for MANY years now convincing our legislators that they need to create housing for ALL seasonal workers outside of Ocean City.
IF the Mayor and Council in Ocean City actually followed the LAW and went after those people renting studio apartments to 4 to 6 kids at a time you'd see a LOT of charges against a LOT of property owners.
Yeah, when is the last time you EVER heard this happening? I can tell you I went to visit my Son there one time and when I walked into his apartment there were SIX kids living in a studio apartment. the kitchen was a joke and the bathroom was right next to it.
Try talking an 18 year old out of living there and get this, they EACH paid $300.00 a WEEK to live there.
As for the unemployment rate, these are SEASONAL jobs. Of course the younger age group numbers are going to be higher.
As far as OC wages I can honestly say they always paid our kids exceptional money. The difference might be, our kids went to work every day and they worked hard. I can remember TWO of them an additional $2,500.00 bonus at the end of the season for sticking with their job all summer too.
Anyone thought about the person making $12 per hour? Raising minimum wage to $10 just put them back at the bottom. Will their wages be adjusted to reflect the new starting point? Doubt it.
Funny (not) when I brought up the housing issue on a previous post I got a lot of crap and was called a liar. Where were ya'll then?!
WOW Chuck, what an amazing ASSumption without ANY inside information.
First of all, I did NOT have to create and open ALL of the businesses I did. I did however open several businesses in order to EMPLOY people.
Did they make a million dollars, yes, one did, so shut your big mouth and they did so BECAUSE OF ME!
As far as giving back, I have "Paid It Forward" more so than you'll ever know and probably ever want to believe. Not only with money, I have physically done so in the last two snow storms and over the past several years.
I may have been blessed to do extremely well financially but I have NEVER forgotten where I came from.
Now I want YOU to think about something. If a guy like YOU came into my business looking for a job that MIGHT make YOU a millionaire, DO YOU REALLY THINK I'D HIRE SOMEONE LIKE YOU WITH THAT ATTITUDE?
I was an employee at the Dunes Manor & Castle In The Sand hotels. While one employer was evil & favored foreigners, the other was generous & preferred Americans.
Dunes Manor was an oppressive & hostile work environment where upper management bullied & enforced scare tactics upon their employees by constantly threatening to fire them. They treated American employees like trash, paid lower than average wages, hired numerous illegals, and Jam-Packed their staff with foreigners in the summer while turning away Americans so the Greedy owners & upper mgmt could pocket more $$$.
Castle In The Sand, on the other hand, is run by a compassionate & generous owner whose upper mgmt. treated their staff with the utmost respect & fairness within a more peaceful work environment. They appreciated the American workers who worked hard, paid them higher than average wages, and favored American workers over foreigners because the owner possessed integrity and was not greedy.
There is no lack of local workers that could staff Ocean City.....there is a reason that the restaurant owners are millionaires in Ocean City...they pay their workers low wages and charge high prices for their services....they have made it big off paying foreign slave wages to foreign workers and locals alike!
PUT THE COP with them on a treadmill please...my taxes pay for his health care...
"Ocean City employers make a small fortune off the foreign workers."
Confused. Are you saying that OC employers make a small fortune but aren't reinvesting THAT into our local economy?
Hmmm.
A lot of these Foreign girls have to also give up sex to obtain work, and living quarters, I know, as a close friend of mine owns a business in OC, and he has done this. He has even offered these girls out to parties. The whole system of those poor girls having to come over here and be mistreated is deplorable.
2:01 not all of them live here year round, so who's to say where it all ends up.
Hmmm.
If imported slave "foreign workers" were not allowed in, wages would rise without Government intervention. The imported workers have artificially suppressed the average wage in Worcester County.
Why can't the public see this effect locally and nationally?
Immigration and "guest workers" are the enemy of working Americans.
2:01, please do tell us all how OC employers are reinvesting their small fortunes into our local economy because many of us see them investing their small fortunes on themselves via personal investments, retirement accounts, etc.
to 2:05: I run a business in Ocean City and am truly disgusted by your post. If what you say is true then you should turn your "close friend" into the police. If you don't, then you are just as responsible for his illegal behavior as he is (as far as I'm concerned) It is people like your friend that give Ocean City a bad name. I have employed many foreign students over the years and always pay them above min wage. I also treat them with the respect and dignity that ANY employee should receive. Each of my employees success is based on how well they do their job. I fear the implications of the poor young women that are subjected to "your friends" sex slavery and then take that impression of our country back to their country. Absolutely horrible.
Anon 2:05
If what you say is true you did a great dis-service to these girls by not coming forward and bringing this information to the attention of the appropriate authorities.
Prostitution should be legal in OC, leave 2:05 alone
2:38 presents a GREAT point worthy of a re-post below.
The only people benefiting from the intrusion/invasion of foreign workers upon American soil for jobs are the business owners. While the owners rake in heftier profits by hiring Cheap foreigners & the foreigners hoard the money they earned in the U.S. and take it back to their countries when the dust settles in O.C. come September, our area and America suffers.
2:38's post was:
"If imported slave "foreign workers" were not allowed in, wages would rise without Government intervention. The imported workers have artificially suppressed the average wage in Worcester County.
Why can't the public see this effect locally and nationally?
Immigration and "guest workers" are the enemy of working Americans."
The public does, that's why our representatives just voted to let more slave workers in to work in the seafood industry
Desperate for a prostitute 3:10? Go to Salisbury.
Which reps 3:23? Good bit of info to know during an election year.
2:40-You are the norm when it comes to foreign workers. Everyone needs to get off the notion that these kids are poverty cases from some far off village in European countries.
Not a thing could be further from the truth. These students are way above and beyond our own kids. Most all have traveled abroad extensively and are way more sophisticated, worldly and cosmopolitan than American kids.
Just about all are from middle to upper class European families.
No one is holding them here against their will. The 'indentured servant' is nonsense. They can leave any time they please. As far as putting money back into the economy, most do some traveling during and after the season is over in OC, so they are reinvesting into the economy. Many come back year after year, so it can't be that bad.
Not sure what the going rate on the Boardwalk is now, but well over 3 years ago it was $10/hr and it didn't matter whether you were a foreigner or an American.
Albero just had it on here the other day. I can't remember exactly which ones, Mikulski and Harris, I believe
You're a peon, says it all
4:19 - I've spoken to many of the foreigners and most say they earn the approximate equivalent of a measly $1/hour in their countries. The point is they are taking jobs from Americans and on top of that, they hoard as many U.S. Dollars as they can to take back to their countries to spend there instead of in the U.S.
As far as the $10/hour boardwalk jobs you are referring to, please tell us which businesses pay that rate. I'm sure many workers would appreciate the opportunity to be employed at their businesses for that amount of money.
Raising minimum wage for American workers will do what? Check out the site below that explains (with numbers) how an employer benefits by using foreign vs American workers. If a minimum wage affected only American workers, things will only get worse. It makes more sense to require employers to pay the same unemployment taxes no mater where the employee was from.
http://wollt.org/hirej1students/63/save-payroll-taxes/
Wrong. "And the students often go home empty handed because it costs so much for them to provide for themselves living here on 7.25 an hour for the summer."
First: NOBODY makes minimum wage in OC. (OK.. maybe a very small percentage.) The McDonalds - due to supply and demand for employees - are at about $11.00 per hour - over $12.00 at the end of the summer season.
Secondly: The housing for the foreign students is HIGHLY subsidized by our government. The housing isn't too bad, considering. Plus, for the "students" to save even more, they fill a 4-person unit with a dozen or so people.
Lastly: They (the foreign students) are notorious for never spending ANY money during the summers and contribute absolutely nothing to the local economy. We locals know this all too well. They even have "free dinner" nights during each summer week, organized by the company that is paid to bring them here.
The only exception for not spending money while they are here is during the final days before they go back home (those that do, anyway) they load-up on clothing. Bags and bags of clothing. It's almost comical to see them going to the busses as they are leaving.
(As a personal side-note to Joe: I was looking forward to the Ocean City Blog you talked about months ago. Is that still in the works? If so, start with the foreign student situation in this town. You'll be absolutely amazed at what you would uncover!)
I did see on OC's own website where they have church dinners every night of the week for the europeans
There are plenty of girls to go around in OC, for prostitution, and many are employed at those stores that sell all of that beachwear stuff, there is a store on every corner, and those girls are not forced to sell themselves, they do it for the money! The locations allow them to cover almost all of OC and Delaware.
Prostitution is legal in Salisbury and drugs why? Because the cops have no Balz
The company I used to work for hired them because they could start work in April and and stay until October. With schools and and colleges starting in late August it was loosing local employees before the Labor Day weekend, the last "Big Weekend".
The ones I dealt with were very hard working and their english was very good, in speaking and understanding English (they were from Russia). I don't ever think there was any complaints from customers about them, unlike our local employees that could care less about customer service.
Said it on last post say here again...don't paint all business the same....my students love it here, don't get more than $8/hour and come back if still in the program the next summer. Those of you who know nothing about it continue to make up your bs...housing is not subsidized for my kids they pay their own way. They spend a ton of money on clothes and electronics because they can't get them that cheap in their country. So just keep your bs and I'll keep hiring these great kids while your lazy teens play Xbox and stuff cheetos in their face.
Who is the cop?
Andy, have you checked up on the economy of Eastern European countries? It's much better than ours esp Russia's. Poverty rate lower, unemployment lower and on and on. They are actually much better off than we are in quite a few of those countries. Also our money has been so diluted the rate of exchange is low, so our dollar doesn't go far in Europe anymore. They are telling you tall tales.
I worked on the boardwalk in a friends family business. I will agree that many foreign workers spent little money during the summer, most times because they worked two jobs. They saved their money so that they could tour this country after the season shut down. I will say that doesn't help the local economy, however before they returned to their country of origin they spent most of their money here in the US. They don't party excessively, don't show up for work hung over or not show up at all.
Andy, Mark Douglas jewelry store did, as well as many others 6 years ago. I worked there for a summer and before I got the job I went around and 10 an hour was normal for a shop on the boardwalk. I didn't apply at any food places so I can't speak on those. I worked with 2 Polish girls who were also making that wage. I only worked one summer because parking was a nightmare. I think that may prevent a lot of locals from working in OC.
Anon 6:36 you sound like one of those arrogant owners in Ocean City who belittles their employees just as you belittled our area's teens. No wonder you love foreign workers. You can treat them like dogs because they're in a vulnerable can't lose their job position while American kids have the capability of defending themselves against your bullying butt!
"I've spoken to many of the foreigners and most say they earn the approximate equivalent of a measly $1/hour in their countries"
What a crock of crap this is. The equivalent of a US dollar in any European country would not even buy you a small candy bar. Yeah tall tales are being told! Common sense dictates that people all over Europe would be starving and freezing to death is this were true. It would be a humanitarian crisis in some countries if this were true.
8:03 & 8:33 - The guys I spoke to were from Bulgaria & Romania. Just researched average minimum wages of other countries in Wikipedia:
Russia - $1.04/hr
Bulgaria - $1.34/hr
Romania - $1.46/hr
This has nothing to do with "average minimum" wages, which BTW most countries have a more complicated system than we do here in the US which is federally mandated and set in stone. The percentage of people making this wage in the countries you mentioned is relatively low.
The equivalent of $1/per hour scenario is occurring in countries like India and parts of Africa and south Asia as well as Afghanistan.
The bottom line here folks is that the only people who appreciate these annoying foreigners are OC's business owners and the perpetual tax-imposing Democrats such as Mathias and O'Malley who are most likely contemplating how to squeeze more taxes from OC's businesses while strolling on the boardwalk. There needs to be a limit set to the amount of foreigners allowed here because they unwanted and unwelcome by us locals.
Joe you inseuate in your post that American teems make more money because they show for work on time and speak good english. This statement is the only part of your post I have issue with. Not the English portion hence the reason most of the none English speaking kids work in the back of the house. As far as these kids not showing up for work on time or simply not showing at all is a flat out false assumption that many people make. In fact most foreign teens are more reliable then that of American teens. Having managed a store on the boadwalk for years now I find this to be true. Not to mention our owners do not set limits or tell me who I can and can't hire. I can say I have no issues what so ever in hiring foreigners to do a job that American teens don't treat with respect.
anonymous 11:03, I meant NO disrespect towards anyone, for the record. I thank you for your comment and opinion.
The reason foreigners are better workers is because if they aren't and get fired they get sent back to their countries. OC employers know this and many of them treat these foreign kids like dogs!
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