Where my pay goes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just because I happen to have a 20$ in my wallet it doesn't mean I sould pay that much for a pack of gum. Everything has it's value, including labor - mine, nanny's, everyone elses. Do you think "pay me more because you can" is any kind of a reasonable proposition? And even if so, then I should give away my money to minimum wage people first because they have it way harder than the OP.

Just like the clothes on your back and the food in your refrigerator are sold to you at a price that reflects predatory labor practices? Only the difference here is that there is no company to hide behind, no ignorance. The difference between a pack of gum and a nanny is that you are in a position to end predatory practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can everyone just get off the high horse about housing? If you can't afford a 1-br, you get a studio, that's what people do. I lived in a studio apartment for 5 years after completing graduate school. That's for a professional job that required a master's degree.

What year did you graduate? Is it possible your experience no longer reflects the norm? I would be willing to live in a studio but nor for over a thousand dollars. I have heard that Hill interns are putting two sets of bunk beds in their studios to save money, though.

It was in 2001 and I paid $750 for a studio in Dupont. My salary at the time was the princely 32K.

[Anonymous]

I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can everyone just get off the high horse about housing? If you can't afford a 1-br, you get a studio, that's what people do. I lived in a studio apartment for 5 years after completing graduate school. That's for a professional job that required a master's degree.

What year did you graduate? Is it possible your experience no longer reflects the norm? I would be willing to live in a studio but nor for over a thousand dollars. I have heard that Hill interns are putting two sets of bunk beds in their studios to save money, though.

It was in 2001 and I paid $750 for a studio in Dupont. My salary at the time was the princely 32K.

Factor in inflation and appreciated values over the course of more than 10 years, you don't see how a nanny making little more than you made could be having a rough time? A quick search would allow you to see that studio apartments in DC are going for upwards of $1500/month+utilities. I'm a nanny with nearly a decade of experience, speak 3 languages, and a degree. I make around $40k. Like we said, you are incredibly out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

Are you kidding me? They aren't predatory? Tell that to the little children in China and Taiwan making the clothes you buy at Macy's for cents per hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

Um, what? Consumer goods reflect the cost of labor. If you don't know that then I see why you are unaware of how deceptive market rate is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can everyone just get off the high horse about housing? If you can't afford a 1-br, you get a studio, that's what people do. I lived in a studio apartment for 5 years after completing graduate school. That's for a professional job that required a master's degree.

What year did you graduate? Is it possible your experience no longer reflects the norm? I would be willing to live in a studio but nor for over a thousand dollars. I have heard that Hill interns are putting two sets of bunk beds in their studios to save money, though.

It was in 2001 and I paid $750 for a studio in Dupont. My salary at the time was the princely 32K.

Thank you for supporting OPs argument! The price other people are suggesting for rent is the market rate of 13 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can everyone just get off the high horse about housing? If you can't afford a 1-br, you get a studio, that's what people do. I lived in a studio apartment for 5 years after completing graduate school. That's for a professional job that required a master's degree.

What year did you graduate? Is it possible your experience no longer reflects the norm? I would be willing to live in a studio but nor for over a thousand dollars. I have heard that Hill interns are putting two sets of bunk beds in their studios to save money, though.

It was in 2001 and I paid $750 for a studio in Dupont. My salary at the time was the princely 32K.

Wait, you made more the the nanny, ten years ago - on top of rent being 200% cheaper. DuPont Circle studios are around $2500 per month now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

Are you kidding me? They aren't predatory? Tell that to the little children in China and Taiwan making the clothes you buy at Macy's for cents per hour.

Write to your congressman about boycotting trade with China due to the lack of anti child labor laws there. Or read The Capital and start a revolution. No, wait, China is already communist... But this has nothing to do with the nanny pay rates market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

Are you kidding me? They aren't predatory? Tell that to the little children in China and Taiwan making the clothes you buy at Macy's for cents per hour.

Write to your congressman about boycotting trade with China due to the lack of anti child labor laws there. Or read The Capital and start a revolution. No, wait, China is already communist... But this has nothing to do with the nanny pay rates market.

The point being that just because something is market rates doesn't mean it is right. In those countries child labor, or any labor for that matter, isn't valued and conditions and compensation aren't fair. Nanny wages are not as extreme of course, but it is another example of systematic undervaluing of labor. Parents will simultaneously speak to both the importance of care for their children, and why a nanny's skill set and labor have little value. It is incongruous at best. Just as people will pay crazy money for quality clothing but think nothing of the state of the workers that made the clothing.

[Anonymous]

All the shrimp from Vietnam ( one of the world's largest exporters) comes from slave labor, but hey, that's just what the market there will support, amiright?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the shrimp from Vietnam ( one of the world's largest exporters) comes from slave labor, but hey, that's just what the market there will support, amiright?

Some of these MBs think harder about the treatment of the shrimp than the workers, just as they care more about the care of their produce than the migrant farm workers who work the fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't consider market rates predatory.
Your clothes and refrigerator and everything else you use also reflect these rates, why should you be exempted from them?

Are you kidding me? They aren't predatory? Tell that to the little children in China and Taiwan making the clothes you buy at Macy's for cents per hour.

Write to your congressman about boycotting trade with China due to the lack of anti child labor laws there. Or read The Capital and start a revolution. No, wait, China is already communist... But this has nothing to do with the nanny pay rates market.

The point being that just because something is market rates doesn't mean it is right. In those countries child labor, or any labor for that matter, isn't valued and conditions and compensation aren't fair. Nanny wages are not as extreme of course, but it is another example of systematic undervaluing of labor. Parents will simultaneously speak to both the importance of care for their children, and why a nanny's skill set and labor have little value. It is incongruous at best. Just as people will pay crazy money for quality clothing but think nothing of the state of the workers that made the clothing.

Very well said. It's why parents "can't afford" to parent their own babies.

It's more profitable to outsource "domestic labor,"
isn't it?

[Anonymous]

How do you afford housing and food if you don't outsource child care, meaning stay home and don't work? Shall everyone build their own house and work the fields not to outsource these either?

And if parents don't outsource childcare then nannies will not have any jobs. Would that be fair and more acceptable to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you afford housing and food if you don't outsource child care, meaning stay home and don't work? Shall everyone build their own house and work the fields not to outsource these either?

And if parents don't outsource childcare then nannies will not have any jobs. Would that be fair and more acceptable to you?

There aren't enough gifs in the world for this baffling "argument."

Yes, build your own home, raise your own kids, and grow your own food. OR pay the people who do those things enough that they can also have homes and kids and food.

How is this so perplexing? If a job needs to be done by a competent adult, it's a fair bet that competent adult has bills of their own to pay - just because it's not the job you chose it isn't worth a living wage?

I just can't with this thread anymore.