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KUOW Union Members Walk Picket Line To Demand Fair Wages

I would be willing to bet KUOW staff are among of the highest paid in the NPR system, on par with DC, SF, and NYC.

Just to give a sense of scale, the threshold for qualifying for public housing in Seattle is $66,750 for a household of one, and $76,250 for a household of two. https://www.seattlehousing.org/hous...bility/income-level-low-income-public-housing

In my experience, a lot of times this sort of public negotation conflates household income with income from one job. Its 2022: if all households are not two income households, that is a choice. Your employer is not responsible for your spouse/partner not working.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I would be willing to bet KUOW staff are among of the highest paid in the NPR system, on par with DC, SF, and NYC.

Just to give a sense of scale, the threshold for qualifying for public housing in Seattle is $66,750 for a household of one, and $76,250 for a household of two. https://www.seattlehousing.org/hous...bility/income-level-low-income-public-housing

In my experience, a lot of times this sort of public negotation conflates household income with income from one job. Its 2022: if all households are not two income households, that is a choice. Your employer is not responsible for your spouse/partner not working.
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Whether my spouse is or is not working should have nothing to do with my compensation.
 
gr8oldies said:
Whether my spouse is or is not working should have nothing to do with my compensation.
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Yes, that's exactly what I said.

But the union is saying that their employees should be paid such that a household of two would not qualify for rental assistance in Seattle.
 
But rent in the Seattle area has approached the price of rent in the SF Bay Area. Portland is getting close too.
 
I rented a 1 BR in Shoreline for $945/month in 2014. The same units are now renting for $1790/month now. Definitely outpaced inflation and raises by a large amount!

Unfortunately, unless donations are up, a raise is going to hurt somebody, somewhere there. Either the axe will fall on someone, or there will be attrition and everyone will have to work smarter/faster/etc.
 
seattlesarchiebunker said:
I rented a 1 BR in Shoreline for $945/month in 2014. The same units are now renting for $1790/month now. Definitely outpaced inflation and raises by a large amount!

Unfortunately, unless donations are up, a raise is going to hurt somebody, somewhere there. Either the axe will fall on someone, or there will be attrition and everyone will have to work smarter/faster/etc.
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These issues affect far more (and arguably more important things) than radio. When real estate prices and rents reach these kinds of levels, who's working in the hospitals or teaching the kids or even serving the coffee? You can't run a city on entirely tech workers making $175k, as much as property developers would love for that to be the case.

We've been asking people to commute from further and further out of cities to do these jobs, but people are starting to say "no more". As for the stuff above about two-person households, check the stats. The number of single person households is at an all-time high. Not everyone wants to couple up, and once you reach a certain age the roommates situation starts to wear thin, too.
 
Miss Tuned said:
These issues affect far more (and arguably more important things) than radio. When real estate prices and rents reach these kinds of levels, who's working in the hospitals or teaching the kids or even serving the coffee?
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Then you have the homeless situation. Fox News will tell you the cause of homelessness is political. But it's really economic. What can the city do when market forces drive up the costs of housing and food? Not much. Some cities like LA are building low cost housing. But is that the role of city government? Then everyone wants to blame the party in power for inflation. It's a circular problem, and no one is going to be happy with the solution.
 
TheBigA said:
Then you have the homeless situation. Fox News will tell you the cause of homelessness is political. But it's really economic. What can the city do when market forces drive up the costs of housing and food? Not much. Some cities like LA are building low cost housing. But is that the role of city government? Then everyone wants to blame the party in power for inflation. It's a circular problem, and no one is going to be happy with the solution.
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Our state and local solution to homelessness is charging the homeless with felonies, and building homeless-proof infrastructure.
 
Miss Tuned said:
These issues affect far more (and arguably more important things) than radio. When real estate prices and rents reach these kinds of levels, who's working in the hospitals or teaching the kids or even serving the coffee? You can't run a city on entirely tech workers making $175k, as much as property developers would love for that to be the case.
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Same thing happened in the Bay Area. The housing market became way above the means of the average service, or even Amazon Fullfillment-worker, let alone radio reporter. Commutes became unbearable, because more people had no choice in making a living.
Miss Tuned said:
We've been asking people to commute from further and further out of cities to do these jobs, but people are starting to say "no more". As for the stuff above about two-person households, check the stats. The number of single person households is at an all-time high. Not everyone wants to couple up, and once you reach a certain age the roommates situation starts to wear thin, too.
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Even though my commute here on the East Coast is 64 miles each way, those miles take me about 1.5 hours. Even ten years ago when I commuted from my home in Shoreline to downtown Seattle, it took me that long to travel 10 miles. It's much worse there now.
 
gr8oldies said:
Our state and local solution to homelessness is charging the homeless with felonies, and building homeless-proof infrastructure.
Click to expand...

The next problem is the infrastructure needs low paid workers to keep it afloat. How much do you want to pay the guy who mows your grass? Picks up your garbage? Washes dishes in the restaurants?
 
Miss Tuned said:
These issues affect far more (and arguably more important things) than radio. When real estate prices and rents reach these kinds of levels, who's working in the hospitals or teaching the kids or even serving the coffee? You can't run a city on entirely tech workers making $175k, as much as property developers would love for that to be the case.

We've been asking people to commute from further and further out of cities to do these jobs, but people are starting to say "no more". As for the stuff above about two-person households, check the stats. The number of single person households is at an all-time high. Not everyone wants to couple up, and once you reach a certain age the roommates situation starts to wear thin, too.
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The general answer made by politicians and the media for these sorts of complaints is "Shut Up Peasants! Back to Work!"

That, and the usual "If you had only gone to college and educated yourself you wouldn't be in that predicament now! So, sucks to be you!"

You don't see comments like that here on RD, mind you, where most members understand that life isn't a bowl of chocolates... but elsewhere in that vast media void we call the internet, where people think Horatio Alger wasn't a 19th pulp fiction novel writer but actually a prominent economist.
 
boombox4 said:
The general answer made by politicians and the media for these sorts of complaints is "Shut Up Peasants! Back to Work!"

That, and the usual "If you had only gone to college and educated yourself you wouldn't be in that predicament now! So, sucks to be you!"

You don't see comments like that here on RD, mind you, where most members understand that life isn't a bowl of chocolates... but elsewhere in that vast media void we call the internet, where people think Horatio Alger wasn't a 19th pulp fiction novel writer but actually a prominent economist.
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When I see that on Facebook, I think "my decisions have always been perfect and what the hell is wrong with you" has entered the chat.
 
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