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> we're in a extreme situation where employers need people but aren't willing to move salaries upward to get it This line nails it and is true for so many comp

> we're in a extreme situation where employers need people but aren't willing to move salaries upward to get it This line nails it and is true for so many companies now it's painful. Just a few weeks ago I was trying to help a hiring manager fix his candidate pipeline for qualified people and when I dug in, his target salary was the same as it was in 2010. I think the fundamental problem is that outside of tech, companies are completely unwilling to potentially sacrifice corporate profits to raise wages. Instead, they'll explore every possible alternative from outsourcing to "contract-to-hire" (spoiler: they'll never hire) to underpaid H1B to piling more responsibilities onto fewer people before even considering bumping pay up. The second chart in [1] summarizes the situation nicely. [1] https://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/the-real-culprit/6276 https://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/the-real-culprit/6276

scarface74 8y ago
they'll explore every possible alternative from outsourcing to "contract-to-hire" (spoiler: they'll never hire) What’s wrong with contract to hire or straight contract? I’ve always made more on contract jobs - even taking into account unpaid time off - than I could have made with the same skillset as a fulltime employee. It helps that I don’t care about health benefits. I get those through my wife’s very stable government job.
- joezydeco 8y ago
  You answered your own question here. It’s all about benefits.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Health benefits is just another expense that you should calculate into your required hourly rate if you need it. We aren’t talking about exploited (not being sarcastic) relatively low paid employees. It’s no different than calculating your self employment taxes and factoring in unpaid time off when taking your required hourly rate into account. I paid insurance out of pocket during my first contracting gig via CORBA - that was before I was married. Most contractors I know either buy through the ACA exchanges or through thier contracting company.
joezydeco 8y ago
What’s equally amazing to me, and this just personally happened to me, is that companies would rather walk away from the discussion over a figure smaller than the amount of productivity being lost by the vacancy. I recently turned down an offer from a company that went on and on about the backlog of projects that needed attention and couldn’t ship. My estimate was that they were probably losing a few hundred thousand in annual sales due to headcount. Want to know how much they wouldn’t budge on a salary offer? $15K. The position is still unfilled. It’s been six months, and the job was open six months before that.

scarface74 8y ago

they'll explore every possible alternative from outsourcing to "contract-to-hire" (spoiler: they'll never hire) What’s wrong with contract to hire or straight contract? I’ve always made more on contract jobs - even taking into account unpaid time off - than I could have made with the same skillset as a fulltime employee. It helps that I don’t care about health benefits. I get those through my wife’s very stable government job.

joezydeco 8y ago
You answered your own question here. It’s all about benefits.
- scarface74 8y ago
  Health benefits is just another expense that you should calculate into your required hourly rate if you need it. We aren’t talking about exploited (not being sarcastic) relatively low paid employees. It’s no different than calculating your self employment taxes and factoring in unpaid time off when taking your required hourly rate into account. I paid insurance out of pocket during my first contracting gig via CORBA - that was before I was married. Most contractors I know either buy through the ACA exchanges or through thier contracting company.

joezydeco 8y ago

What’s equally amazing to me, and this just personally happened to me, is that companies would rather walk away from the discussion over a figure smaller than the amount of productivity being lost by the vacancy. I recently turned down an offer from a company that went on and on about the backlog of projects that needed attention and couldn’t ship. My estimate was that they were probably losing a few hundred thousand in annual sales due to headcount. Want to know how much they wouldn’t budge on a salary offer? $15K. The position is still unfilled. It’s been six months, and the job was open six months before that.