4 ms·

>Both men said they are owed nearly $4,000 in their last two paychecks. Wow! Either they're getting paid once a month or they make a LOT of money. >Their seco

>Both men said they are owed nearly $4,000 in their last two paychecks. Wow! Either they're getting paid once a month or they make a LOT of money. >Their second-to-last paycheck, already deposited, evaporated out of their bank accounts. Uh, no. The checks were deposited and did NOT clear as they bounced. Because they were bankrupt. Omitting relevant facts to push a narrative is bad journalism at best. It makes it sound like the company removed funds from their accounts, instead they wrote bad checks. >and their paychecks from the end of June bounced, leaving many with negative bank account balances. https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/local/resource-session-held-for-blackjewel-employees-impacted-by-bankruptcy/article_9cd4a479-2459-524d-8587-d7757e69654a.html https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/local/resource-session-he...

seanmcdirmid 7y ago
$4k/month is only $48k, bi-monthly it is $96k, which isn’t unheard of for people working in natural resource extraction.
- ryanmercer 7y ago
  Ok? That's still surprising to me not knowing a single human being that's worked in a mine and constantly hearing about how poor mining towns are... 48k$ is a LOT of money to those outside of the Bay Area.
  - azinman2 7y ago
    48k is less than the median income in the US [1]. Miners also make generally around 100k, which is why they want to keep those jobs so hard. It’s rare to find high paying jobs in low cost areas that don’t require much education. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...
    - ryanmercer 7y ago
      >48k is less than the median income in the US Yet nearly half of workers in the United States earn less than $30,000[1] (people earning less than $30,000 accounts for 48.06% of the population[2]) and 1% of the country makes more than 250k a year[2]. Four states have a median HOUSEHOLD income under 48k[3]. The vast majority of people on HN seem to think that everyone is drawing a 6 figure software dev salary, federal minimum wage is 7.25 an hour. 13 years into my job and I'm one of the best paid people in my position and I'm around 36k now I think, new hires make considerably less than that at a fortune 500 company with 425k employees. [1] https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wages https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wage... [2] https://wallethacks.com/average-median-income-in-america/ https://wallethacks.com/average-median-income-in-america/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
      - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
        That might be true, but you aren’t working a drill site in North Dakota or a mine in West Virginia. Natural resource jobs have always been like that.
  - Aloha 7y ago
    Active mining towns are not poor, it's after the mine is all played out where it gets interesting
  - ci5er 7y ago
    I grew up in WY, on a sheep and cattle ranch (where we were poor, but had all the animal flesh to eat that we might desire), and the invading upstream O&G folks and the coal-miners at Thunder Basin mines and living in Campbell county all seemed to make more than $50K/year in 1985. Last I heard, even "soft jobs" like trainer, in the Eagle Ford and Permian were making at least that much. And in North Dakota - these were on the order of $72K per annum (recognizing that the weird shift schedule doesn't come out to 165 hours/month), - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=cus&q=oil+drilling+jobs+in+south+dakota&ibp=htl;jobs&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8vdGNnezjAhUPOq0KHe2bBC8Qp4wCMAB6BAgJEAE#htidocid=X_m5qxM-Fbu_lbzIAAAAAA%3D%3D https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=c... And that's E1/E2, which you can get without a GED and graduate out of in less than 6 months in the field. I do NOT know what a diesel tech makes in Indiana, but the hydrocarbon extraction folks in the Rockies seem to do more than 'ok' for not having any sort of degree (which doesn't mean that they are not intelligent)

seanmcdirmid 7y ago

$4k/month is only $48k, bi-monthly it is $96k, which isn’t unheard of for people working in natural resource extraction.

ryanmercer 7y ago
Ok? That's still surprising to me not knowing a single human being that's worked in a mine and constantly hearing about how poor mining towns are... 48k$ is a LOT of money to those outside of the Bay Area.
- azinman2 7y ago
  48k is less than the median income in the US [1]. Miners also make generally around 100k, which is why they want to keep those jobs so hard. It’s rare to find high paying jobs in low cost areas that don’t require much education. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...
  - ryanmercer 7y ago
    >48k is less than the median income in the US Yet nearly half of workers in the United States earn less than $30,000[1] (people earning less than $30,000 accounts for 48.06% of the population[2]) and 1% of the country makes more than 250k a year[2]. Four states have a median HOUSEHOLD income under 48k[3]. The vast majority of people on HN seem to think that everyone is drawing a 6 figure software dev salary, federal minimum wage is 7.25 an hour. 13 years into my job and I'm one of the best paid people in my position and I'm around 36k now I think, new hires make considerably less than that at a fortune 500 company with 425k employees. [1] https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wages https://howmuch.net/articles/how-much-americans-make-in-wage... [2] https://wallethacks.com/average-median-income-in-america/ https://wallethacks.com/average-median-income-in-america/ [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_income https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      That might be true, but you aren’t working a drill site in North Dakota or a mine in West Virginia. Natural resource jobs have always been like that.
- Aloha 7y ago
  Active mining towns are not poor, it's after the mine is all played out where it gets interesting
- ci5er 7y ago
  I grew up in WY, on a sheep and cattle ranch (where we were poor, but had all the animal flesh to eat that we might desire), and the invading upstream O&G folks and the coal-miners at Thunder Basin mines and living in Campbell county all seemed to make more than $50K/year in 1985. Last I heard, even "soft jobs" like trainer, in the Eagle Ford and Permian were making at least that much. And in North Dakota - these were on the order of $72K per annum (recognizing that the weird shift schedule doesn't come out to 165 hours/month), - https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=cus&q=oil+drilling+jobs+in+south+dakota&ibp=htl;jobs&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8vdGNnezjAhUPOq0KHe2bBC8Qp4wCMAB6BAgJEAE#htidocid=X_m5qxM-Fbu_lbzIAAAAAA%3D%3D https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&channel=c... And that's E1/E2, which you can get without a GED and graduate out of in less than 6 months in the field. I do NOT know what a diesel tech makes in Indiana, but the hydrocarbon extraction folks in the Rockies seem to do more than 'ok' for not having any sort of degree (which doesn't mean that they are not intelligent)