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Computer techs are very underpaid in Canada. One place I got paid around $30/week.... that was in the 1990s though. (the coworkers were awesome but the employ

Computer techs are very underpaid in Canada. One place I got paid around $30/week.... that was in the 1990s though. (the coworkers were awesome but the employer was abusive as all anything) I've worked at a few places since though and wouldn't recommend that work to my worst enemy. Better pay and hours in fast food, and less customer abuse typically. One of the things rarely mentioned is that there's two people who get blamed when tech fails - the user themselves, and the tech who comes in to fix it. Not a great recipe for happy encounters or healthy cultures.

sslayer 3y ago
Are you implying that we cant expect moral/ethical behavior because of the pay rate?
- teunispeters 3y ago
  yes. Same goes for a lot of other fields, eg airport security. Now one of the shops I worked in was very deep in moral/ethical responsibility but it seems an outlier. The reason I say yes is partially due to morals/ethics having something of a cost. Low paid people aren't paid well enough to mitigate the cruelty or rudeness they're often treated with.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> One place I got paid around $30/week.... that was in the 1990s though. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/ https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculat... says that $30 in 1999 is $50.80 in 2023. That doesn't sound underpaid to me.
- rrobukef 3y ago
  Minimum wage in canada in '99 was +-9$. Did he work 6 hours per week at 50% tax burden?
  - teunispeters 3y ago
    They used a loophole and only paid me if I did billed work. They did that to everyone there. I'd rather not get into it any more, they were cruel and unusual employers and did systemic mental abuse. My next employer at least paid minimum wage.
- vGPU 3y ago
  You missed the “per week”. $50.80/wk sounds pretty underpaid to me.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    ...yes, I thought that was per hour. Allow me to echo the sibling comment and ask how that could even be legal. Did they not have minimum wages in Canada then?

sslayer 3y ago

Are you implying that we cant expect moral/ethical behavior because of the pay rate?

teunispeters 3y ago
yes. Same goes for a lot of other fields, eg airport security. Now one of the shops I worked in was very deep in moral/ethical responsibility but it seems an outlier. The reason I say yes is partially due to morals/ethics having something of a cost. Low paid people aren't paid well enough to mitigate the cruelty or rudeness they're often treated with.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

> One place I got paid around $30/week.... that was in the 1990s though. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/ https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculat... says that $30 in 1999 is $50.80 in 2023. That doesn't sound underpaid to me.

rrobukef 3y ago
Minimum wage in canada in '99 was +-9$. Did he work 6 hours per week at 50% tax burden?
- teunispeters 3y ago
  They used a loophole and only paid me if I did billed work. They did that to everyone there. I'd rather not get into it any more, they were cruel and unusual employers and did systemic mental abuse. My next employer at least paid minimum wage.
vGPU 3y ago
You missed the “per week”. $50.80/wk sounds pretty underpaid to me.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  ...yes, I thought that was per hour. Allow me to echo the sibling comment and ask how that could even be legal. Did they not have minimum wages in Canada then?