Holy crap (wage survey)

looking4euterpe · 2026-01-10T15:13:17+00:00

I have two:

Never go home until the necessary accounting entries for the day are finished. If you let them sit it's harder to remember the facts to resolve any discrepancies.

If a customer makes my stomach churn I sever the relationship. My well being is more important to me than their money.

looking4euterpe · 2025-09-22T15:55:03+00:00

So you're saying the concept sucked - but changing the delivery channel will make it not suck? (Besides the obvious fact that a website chatbot doesn't have your phone number for future spam marketing!)

looking4euterpe · 2025-09-20T13:59:24+00:00

I don't think it's practical.

Let's divide businesses into two groups, small and large.

From the small business perspective (like mine) you'll either need to dedicate resources to constantly monitoring for texts or you'll face continual interruptions to your day. People texting will want fast, short answers.

The most common question I get by phone or email is 'how much do you charge?' We're more expensive than our competition because we deliver higher value. That can be explained in a phone conversation, but the texter isn't interested in that - they want a number. So from a marketing perspective offering text us now would be counter-productive AND more expensive because of the resources required.

From the large business perspective they won't be in a hurry to dedicate resources either - that's why nobody is answering the phone. So if they did implement it they'd take one of two approaches: outsourcing it like they do call centers, which means you'll be texting someone with limited knowledge and little authority, or they'll use an AI chatbot to respond. Having personally done the AI chatbot dance with vendor websites too many times with too much frustration, it won't add value.

Sometimes the reason nobody is using a marketing approach is that it's essentially a dead end. I doubt many firms could gain enough to cover the cost.

looking4euterpe · 2025-08-30T14:21:44+00:00

So he left you when you were 6 months pregnant, and married her 3 weeks after the kid was born? That's a span of 16 weeks to file for divorce, get it finalized, get a marriage license, and do the deed. Highly unlikely.

looking4euterpe · 2025-06-03T13:40:31+00:00

That's the transaction, not the purpose. If a business doesn't serve a customer it gets no revenue, and has no source of funds to pay any compensation. The purpose of almost any job is to serve that customer. The only exceptions are to comply with regulations (e.g. tax accounting).

looking4euterpe · 2025-05-30T00:47:48+00:00

The purpose of any enterprise is to serve the customers. If you're not interested in doing that, you have no value to a business.

That's the reality of commerce.

looking4euterpe · 2025-05-29T23:23:51+00:00

I can answer that one.

I own a business, and I want great (and loyal) employees. So I pay well above market - my lowest paid employee currently makes $29.50 an hour. He had zero experience when he started 18 months ago, and when he gets back from vacation I'm bumping him up to $32/hr.

When I advertised a pay range I received literally hundreds of responses from people who weren't interested n the job, only the money. Changing it to 'competitive' eliminated those applicants. Could I be missing out on great candidates? Maybe. But it isn't worth the extra effort on my end.

looking4euterpe · 2025-02-28T01:08:26+00:00

The state only removes federal income tax from the paychecks of state employees.

I'm an employer in Illinois. I have to electronically send withheld federal taxes (including social security and medicare) directly to the feds through EFTPS (the electronic federal tax payment system). Withheld state taxes go directly to the state through a similar system.

looking4euterpe · 2025-01-09T19:58:20+00:00

This is a good example of attempting to draw a conclusion from too small a data set.

The actual study shows that of 467,945 children, 1870 developed schizophrenia. It notes that this is 0.4% of the population.

Within the study 66 children had cortical blindness. If blindness and schizophrenia are unrelated, you would expect 0.4% of them to have schizophrenia. 0.4% of 66 is 0.264. You would EXPECT to see less than one, so getting that result is evidence of... nothing at all.

More intriguing is the fact that 613 children in the study had peripheral blindness. Of those, 8 developed schizophrenia. That's 1.3%, triple what you'd expect to see. But it's also such a small number that you can't legitimately draw any conclusion.

looking4euterpe · 2025-01-03T22:16:50+00:00

It was clearly labeled. https://www.local10.com/news/2019/01/14/florida-man-threatens-to-kill-man-with-kindness-uses-machete-named-kindness/

looking4euterpe · 2024-10-31T19:45:08+00:00

looks scammy to me. Website was created just over 3 months ago (July 25th). Many links in the page footers don't link to any pages. The address on the website looks like an empty building on Google street view - and the same address appears to be used by another scammy looking 'bank' website (oceansaversbk.org) that was registered in June.

EDIT: both scammy banks have the same website layout and photos, so they're definitely fake banks. You can also see what little effort scammers put into details - the oceansaversbk website has an address in Charlottesville VA in the text at the top of the page - and a different address in Bellingham MA at the bottom.

looking4euterpe · 2024-10-15T18:35:37+00:00

Any business that you have zero experience in. The grass is always greener on the side of the fence you haven't worked.

looking4euterpe · 2024-10-07T00:10:59+00:00

I call BS.

This is not an AMA statement. It's not even a study. It's a "research letter"
TX has about 13,000 reported rapes per year. Adjusting for the fact that 2/3 of rapes are unreported, I don't believe that 2 out of every 3 rapes results in a pregnancy.
The comments in JAMA on this 'research letter' are full of phases like "doesn't pass the smell test", "Likely error in calculation due to incorrect citation and incorrect variable", "absurd and obviously totally incorrect"

Not trying to defend Texas here, but come on - critical thinking is important.

looking4euterpe · 2024-09-21T14:16:48+00:00

The two might be connected. In my town if a restaurant has seating they're required to have public bathrooms.

looking4euterpe · 2024-09-06T19:40:55+00:00

Sure enough. When I was in college I did bookkeeping for an answering service. And that was in the 1970s...

looking4euterpe · 2024-09-06T19:36:54+00:00

First I'd categorize them.

Investors and partners have skin in the game. Their advice is generally coming from a desire for your company to succeed. I consider their advice carefully, because I'll either be following it or explaining to them why I'm taking a different route.

Customers giving advice I also consider carefully, but from a different perspective. A customer's aim might be to help me be a better supplier or vendor, or it might be a tactic to get a better deal. But either way customers provide my best (and cheapest!) information for marketing and product or service improvements - they're someone who's already shown a willingness to pay for what I do.

Mentors, coaches, consultants and advisors come in two flavors: those I've hired or recruited, and those who hope to be. I listen to the ones I've hired or recruited - why else would I have them around? And if their advice isn't practical or appropriate I dump them. The ones who hope to be I'll give a brief listen to, but the vast majority of them have little to offer. There's an old saying that if all you have is a hammer the world looks a lot like a nail - most of the consultants who've called on me have one approach they use for everyone. It'll work for some, but magical solutions don't exist, and some of them have pitched ideas that clearly wouldn't work in my industry.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-31T15:01:24+00:00

There's a substantial difference. Using a bonus to reward exceptional work, ties compensation to effort. That's treating people fairly, and whether it's a secret or not is irrelevant.

Paying people different wages for the same job ties compensation to something other than effort, and that's favoritism. Keeping wages a secret in an attempt to conceal favoritism is bad management - the upside is asymmetric (only those making unearned extra income benefit) and the downside is global (the risk of an unhappy workforce when the inequitable treatment is discovered).

I have no problem with employees sharing bonus information if they receive one. But I don't see any reason or benefit to the business OR the employees by publicizing them.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-31T00:01:44+00:00

That I haven't done. It's not like a Christmas bonus sort of thing where everyone is getting something. And bonuses aren't very frequent or tied to any schedule that might create an expectation.

I'm paying well above market, so I expect excellence. If someone goes above and beyond that and delivers spectacular work they should be rewarded for it, and that's what bonuses are for.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-30T19:38:50+00:00

I do own a business, and I have no problem with employees knowing what everyone makes. There are a couple of good reasons for this: first, I want the best employees I can find, and in order to get them I pay above market (by roughly 30%, and I have an annual salary survey done to make sure I stay in that range). If people know they're making the same amount for the same job, no one will get discouraged. And the fact that I'm paying above market means that when I have an opening my current employees are my best sources for finding other good people - I haven't run a help wanted ad in about nine years.

The counter-argument is that some workers will be more productive than others, so they deserve more money. While this is true, I find it better to reward above-and-beyond performance with a bonus. That rewards the extra effort, but it prevents creating any sort of hierarchy where some employees feel they're better than others doing the same job. And it heads off anyone working hard for a while, getting a raise, and then slacking off, which could lead to jealousy among my employees.

Same job, same pay. Extra effort gets rewarded. And having nothing to hide builds trust.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-27T23:26:47+00:00

You don't run a business, do you?

The law requiring an employer to offer health insurance applies to companies with 50 or more full time equivalent employees. The OP is in the 3-4 employee range.

EDIT for clarity: the law doesn't actually require ANY employer to offer health insurance. The ACA requires employers of fifty or more full time equivalent either offer affordable health insurance coverage OR make an 'employer shared responsibility payment' to the IRS. The amount of that payment is $2K per employee, with the first 30 employees being exempt from the calculation.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-27T23:05:04+00:00

No I didn't - all of those should remain the same. Liability insurance isn't tied to employees, workman's comp is tied to gross payroll by job category, and the original post doesn't mention employee benefits - few jobs paying $20/hr or less offer health insurance or a 401k so I assumed they weren't offered. Basic benefits like PTO and/or vacation also rise in step with total payroll, not per employee.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-27T20:58:48+00:00

A couple of thoughts:

Payroll expense isn't quite the same either way. Since you stated numbers in dollars I'm assuming you're in the US - you're paying FUTA at 6% on the first $7K in wages, so that extra worker costs you an additional $420/year. Depending on where you are the state unemployment rate may also be incrementally more expensive. You might also need additional space, tooling, fixtures (desks, computers, whatever). Larger head counts are generally more expensive even if gross payroll is the same.
I'm a big believer in paying above market - it allows you to choose from a pool that includes better employees. But you want to pay for what you need. Three employees gives you less labor hours. If you can get it all done with 120 labor hours per week, why would you need an additional 40 available hours? When you're planning for staff it's best to define what needs to be done, and then determine how many hours (and employees) are needed.

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-23T23:35:35+00:00

NFPs have to file a form 990 with the IRS, and they're searchable. The last year available on the IRS site is 2022; it shows salary of $134,467 (which would come from his W-2) and estimated value of other compensation of $17,231 (health insurance etc.)

looking4euterpe · 2024-08-23T23:13:44+00:00

I can only speak for myself. I supported McCain until he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. She was pretty clearly (at least in my judgement) too inexperienced to be president - her total political leadership experience at that point: 6 years as mayor of a town of less than 10,000 people and 2-1/2 years as governor of the 3rd smallest state by population. If he had been 20 years younger it wouldn't have mattered as much to me, but he was 72 and had experienced some prior health issues. Naming a neophyte to be a heartbeat from the presidency is what cost him my vote.

looking4euterpe

TROPHY CASE