On Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:12:04 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:24:43 -0500, dpb wrote:

On 4/15/2013 6:30 AM, J.B.Slocomb wrote:
...

Jeasus... and here I'd been reading about all those guys on the Ford
assembly line costing $65 an hour.

...

"Costing" probably about right--that includes bennies, etc.

Actual wages will be around half or maybe even under half that depending
on the actual contract benefit package...

Some data; no idea how representative but probably not terribly far off...

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/machinist-salary-SRCH_KO0,9.htm

They are volunteered so likely it's the ones that are proud of
themselves sampled more heavily than the lower-paid as a first guess...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...2152619AAqHUt5

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-8875..

From (9) years ago. Wages have almost doubled since then...

Ten most overpaid jobs in the U.S.
NewsTeam | CBS [Marke****ch] | POSTED: 11.10.03 @07:00

"Fair compensation" is a relative term, yet human-resource consultants
and executive headhunters agree some jobs command excessive
compensation that can't be explained by labor supply-and-demand
imbalances. And while it's easy to argue that chief executives,
lawyers and movie stars are overpaid, reality is not that cut and dry

Hollywood stars, making $20 million a movie or $10 million per
TV-season, qualify for many people's overpaid list. But for every one
of those actors and actresses, there are a thousand waiting tables and
taking bit movie parts or regional theater roles awaiting a big break
that never comes.

"A lot of people are overpaid because there are certain things
consumers just don't want screwed up," said Bill Coleman, senior vice
president of compensation for Salary.com. "You wouldn't want to board
a plane flown by a second-rate pilot or hire a cheap wedding
photographer to record an event you hope happens once in your
lifetime.


Much snipped

I think there is a certain amount of exaggeration here. A movie star
making 20M a picture is paid that because their name draws movie goers
and a picture with a big name cast will make more money then a movie
with a no name caste.

My own experience, and the experience of friends working as
expatriates is that if you can save (or make) your company a bundle
then you can demand high wages but drones, and there are still some of
them around, usually don't get their contract renewed :-(

I've got a friend, for example, that is the chief oil trader for an
American company in Singapore. He tells me that he gets a basic
salary, which sounds high until you learn how much living costs are in
Singapore, and than he gets a bonus. the bonus is based on 10% of the
profit the company makes on his trades and he tells me that he has
worked for Price Waterhouse and Lehman Bros and in general that is how
traders are paid.

Getting paid 10% of the profits you generate for a company doesn't
seem like excessive pay :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.