over the past two months ...
I work an average of 60 hours a week and only take home an average of $8.60/hr ...plus all of the garbage that goes along with it, I'm beginning to think I need to get into something else, fast
Seems to be the typical life these days...tell me about it.
Wow,that truly sucks. It costs a lot to live these days. Everything keeps going up in cost,but wages are going nowhere. It's hard for the working man (and women).
What sucks is realizing that my health insurance costs me $2.88 an hour. Just my health insurance. That doesn't include the dental insurance.
Look for new insurance quick.
yeah.. wtf.. 2.88 an hour to your insurance company? that's highway robbery
Not an option. Only plan offered by my employer. What are you guys paying? Just out of curiosity?
i'm exempt on that question, i work for myself lol
You're exempt for now. But wait until next year.
I pay $54.00 a month for health,dental,and vision through the State of Oklahoma since I'm employed by the State and Veteran's Affairs. You can get insurance from somewhere other than your employer.
I'm paying $225/m for family healthcare,dental,optical,Rx and the copays skyrocketed this year so I know how you feel
i have health insurance, but it's not docked from my pay, obviously lol.. i pay 76 or something like that a month for medical and dental.. just sucks i have to wait til january for it to be 6 months since i got it for my dental to kick in.. i have a chipped front tooth that drives me up the wall and makes me look like a redneck lmao :mullet:
I remember paying $400/month for me and my son about 4 years ago when I was a temp. That sucked! And it was so-so coverage. Got hired full-time a few months later and switched providers (employer provided) and it dropped down to $150/month with pretty good coverage. Then I got married and made my wife put everything under hers (same company/provider). We pay over $200/month for the four of us with a $15 co-pay for most visits.
Scott, that's why I got out of the TC Electronixx thing. Sometimes, when you run the numbers, it makes you wanna puke. Now that I'm working I actually have enough money to pay the bills...
One thing I've learned through the years I have been working is the more money you make, the more money you spend, the more responsibility you take on. Obviously we the working man will never get rich (unless we hit the lottery or find an oil well under the house lol) working, all we can do is provide for our families the best we can and try to have a little fun along the way.
You have a CDL, correct? I don't know how you feel about being gone through the week, but have you thought about going over the road? My Dad is a company driver for a flatbed company, he makes pretty good money, and is home every weekend on Friday evenings most weeks. Just a thought.
my work provided insurance is 80 bucks a week and covers diddly squat. the co pay is $100 bucks for emergency and $60 for a regular doctors visit(even though it cost me 50 bucks to see a doctor without it and makes no difference in the time it takes to see one) AND still have to pay for a referral.
good thing they didnt tell me about "open enrollment" untill it was 2 hours too late to sign up for it :/
heavily considering welfare insurance since my tax bucks pay for it anyway but have too much pride to go there to apply for it.
depending on where you live, you may be able to pick up a job driving semi-locally.. still out of state, but still home every night with a good paycheck
Right after I had my kid, I added him and my wife to my insurance. I was paying $480 a check, not a month, getting paid every two weeks. Good thing he was born at the end of november, otherwise I would have gone bankrupt just trying to pay the insurance.
After getting the wife and kid dropped back off the insurance, my doctors office went from charging me $50 a visit, to $25. I asked them why, and they said whenever insurance is involved, the price doubles and then some. Paying out of pocket saved me more then 50% when I actually did see the doctor, and minus the $900 I paid for the month I had my family insured, I no longer have any problem keeping a little bit of money just in case something did happen.
After paying about 10g's out of pocket when my kid was born, while I had insurance, I wonder what it would of been if I would have been un-insured. I paid $900 for an ambulance that my wifes work called, it also took them more then an hour that I had to drive to get her there.
I talked to someone at domino's when I was working there about it, he said that when he found out his wife was pregnant, he went to the hospital with $1500 cash, told them he had no insurance and asked what it costs to have a kid. He claims that they said $1000 to $2000. So he put the $1500 on the table. When the kid was born, he said he was never sent any bill.
Haystack,what kind of work do you do now? I'm working at a Veteran's Center. Long term nursing for Veteran's. I train new people and run one of the Units (floors).
I make the bills, even have a little extra at times. It's the amount of work & lack of a schedule that's not adding up in the pay checks. For $40 a week less, I can have a schedule and not have to worry so much about the ankle biters growing up in day care. That, alone would save me $200/month. It's just the waiting on the applications going through that I'm doing, now.
I've thought about it. It would get the bank funds way past where I would like them to be, but I'm spoiled not having to be gone. There's no dire need to make bookoos of money, just a little less hours or a little more pay. I don't forsee either going on with my current job.
That's the problem, I do drive a truck, locally, for a national company :punchballs:
.. your company must not pay as well as the local drivers make here.. whether for a local or national company
Another possibility is driving a cement truck or dump truck. IMI pays pretty good and has very good benefits from what I hear. There's plenty of construction going on at Ft. Campbell to keep them busy for a while.
It's very difficult to find -any- job these days. I graduated highschool last June, and I've been trying to get a job since. No luck at all. I've applied at over 50 places, many places twice now. Always give a call a few days later, completely open schedule, etc. I've gotten only 2 interviews since, and neither place hired me. It's crazy, not even McDonalds is hiring!!!
I graduated 4th in my class, but with no money I figured I'll get a full time job and save up some money; figure out where to go next. Throw some money at the Thunderbird, maybe finance a beater truck to establish credit. But nope...been stuck at home.
I don't know about Utah, Haystack, but here in Missouri, 2 grand wouldn't begin to cover the delivery room, let alone everything else.
I saw one of the bills when Cole was born, I think it was a tad over 7 thousand..and that was just one..fwiw, he had no complications, etc.
Yeah, 7 grand was about the average cost for each of our kids. Very typical, no complications births. I can't remember how much it was out of pocket if anything. My ins is ridiculous. It's about matches my annuity, 7.40 something an hour out of the top. If you don't work enough hours you don't get the coverage. With work being as slow and spotty as it has been the last 3 years I've been nervous about not making the hours but so far we've made it. I hope things start booming again soon. If the economy was normal I'd have a turbo coupe to wrench on sitting next to the stang inside our addition.
My father made the mistake of staying with the same company his whole life. He was many times over the man ill ever be. He busted his ass for us. When he passed away (age 55 from CJD) i found out that he was only making 16 dollars an hour and he was the "senior" driver there. I don't know how the hell he did it, but he definitely went without so we didn't have to. He was driving a rig for a local box company. (CDL) I know a kid i want to HS with got a CDL job out of trucking school for a local company making around 25 an hour. I'm sure they pay ranges widely for those jobs. If i were single i wouldn't mind cross country driving for awhile. It would be great to see more of the country. Only other 2 jobs i were ever really interested in were getting back into a machine shop or wood shop, or becoming a heavy equipment/crane operator. Elevator installers and maintenance guys make decent bank. Anyway, i guess all i'm saying is look around, don't settle and don't get taken advantage of.
Sorry for the loopy rantish reply. It's late.
hey, your doing better than i am, i make roughly 5.50 an hour after taxes....my insurance is $15 a week and so far it has been awesome...i have a $20 copay for doctors visits and no copay for ER visits and it has picked up the entire bill every time i have been.
i'm seriously considering dropping to the minimum number of hours to keep my insurance and putting an ad in the paper as a general handyman/mechanic... i make more on average a month in my spare time doing odd jobs that i happen to pick up from hearing someone mention needing it done than i do from my current job... BTW, i am a "production worker" at pizza hut... it pays the bills, but thats all it pays, my fiancée's checks are our "spending money"
My insurance ...I hadn't even considered that ...I pay about $100 a week to cover me and my wife.
We don't pay anything for health/dental/eye insurance.. it's all covered by the Union.
Roger is actually thinking of changing jobs, he found out about one that would practically triple his net pay (they also provide hot food on the job site 24/7 at no cost to him, and provide his place to stay when he's gone)... full benefits after 90 days for him and the entire family.
Bad part is he'd be gone 3 weeks and home for one.... but it would definitely be worth it for the money.
I must be the only one white-knuckling it with no insurance...
you arent the only one, the only reason i even want insurance is the conditions of my job almost require it. having rashes and infections every few months, which i never had before in my life, are getting too common.
having used motor oil all over you without any protection for 10 1/2 hours a day cant be good for your health, the guys at jiffy lube dont have this much oil on them at the end of the day.
I was working as a cable tv lineman as a sub for comcast. I worked peice rate, and made real good money. I also worked ridiculous hours and never had time for me or my family, and the job was very dangerous.
Right now I am in the same line of work, but now I am working for a much smaller local company, and don't do as much with communications. Mostly right now, I am just a gopher. I run parts and equipment for the crews and mechanics. For the most part it keeps me busy. When I started here, I was working for the utopia project in brigham city, utah. That was a very big job and lasted a long time. After that job was over, they really didn't have anything planned for me, but they try real hard to keep me busy and let me learn new things. Right now they are paying for me to get my CDL so I can drive a 80,000 GVWR freightliner, which would keep me busy, and running alot larger equipment.
My work does not offer insurance right now, and paying for it would be very hard for me to get by.
My thoughts......
If i were in charge, if a student put forth that much effort, there would be a low intrest student load waiting just for you. There is no reason why someone of your motivation and character simply based on your being 4th in the class should be sitting around not getting that piece of paper you can easily earn.
I totally disrespect what happens to people like you and the good kids that hit a brick wall.
I didnt do bad in school but it was hard doing well in my situation which is a totally different story but lets just say things were not ideal.
I hate hearing this ,,, me off if you really want to know the truth.
so,, here's an idea that worked for me at least.
we were setting a tower and being the guy responsible for everything, i noticed a new face in the crew. No one knew this guy and he was just picking up s metal and putting it in the bin. I approached him and introduced myself. This was a recent high school grad. I asked him why he was here since no one knew him. he replied, "i have been watching this project for a few days so i went and got me a hard had and borrowed my dads boots , i figured i could at the least help for free to get some experience."
His story nearly kicked my ass , like a lump in my throat but can you believe this guy actually had a minilla folder with all his paperwork from school and other certificates he was able to manage along the way.
I let him help for the few days and made a few calls. I never saw him again after that but found out he was hired by one of my subs because i had refered him. theres a lot of good people out there hitting brick walls an i get sick thinking about it.
you'd have to be a real ass not to feel for the people who try hard and still get nowhere.. it's just proof that this country is all about taking our money and leaving us broke and stranded.. there needs to be more scholarships out there for the kids who deserve to further their education. i'm by no means and never was college bound, but there are so many kids getting out of high school that could be doctors, lawyers, etc.. just because their family isn't rich, they're either forced into massive debt over school loans or left with the option of not going to college at all.. it's BS
Well, got my dreaded email from Corp,, looks like Nancy P has really physically affected my household directly and not in a good way. its been and is going to be a tough next couple of years if not more.
Employees, this year’s open enrollment announcement is below. We would like to point out a couple of important notes to this year’s renewal.
This year we experienced a high volume of claims and therefore our premiums are increasing. Additionally, there have been national healthcare changes which have also impacted our rates. As always, Alpha subsidizes a large portion of this increase. A chart outlining both your portion and the company’s portion of the total monthly premium is attached. Also attached is a summary of the average monthly premium rates for our area and how this compares to Alpha’s rates. This helps to illustrate that Alpha’s healthcare plan continues to be competitive in terms of cost and coverage.
Supervisors, please share this message with those in your group who do not have email access.
*************************************************************************************
December 3, 2010
All Employees:
Alpha's healthcare and cafeteria open enrollment period is here:
First, this open enrollment period is for the calendar year of 2011. It will be another twelve months before you will have the opportunity to make most coverage changes. So please give this period careful consideration.
Second, healthcare premiums for the 2011 plan year have increased. The new rates are listed below.
---------------------------------Per Check Per Month
Employee $53.82 $107.64
Employee + Spouse $191.36 $382.72
Employee + Children $134.44 $268.88
Family $286.22 $572.44
There are some plan changes for 2011:
Ø No Pre-Existing Conditions Limitation for Covered Persons under the age of 19
Ø Coverage for dependents up to age 26
Ø Dollar maximum does not apply to covered dependents under the age of 19 for Preventive and Restorative Dental Services
Ø Routine vision exam through age 18 covered with no co-payment or deductible
Ø No co-payments or deductible for preventative care – defined by federal task force – see attachment for more details
Ø Removal of hazardous sports deductible
Ø No lifetime limits
Third, this open enrollment period is your only opportunity to enroll or re-enroll in the Medical Reimbursp00get Account (MRA) & Dependent Care Account (DCA) and to make any changes in covered family members in the healthcare plan for the calendar year of 2011.
All healthcare and cafeteria elections must be made online through the EBMS website. See below for instructions.
Ø Employees hired on or prior to 12/01/2010 are able to sign up for MRA cafeteria elections.
Ø Current 2010 MRA and DCA cafeteria elections will end on December 31st. Partiting employees who wish to continue MRA/DCA pre-tax deductions must re-enroll for the new 2011 plan year. The 2011 MRA maximum cafeteria election remains $3,000.
Ø **For 2011, there will be no MRA reimbursp00gets for OTC drug items without a Rx prescription; this is due to federal healthcare changes (see attachment for more details)**
If you are not making any changes to your healthcare enrollment and are not interested in enrolling for MRA/DCA, no action is required from you; your current healthcare enrollment options will be rolled over for 2011.
Separate instructions are required for employees who wish to drop themselves or drop dependents from the Alpha Healthcare Plan. See your HR dept for details.
The whole health insurance thing makes me sick. When I had my kid and the wife had insurance through her work, AFTER the insurance I paid 11k. If you count the emergency room visit and ambulance that her work called, alittle bit over 12k. I just finished paying it off before my son turned 2 years old.
The whole finding work thing sucks too. It took me almost 2 months to get hired on to do pizza delivery. I had a 3rd interview for a job as a janitor, graveyard shifts about 30 hours a week that they said I was not qualified for. I asked why, and there was a 20 year janitor that wanted the job. Most of the people out of work right now are either in a very specific field with little cross over, or do not want to work in a job that they feel is beneath them. It took me almost 4 years to get the the point I was making good money at my last job, and I am starting all over again here.