A Colonie family must cope with a dramatic wage cut

[AnnieOakley]

Dramatic wage reduction at area manufacturer forces Colonie couple to make serious choices

By BRIAN ETTKIN, Staff writer
First published in print: Sunday, January 11, 2009

Whenever Bill Stackman shops at Crossgates Mall he parks in the same row, by JCPenney, even if his destination is at the mall's opposite end, because he loathes uncertainty, and if he parks in the same row every time, he's certain to find his car.

But uncertainty now rules, because Stackman's hourly wage at Momentive Performance Materials goes from $27.32 to $17 on Monday.

"I can't believe how deep they cut it," Stackman said. "It's a slap in the face."

Stackman said he earned about $62,000 in base pay in 2008 and an additional $32,000 in overtime working at the Waterford plant.

He'll earn about $39,000 in base pay in 2009. Stackman said his foreman told him overtime in his department was being eliminated.

The base pay of about 400 hourly employees was cut by an average of 25 percent as part of a company-wide restructuring that includes new wages and jobs for employees, company spokesman John Scharf said. The union that represents the Momentive workers in Waterford is contesting the wage reductions in a case before the National Labor Relations Board.

Seemingly every day in this country there's news of company layoffs and forboding financial harbingers. The unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent in December, its highest level in 16 years, 524,000 jobs lost last month alone, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Employers are also reducing hours. The average workweek for employees in non-management positions fell to 33.3 hours in December — the shortest since the measure was first tracked, in 1964. The number of people working part time shot up to a seasonally adjusted 8 million in December from 7.3 million one month earlier.

The Labor Department doesn't compile statistics on wages reductions. But dramatic pay cuts cleave lives too.

In a December meeting Momentive employees were told many of them would have new wages — in most instances earning less — and job classifications, based on seniority. Stackman, who was hired in August 2006 as an advanced operator who handled and disposed of hazardous chemicals, expected a pay cut of about $5 per hour.

On Dec. 30, Stackman was told his hourly wage would drop about $10 instead in his new job.

Stackman called his wife, Amy, who was in their Colonie home's kitchen serving dinner to their four children, to deliver the news.

"He just sounded so (dejected) when he called and told me," Amy Stackman said.

In trying times, she can usually say something to lift her husband's spirits. This time, she didn't know what to say.

We'll be fine, or We have been worse off financially?

"I knew that definitely wasn't going to cut it," she said.

After she hung up, she sobbed in the living room.

That night they brainstormed on how to cope with their income loss. Some ideas, such as moving South, for the lower cost of living, were dismissed. Bill is from Stillwater, Amy from Ravena. Their families live nearby.

"They need something, they come to us and there's no questions asked," said Amy's father, Tony Francisconi. "I'll do the best we can."
Read more....
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=758866

[momof23goats]

they can and will learn to make do on 17$ an hour. and be glad he still has a job at all.
should be able to live on 17 an hour. please. unless, they have credit card debt, well, then that is some thing they are going to have to deal with.

[Grantbo]

they can and will learn to make do on 17$ an hour. and be glad he still has a job at all.
should be able to live on 17 an hour. please. unless, they have credit card debt, well, then that is some thing they are going to have to deal with.

Yup. Not much more to be said.

[janetn]

Seventeen is a whole lot more than zero, and that is where a whole lot of people are going. Unfortunate that people dont realise that the only paycheck they can depend on is the one they just earned. They have spent counting on future income. This depression will be an eye opener for folks. Whats that old saying I felt sorry for myself cause I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet. Time to count our blessings

[Housekeeper]

Dang...I don't know what part of the country this is in, but in SW PA $17 per hour is big money.

[CWR]

My husband's company just cut hours for one department from 40 plus ot. to 32. My dh's department is good at least for this month.

They did not give them any warning. They just told them Friday morning this is the way it is.

If they cut my dh's hours or money. we are lost. I have been looking for a decent job for a while unable to find one. I work pt not making what I am really worth. It puts food on the table.

We are so strapped now there is no where left to cut in our budget. I suspect we are not the only ones in this position. :shock:

[packyderms_wife]

Dang...I don't know what part of the country this is in, but in SW PA $17 per hour is big money.

It's big money in central Iowa as well, unless your in upper white collar but even that area is laying off and doing pay cuts.

Kimberly

[251bravo]

Seventeen is a whole lot more than zero, and that is where a whole lot of people are going. Unfortunate that people dont realise that the only paycheck they can depend on is the one they just earned. They have spent counting on future income. This depression will be an eye opener for folks. Whats that old saying I felt sorry for myself cause I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet. Time to count our blessingsjanetn..after retiring..thinking i had stored enough for my sons college..on a fixed income was a rude awaking for me...we have been blessed for so many yrs..it slaps me silly.A bibical awakening is on the way to say the least..thanks for being honest..there's so little of it these days.:razz:

[momof23goats]

Seventeen is a whole lot more than zero, and that is where a whole lot of people are going. Unfortunate that people dont realise that the only paycheck they can depend on is the one they just earned. They have spent counting on future income. This depression will be an eye opener for folks. Whats that old saying I felt sorry for myself cause I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet. Time to count our blessings

These people don't even realize they are blessed. They are blessed in a huge way. Many people I know would like to have a job that pays 17 an hour. that is pretty fair money.

[emoemo333]

I went to the site and read page 2 of the story. Looks like the wife will try to go back to work as a nurse. But they have a child with medical issues and I can see their concerns. Even with medical insurance, they may be facing some ongoing medical bills with child. Plus if mom goes to work on a day shift and gets a call that any one of the children are sick and needs to leave, that does not go over well with employers who have just hired. If she takes an evening job it would work better but in page 2 it talks about her health issues. So that makes me wonder. Normally I would say be thankful you still have a job. But in this case I wonder if the medical is what has them worried.

[Disastercat]

Any time a person gets a real pay cut (sometimes even a small one) it can be very difficult to manage, at least in the short run. Of course a lot depends on how much the person/family was making in the first place. A person making just above mim wage may be a dire situation and on the street from a modest pay cut, a person making a lot more may be able to handle a greater loss of income.

While having a job is better than no job, that doesn't solve the problems of expenses that have to be sorted out over night. If some of those involve a sick child there's a lot less wiggle room there is with credit card debt. You can cut up your kid or even file bankruptcy! If a disabled or sick child requires a parent's full time care, it may simply not be possible for the mother (or father) to go back to work, unless an adult family member can move in and do the job instead. I think you will see a lot of this last solution, also siblings moving in together to care for an elderly parent when one of them loses a job and the other family is still working.

A lot of people are going to be sleeping on spare sofas, the no-longer spare rooms and basements in the near future. As families double up to deal with these and other economic issues. Group houses are also likely to become more common.

When I lived in the Bay Area, most people I knew, even the more "normal" middle class types tended to rent out at least one room in their house to a family member or friends. Even those who had inherited their homes or paid them off years ago needed the extra income to pay property taxes and utilities.

[GingerN]

Dang...I don't know what part of the country this is in, but in SW PA $17 per hour is big money.

After taxes and insurance, it works out to right at 441.50 a week for a family of 6. We are facing that same kind of thing here-my boss was informed that we may not have an agency in 120 days- so I have done the numbers. That is not a lot for a family of 6 to live on if they have a house note or a car note,even a modest one.

[mzkitty]

I wouldn't mind making $17.00 an hour, but then my child is grown. $17.00 an hour would be like heaven.

I consider myself lucky to still have a 40-hour a week job period.

We all have known for a long time that this was coming, most of these people really didn't. So of course it's hitting then a lot harder. They are in shock.


:(

[GardenerGirl]

Wouldn't a nurse make significantly more than $17.00/hour? Maybe it's time to switch roles.

[packyderms_wife]

Wouldn't a nurse make significantly more than $17.00/hour? Maybe it's time to switch roles.


Depends on her nursing certs and skills she has AND the state they live in. Nurses here don't make nearly as much as they do in the state of Illinois even in very rurual areas - I have lots of friends that are RN's, BSN's, Nurse Practicioners, and the equivilent of LPN's. LPN's and RN's make about the same amount of money here right around $18 an hour, BSN's make upwards of 50K maybe a little more if they are in cardiac or neurology, and I have a few friends that are Nurse Practicioners for a major clinic here and they make right around 60K-80K.

Kimberly

[GrayGal]

A lot of folks seem to have been living paycheck-to-paycheck without any significant savings of any sort. Folks with smaller paychecks haven't been out buying cars, maxing credit cards, getting mortgages, etc. as much as the ones with the bigger incomes so the bigger income folks are in more hurt when downsized.

When folks sign up to buy stuff on credit that just increases their monthly expenses. If they expect their earnings to constantly go up, it works. But, that's not happening anymore.

As times got tighter, folks have been using their savings (if any) to get them through the hard times and to continue to live as they had become used to, thinking things would get "back to normal" soon. Now we have reached harder times and their reserves are already gone so the pay decreases or job losses are hitting them when they are already low on reserves. If the national economies would have had a "hard landing" as opposed to this softer landing, more sheeples would have realized something was up and changed their habits by earlier while they still had some sort of reserves to work with.

There is an odd psychology at work, here, too. Folks don't want to realize things are changing, they will continue on the path they are on as long as they can. Sometimes to complete ruin trying to negate reality.

Even though it seems they have been making a lot of money and by many of our standards they will still be making a lot of money, they have put together a lifestyle which requires the larger amount to maintain. There are a lot of folks out there who don't know how to economize and haven't figured out ways to have their lifestyles work with less money so these folks are gonna be in a world of hurt.

Multiple family houses are much more economical as well as socially better for the family units, at least once the families learn to live together.

[janetn]

GreyGal there is a whole lot of truth in what you wrote. folks have been maintaining their lifestyle on easy credit. That game is up and the folks are in debt up to their eyeballs with ever decreasing assests.

Even the working poor played the credit game with "rent to own stores" and payday loan places. Now they cant even pretend to be making it with those crutches.

The mindset of our culture has to change. For many like those in that article they now have no choice. Those who so far have escaped job lose or paycuts are scared they dont know if they will be next. If rabid consumerism is not dead its certainly on life support. We as a culture are going to be rethinking how we live and spend our money, this is not out of choice but out of nessesity. It will be painful for many, many are going to lose everything, just as they did in the last depression.

[251bravo]

GreyGal there is a whole lot of truth in what you wrote. folks have been maintaining their lifestyle on easy credit. That game is up and the folks are in debt up to their eyeballs with ever decreasing assests.

Even the working poor played the credit game with "rent to own stores" and payday loan places. Now they cant even pretend to be making it with those crutches.

The mindset of our culture has to change. For many like those in that article they now have no choice. Those who so far have escaped job lose or paycuts are scared they dont know if they will be next. If rabid consumerism is not dead its certainly on life support. We as a culture are going to be rethinking how we live and spend our money, this is not out of choice but out of nessesity. It will be painful for many, many are going to lose everything, just as they did in the last depression.+1..

[DocOutlands]

In case folks are still wondering, this story is coming from Albany, NY. I worked up there for three months back in 2000 on a pipeline project and still remember where everything is. Nice place. As I recall, though, not exactly a low cost of living.