Why the $60,000 Per Year Housekeeper Is a Right-Wing Nightmare

[marmar]

from Dissent magazine:



Why the $60,000 Per Year Housekeeper Is a Right-Wing Nightmare
Mark Engler - February 21, 2012 10:00 am


Conservatives these days walk a tricky line when it comes to wages. On the one hand, they strive to defend the just earnings of capitalist lords of enterprise. On the other, they try hard to foster resentment of any working people who might actually enjoy living wages and decent benefits. In a nutshell: while Wall Street bankers deserve every penny they get, public school teachers—to take just one example—are overpaid mooches who are leeching off society.

The latest hubbub illustrating this strange double standard came after the New York Times reported on a new contract between the New York Hotel Trades Council (UNITE HERE Local 6), representing city hotel workers, and the Hotel Association of New York, representing hotel owners. Over the course of a seven-year contract, hotel housekeepers will have received (cumulatively) a 29 percent raise, with a typical worker going from making around $46,000 per year to earning almost $60,000 per year. The contract also includes good union health insurance and other benefits.

It is a great contract, and members of the union should be congratulated for their work in securing it. But for some conservatives, the idea that a lowly hotel maid could possibly be paid $60,000 is an abomination. Fox News analysts called it a “nightmare.”

There’s plenty to say about their disgust. The first thing to note is the sheer hypocrisy of the right-wing revulsion. Back when we were debating the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, conservatives repeatedly rallied to assert that those making $250,000 per year were not at all rich. Among other absurdities, their apologetics produced the audacious spectacle of a University of Chicago professor with a household income of more than $450,000 per year complaining about how he is just barely getting by, noting that he and his wife “occasionally eat out but with a baby sitter, these nights take a toll on our budget.” .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=689

[zbdent]

1. strange how the stock brokers and bankers who work in New York are defended for

the high salaries BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO WORK AND LIVE IN NEW YORK, but the people who have to clean up after said brokers/bankers, who ALSO HAVE TO WORK AND LIVE IN NEW YORK, must get by on meager wages ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. And there ya have it.

[Beartracks]

6. Maids negotiate & get a raise - that should be success in Limbaugh's book.

Why does the GOP want to punish success??

=======================

[Hotler]

13. +1 n/t

[Doctor_J]

19. Just like when his racist ass got run off of ESPN

Disney Inc. booted him because they were afraid of boycotts and such (profits). He was pissed when the market spoke that time too. Lying, hypocritical pederast.

[handmade34]

3. repulsive...

and why the hell shouldn't housekeepers make $60,000??? ...all people who do a day's work should make a livable wage!!

[BOHICA12]

4. 60K in NYC equals what in Atlanta?

Fair pay for the market and the product and the product's asking price. Good for the Union - but I'll have to stay in NJ.

[tclambert]

7. I think it's somewhere in the 40-50K range, plus it's 7 years from now.

In 7 years, 60K in New York may seem like 35K in Atlanta today. To Republicans anything above slave wages is an outrage. (Is "slave wages" an oxymoron?)

[Populist_Prole]

5. Absolutely makes my blood boil with rage. Then again let the 1 percent shoot their mouth's off

So much for someone being being paid based on supply/demand. Now it's also kowtowing to rich prick's sensibilities. This sort of arrogant posturing from them is about the only thing that will pry working class conservatives from the GOP ( unless they're fundies )

[JHB]

8. It's all about carrots and sticks as incentives...

Republicans think they should be strictly segregated: banker is a "carrot" job, hotel maid is a "stick" job.

History shows mixing the two works well at all levels, but they don't find that nearly as satisfying.

[n2doc]

9. How much will the average CEO bonus be 7 years from now

Frankly, to have kept up with inflation since the 70's, this (40 to 60k) should be the basic starting wage for a full time job everywhere.

[Enrique]

10. how much do these people talking make?

how many hours do they "work", if you can even call it that? What are their benefits like?

Compare that to the actual work that housekeepers do. The kind of job where once you punch in you are expected to be actually working every minute unless you're on your break. Their breaks and lunches are likely the only times they aren't on their feet.

Major kudos to this union for getting that contract.

[Vincardog]

11. Good for the union workers and Fux SnewZ and their bloated barking mad heads can go Fux themselves

[bluedigger]

12. This 52 year old white male college graduate has never made 40k/year.

And I've never begrudged another working person making a decent wage, either.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. I hope they pissed off a good chunk of their demographic

Thanks for this article----I've actually never watched fux spews, so without DU, I'd have no idea

[Doctor_J]

15. Not a prayer

hate radio and Fox "News" will convince them that the $60K maids are taking money from them. It's the CEO/Teabagger/union worker/cookie issue all over again.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. yeah..... sigh

the hate factor will outweigh any normal cognitive process......

I remember reading that at the end of WWII, as the Allies rode through Berlin, there were still some people standing among the ruins, waving little nazi flags.

[firehorse]

17. they are freaked because they fear that their nannies and housekeepers will unionize and ask for

fair wages.

I've got a friend who currently works as a maid in a hotel in NYC. She's well educated, very smart and used to work in the jewelry industry. But she shifted to a union maid job after realizing how the pay was so much better than what she had been getting in her midtown office job. It was a smart move for her.

[Doctor_J]

23. That's what Repukes hate most about unions

and what even non-union working class folk should like about them. Everyone's pay goes up when the unions have a success. Too bad Fox Nation is completely brain dead, or they would catch on to this.

[shireen]

18. i get so infuriated by the lack of respect for labor

Hard physical work is not valued in this country. If all the people working construction, manufacturing, etc., were to stop working, this country would collapse. If all the people on wall street and overpaid CEOs would stop working, we can adjust and manage WITHOUT them -- it will be a big change in life as we know it, but us 99% are smart to get through it and thrive.

Good for those hotel workers and employers! I'm glad their salaries have increased, they deserve it. And I hope it continues to increase!!!

[knightmaar]

20. Who is that "Mark Simone" guy?

Talk about your privileged douchebag.

That's the perfect example of privilege. He's so far removed from the world of hotel maids and the potential assaults they face every day that he thinks those "panic buttons" they demanded are a "gimmick".

[quakerboy]

21. Can anyone watch that clip

without wondering how much work a housekeeper does in in a day, in comparison to what any of the three mouths so glibly badmouthing them with insinuations does?

[lonestarnot]

22. And I suppose that if he has kids, he's probably also is complaining about all those fines the

charter school is imposing on him for his kids chewing gum, bringing snacks to school, shoes untied too. Idjits like him usually back the charter school bullshit until it comes to their wallets unless they in on the theft.

[HughBeaumont]

24. What no one seems to be talking about is that 60k is what the average American SHOULD be making.

Had wages kept up with inflation, productivity and general cost of living increases for the past 31 years, that is.

We shouldn't be saying "WHY is THAT person making 60 grand a year for cleaning toilets?? She shouldn't even be making HALF that!!! She should be getting screwed worse than I'M getting screwed!!" We should be saying "Why aren't ALL of us making more? Why should I have to go into debt to eat? Why should I have to choose between the mortgage or food this month??"