Here we Go Again!
Obviously the more Qualification a Techs has, the more sellable they are. Not even I can dispute that! Sellable at What Price? A couple of recent job posting caught my attention with the MINIMUM requirements for consideration. The list is long and all at the Techs Expense! It is a wonderful thing to spell out all the particuliars up front, but I have to ask, when will the Company Required Qualifications, Equate to a Real Value?
For the Techs searching the recent jobs postings, I suggest you research the whole picture. The up front offer may look rather appealing, but they may not be selling the actual pay rates! DOE contracts, under the Services Contract Agreement, offer a set of perk to the employee's. Some companies offer the employee an hourly payout, 40 hour based, for benefits. Some offer an hourly payout for Vacation time, also 40 hour based. Other benefits may run the same course.
What does this all mean?
Simple, if a company is advertizing $27.00 an hour, $2.50 may be compensation for company benefits, $1.50 may be for Vacation time and so on. The actual base hourly wage may be somewhere around $23.00. Not bad, but any overtime will be paid at 1 1/2 $23.00, not $27.00! If you bang out an extra 20 hours of OT, your looking a $120.00 less then you anticipated! Fun with Numbers!
If you take the benefits, you loose the extra cash, plus pick up your portion of the benefit costs. Pretty much the same boat you've been in for years! Think about it, more cost from your bottom line, with next to nothing off of theirs!
As you can see, the extra Qual's, at your expense, don't Equate to a lot of Value, just your position in line! Every season somebody pop's into the picture requiring more, for less! It's getting scary, pretty soon I can see them asking the techs, to supply the cost for their Background Clearences! Did I say that out loud!
Get the bottom line, before you sign, RG!
