I dunno anybody who made 35 bucks an hour for assembly before the downturn. I only knew a handful who made about $20 an hour. It was more common for people to have made a lot less I don't care what your county average says and Keystone isn't close to being a personification of any average. Even when times were good a lot of factory workers were not doing so hot as is often painted in these pieces.

I think the underlying point of the article was to shock educated readers nationally to contempt upon reading that people who quit in 9th grade were making $35 an hour in a factory over in podunk Indiana can u believe it ZOMG. When will you writers gets on board with the fact that all working people have been needing a raise and it isn't the factory workers' fault that college educated people have been getting screwed after investing so much in themselves. Not only that but no one so far has honestly portrayed what our local workers do every day for their earnings. We aren't automated here like Detroit. Elkhart County is not the Detroit stereotype your industry has propagated for assumption when reading an article about factory workers.

Oh well. At least this time the person interviewed wasn't portrayed as an obese pepsi guzzling, armpit scratching flatulating local tavern hot shot whose MIL keeps a stinky cat box. Anything over that's an improvement, still got a ways to go. Watch our local Vandenack, maybe you can learn some things.

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"The society which over-rewards people who simply happen to be standing in the right place at the right time will waste its effort in a constant jostling match to be lucky, rather than good."

--stirling newberry

FTFY.

Ya gotta love piece rate.

Making $73,000 per year prior to the downturn, I wonder if he/they stored any nuts for winter?  Economic winters always come, sooner or later.

$73,000 a year prior to downturn?  Didn't happen.  This story is undoubtedly using piece rate income figures, and there is no way that these wages were paid for a 40 hour week, 50 weeks in the year.

Figure somewhere between four to six hours per day, maybe-maybe 5 days a week, for maybe 48 weeks and you might be close to his prior year income.  Maybe.

£73,000? I'm almost certain that isn't what he made prior. £35/hour is probably what he averaged when we look at his gross pay vs. the hours he worked (which probably isn't over 6 per day). In my 16 years in the RV industry,the only people I knew who raked in over 70K a year were high ranking corporate,computer nerds(IT dept), or "company pets" that have been there since the wheel was invented. If he does make 70K for assembly, where do I apply? As for storing nuts for economic winters,some people just don't get that idea and never will. I'm happy for the guy that he is back to work and getting his life back on track for him and his family.

Crap that's right.

You guys say stuff better in one sentence than I do in 9 paragraphs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The society which over-rewards people who simply happen to be standing in the right place at the right time will waste its effort in a constant jostling match to be lucky, rather than good."

--stirling newberry