The following is 1 comment on Matthew Owen's latest column in LOCO. The comment section has many responses with opinions all over the place and good discussion.
So why single this comment out?
Kris Wibbenhorst • a day ago
A cost of living increase every year?! Wow wouldn't that be nice. I work for the county of humboldt and when we asked for raises this year we were told by the board to "live within our means!" We declined the contract for many other reasons and are working with an arbitrator. The arbitrator didn't even offer a raise, I haven't got a raise since 2008. Let me tell you, gas, food, and other amenities have increased every year and we get told to live within our means?! But wait, the people working for minimum wage want a cost of living increase every year? Why not ask for a company car while your at it?! Lmao
According to his facebook page and the transparent california site: Kris is a Correctional Officer employed by Humboldt County. He got a pay raise last year, and he is complaining about minimum wage workers?
Kristopher M Wibbenhorst
CORRECTIONAL OFFICER II
Regular pay: $64,713.05
Overtime pay: $21,374.33
Other pay: $714.92
Total pay: $86,802.30
Total benefits: $22,385.86
Total pay & benefits: $109,188.16
Here is the problem with Measure R, Measure Q, Measure Z. Same group of people paying taxes, no compromise or pay cuts from unions, department heads, and no guarantees that the funds will go to "boots on the streets" or more job creation.
The minimum wage Measure is well-intended but poorly thought out. The same energy certain people put out creating a hostile climate for businesses to invest would be better used encouraging job creation.
We need more jobs so more people are working and can chose to work one or more job. Taxing the same group of people will result in benefitting no one.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteYour information is incorrect sir! Kris actually did NOT get a raise last year and is currently topped out at his current position as an embarrassing amount considering what his job is. Did you know correctional officers in Sonoma county top out at $17/hr more than here in Humboldt?
Who cares what Kris' opinion is about minimum wage? The income information you got off the Internet from 2012 is slightly misleading. Let's throw some figures out. $800/mo for healthcare with a high deductible that minimum wage earners get free through MediCal. So you can take $9,600 off the gross earnings for that. Mandatory pers contributions, I'm not sure if that's lumped in with benefits, but hey, that comes out of gross also. So go ahead and take $3600 off the gross as well. Labor Union dues, mandatory to be a member for the medical insurance plan that is selected, take off another $500 annually. Now, $64,000 was his TOTAL pay for the year INCLUDING overtime. Your transparent America is incorrect. I can go ahead a screenshot his taxes if you want sir. Because doing the math $64,000/12= $5,333/mo/160 hrs/mo= $33.33/hr. Which is wrong. You can verify that on the County's website. CO II tops out at a little over $21/hr. So your information is incorrect. Yes, he does earn more than minimum wage, but let's take a moment and consider the facts...
Now this is my favorite. Sally is making minimum wage at McDonalds. She is told by her boss that he HAS to come in on her day off or else she will get fired. How do you think that's going to go over? Let's say Sally's coworker Mary calls in sick. You can't run McDonalds with Mary gone, so you call Sally who's enjoying her day off with her family and friends and tell her she has to come in, or else... She's fired. It's called Mandatory Overtime. Do you think Sally will be happy?
Well Kris may get this overtime pay, but guess what? He misses time with his family. His friends. His children. Misses birthdays and holidays (hey, even McDonalds is closed on Christmas!!), first steps, first days of school, tooth fairies, school plays, so many things, because of mandatory overtime, minimum staffing (gotta love budget cuts) and 12 hour rotating schedules. And don't even get me started on trying to get a damn vacation approved.
If minimum wage increases, will he get a raise too? Or does Sally want to come deal with vagrants covered in feces, dorm politics, threats from inmates and investigations from her own employer. Let me know. I would love to clear up some of the discrepancies you have posted here today :)
I initially debated about publishing this comment because there is no way to verify that who this is from. From the emotional tone, it seems that this could be someone related to Mr. Wibbenhorst.
DeleteA few points to whoever wrote this: I am not in charge of the information provided to Transparent California. Considering that no one else has challenged the numbers, we just have your word. Even if he did not get a raise last year and is topped off, he is making good money.
Maybe you need to focus on the point of the post which is Kris Wibbenhorst makes a lot of money compared to the average Eurekan.
Just as he has to pay dues and taxes, so do many other working class Americans. In his LOCO post, Mr. Wibbenhorst's attitiude towards those less fortunate leaves much to be desired.
He expressed his opinion. I expressed mine. Your post cleared up what you think is a discrepancy and what is on Transparent California is not my responsibility. There are no plural discrepancies.
Perhaps cooling down and looking at how other people are living and how their lives are affected would be something you might want to try. Mr. Wibbenhorst chose this profession and what you describe is part of the job.
I have a lot of respect for the work Mr. Wibbenhorst and his colleagues do but you would not know that from one post. A post about someone you cannot be objective about.
For the record I am against Measure R. I am also against Measure Q and Z unless that money is guaranteed to go towards more positions and or response time for public safety.