Re: Entercom imposes contract on AFTRA

[Mark Laurence <mlaurence@mindspring.com>]

On Thursday, January 23, 2003, at 07:04  PM, tony schinella wrote:

> From the Citizen's Housing and Planning Association: "In the Boston
> metropolitan area, a family needs to earn $42,040 annually to afford an
> average 2 bedroom apartment and $52,560 to afford an average 3 bedroom
> apartment."

How old is that survey?  Housing prices have soared in the past couple 
of years while wages have not.

Rule of thumb: about 33% of your take home pay should go to housing.  
It used to be 25% but that's no longer possible.  So, your $42,000 a 
year guy makes $800 a week, maybe $550 after taxes.  By your own 
example:

>  I saw a two bedroom apartment in
> Winchester last week for $1,400. I knew about a three bedroom in 
> Arlington
> for $1,500 that was recently rented by an acquaintance. We pay $1,000 
> for a
> two bedroom in Somerville and had a big one bedroom in Mission Hill for
> $1,000 two years ago. So, if you look, you can find a bargain.

...you'd have to pay almost 60% of your take home pay to cover the rent 
in Winchester.  That's horrible!  How are you ever going to get ahead, 
save money for a house or anything else, with that kind of situation.  
Or are you saying a single person simply should not be able to afford 
his or her own place?  It seems to me that if you are a good enough 
journalist to be working at a major station in a major market like 
Boston, you really shouldn't have to bunk with a roommate in order to 
survive.

> I work for a newspaper company. Two years ago, when the economy was so
> called "good," many of us accepted pay freezes to keep our jobs and 
> keep
> others in our company from being laid off.
> Many towns in this state are considering going to their teacher's 
> unions and
> admin staff and asking them to take pay freezes and cuts to keep 
> layoffs
> from occurring.
> Why shouldn't we expect this in other industries?

The other side of that coin is that when everyone lives by these rules, 
the economy will collapse.  People simply won't pay $1400 to live in 
that 2 bedroom apartment.  Nobody else will come running to the vacant 
apartments with a fat paycheck in their hands, so the landlord will 
have to cut the rent.  It will be a long and painful process, but 
eventually rents and salaries will find an equitable level.  Maybe it 
will end up like it is in China, where the average urban worker makes 
$1400 a month, and pays $400 a month in rent.  Of course, they don't 
sell many SUV's in China.

> Housing costs aren't really the point to all this. The point is, what 
> will
> you do to work in an industry you want to work in? Some people have to 
> take
> pay cuts or freezes to fend layoffs. Isn't it worth it if you love 
> your job?
> Sure beats working at Home Depot.

Apparently that's what the powers that be think about their employees 
in this situation.  I wonder if they also love their jobs so much that 
they'd also take that kind of salary cut to do them.

Mark