This article about bank tellers hits uncomfortably

Just a few short years ago I made $20+ per hour, now I don't even want to know, probably $12-15 if I am lucky. So it's not just minimum wage McDonald's workers, in this article it is bank tellers, rather similar to us. They need better clothes though, but then again we sometimes need equipment and access to high speed internet which eats into pay.

I think years ago companies would have been ashamed to have their employees needing assistance. They try to blame this on President Obama, but this is a direct result of deregulation and offshoring which was way before his time, and I'm sure if it were possible he would get these criminal corporations to stop starving their employees, but unfortunately we have the lovely congress.

"While bank CEOs receive handsome compensation — JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon made $21 million in 2012 — 39 percent of bank tellers in New York State had to rely on public assistance to stay afloat."  Wow, 39%.

And read the following and tell me this doesn't sound familiar, MTs - lower pay without justification and many new stringent requirements to earn that bad pay:

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"In 2010 the national median salary for tellers was $24,100, or just over $11 per hour. But tellers and other retail staff are often required to purchase suits and look the part of professional workers. They also face pressure to meet stringent quotas for referrals and sales of checking and savings accounts, credit cards, loans and mortgages while cultivating relationships with their customers.

“The three women (tellers) I work with all receive public assistance,” Filson said. “I was shocked. (The head teller) shows up for work on time, she has a great personality, she works hard. (With welfare), you have the image of someone lazy collecting a check, so for me, that was eye opening.”

On the corporate side, back-office personnel are paid meager hourly wages, are routinely outsourced and subcontracted and are segregated from analysts and investment bankers in the same company. Large banks often treat support departments as a drain on resources rather than a crucial part of the business.

Ding ding ding!

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And finally:

According to subcontracted back-office workers at a prominent New York bank, clerical, security and technology staff are paid $12 per hour, though their predecessors — direct employees of the corporation before a massive restructuring — were paid $16 to $20 per hour. In the third quarter of this year, the same bank reported earnings of nearly $1 billion. (Those interviewed asked that neither they nor their employer be identified.)

So congratulations, MTSOs, you didn't even have to undergo massive restructing, the big ones just swallowed up the small ones and so began the race to the bottom as far as wages, enforcement of financially punitive QA policies, and just generally bad working conditions. What's the next step I wonder? I am almost scared to think what they have planned.