Blog Post 6

During the last few weeks the most important thing I learned in this class was about the research resources in the library. I have never had to do any upper level research like this for any of my classes. I found the information to be very interesting and useful. I do quite a bit of research on my own about topics that I am interested in like sustainable building practices and renewable energy. I plan on using the resources in the library to study those topics more in depth. It seems to me like a good way to filter out all of the junk that you come across while doing research on the internet. It also seems fairly easy and the information seems accessible. I enjoyed the presentation we received in the library. It was something that I wish we would have got during earlier classes. This is my last semester so I won’t be able to use it as much as I otherwise would have been able to.
The other thing we learned about is pay scales. I found it interesting because of a situation that recently happened with my sister. She was working here in Salt Lake making around 40,000 a year working with a company that sells advertising space. She then moved to San Francisco and got a job doing the same thing but she is now making 80,000. This was partly because a couple of companies really wanted her to work for them but also just the cost of living is so much greater. The difference is pretty amazing just based on where you live.
We also had an interesting group discussion on minimum wage. One of the other students in my group worked as a waiter and made only about two dollars an hour. He was making about ten dollars an hour for doing the same thing in California. The restaurant industry justifies paying two dollars an hour because they say that with tips it evens out and the waiters make enough. The problem the student expressed was that the pay didn’t always even out because sometimes the restaurant was really slow and they wouldn’t make any money. Also, while it was slow they were asked to clean and tidy up the restaurant for two dollars an hour. This de-motivated the waiters at the restaurant. Also, some of the waiters weren’t scheduled to work during the time slots when the restaurant was busy. This made it even harder for the employees to make enough money. We discussed in our group that the restaurants around here should probably pay more money and if not, they should set up some sort of compensation plan for the times when the restaurant is slow.