"The trend coincides with a weak job market that is making college students and even recent graduates willing to take such work."
I hope the crippling student loan debt was worth it, kids.
And the Globe thinks it is a GREAT THING!
"In era of stalled wages, baby sitters surging ahead; High demand, couples’ paying power send hourly scale soaring" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, August 12, 2013
Wages for most US workers have stagnated, with the exception of one little-noted group: the American baby sitter.
Baby sitter rates across the nation have soared, with costs in Greater Boston among the highest. Teenage sitters here command about $10 an hour, a wage that has risen about nine times faster than inflation since the early 1980s, according to the Labor Department. And the more-experienced sitters — those with college degrees or who, say, speak fluent Mandarin — fetch $17 an hour or more.
The average is about $12 an hour — more than the average wage of health care aides or retail salespeople.
That about says it all, doesn't it?
Only San Francisco, New York, Washington, and Los Angeles have higher baby-sitting rates, according to a site for baby sitters, UrbanSitter.com.
“In this day and age to find a qualified sitter is difficult and when you finally do, they’re so expensive you can’t really afford them,” said Heather Walker, a mother of two in Jamaica Plain. “My husband and I have been on about five dates in five years.”
As high rates cramp date nights, several factors are influencing the economics of baby-sitting.
Internet services such as Craigslist have created greater transparency, allowing sitters to see what their competition charges and raise rates to what the market can bear.
Busy two-earner families are not only increasing demand for sitters, but their higher incomes make them more willing to pay higher rates for older, more experienced sitters.
Aren't they called nannies?
Related:
Trial date set for nanny Aisling Brady
Irish nanny wants murder charge dismissed
It really is an elitist paper, and the reporters have internalized the values.
That trend coincides with a weak job market that is making college students and even recent graduates willing to take such work.
You know, maybe you should FORGET ABOUT COLLEGE and just BUILD YOUR BABYSITTING BUSINESS! Think about it, kiddo. You won't waste time and money on a worthless degree, and you can build your credentials and salary base instead!
Finally, with so many teens busy with after-school activities from SAT prep classes to high school sports to community service, their time is more valuable, meaning they want higher pay to put aside these pursuits. Economists call this phenomenon “opportunity cost.”
“You’d be hard pressed to find [another] profession where you see any wage growth,” said Erica Groshen, commissioner of US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks employment, wages, and other job-market data.
Well, if that is true then there INDEED HAS BEEN NO RECOVERY AT ALL!
Related: Boston Globe is a Banker's Mouthpiece
Yeah, it's a golden age for corporate profits, but wage growth is flat.
You kids can do math, can't you?
Riley Goodwin, a 16-year-old baby sitter in Framingham, is too busy to baby-sit during basketball season, when she plays on her high school team. But off-season, she charges $10 a hour to baby-sit, a rate she determined after consulting her mother and concluding that she should get paid more than minimum wage ($8 an hour), but less than an older baby sitter.
She baby-sits about once a month, earning about $50 or more, and likes the extra money. “I eventually want to get a car,” Goodwin said.
What? Not save it for an education?
For older and more experienced sitters, baby-sitting money is paying for rent, meals, and in some cases, tuition....
Brenna Banister, 23, a recent Boston University graduate, and many of her fellow graduates are struggling to pay bills, she said, but baby-sitting supplements her part-time job at a Cambridge day care center and gives her enough money to go out socially....
Get used to the hours, because that is where this nation is headed thanks to Obamacare.
Other baby sitters said the pay is so good and jobs so abundant that they can afford to be choosey.
Wow, finally, a worker's market in AmeriKa!
Megan Bissell, a 20-year-old nursing student at Simmons College, said she makes $15 an hour caring for a 3-year-old in Brookline and has a roster of parents who call her routinely for other jobs. She’s been a baby sitter for about seven years,
Sounding like a world-weary veteran, she described how she charges less if she’s baby-sitting as a favor for a friend or more when she’s caring for a difficult child.
And then there are some jobs that are not worth any amount of money — like when she’s come home with bruises.
“Some families think a good tip can make it OK, even if the kid is awful,” she said. “It doesn’t.”
--more--"
At least you kids will have time to go over your new student loan applications:
"Obama signs student loan deal, says job isn’t done" by Josh Lederman and Philip Elliot | Associated Press, August 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed into law Friday a measure restoring lower interest rates for student loans, pledging that the hard-fought compromise would be just the first step in a broader, concerted fight to rein in the costs of a college education.
Encircled by lawmakers from both parties in the Oval Office, Obama praised Democrats and Republicans alike for finally agreeing on what he called a sensible, reasonable approach to student loans even as he cautioned that ‘‘our job is not done.’’
‘‘Feels good signing bills. I haven’t done this in a while,’’ Obama said, alluding to the difficulty he has faced getting Congress, particularly the Republican-controlled House, to approve his legislative priorities, such as gun control and budget deals.
‘‘Hint, hint,’’ he added to laughter.
Pffft!
But even the feel-good moment at the White House came with reminders of the bitter partisanship that still makes future deals incredibly difficult for Obama. House Speaker John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, called the law part of the ‘‘Republican jobs plan,’’ while House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said it ‘‘stands in stark contrast to the House Republicans’ plan to saddle families with billions more in student debt.’’
They are still getting saddled, Nan!
The rare compromise emerged only after a frenzy of summer negotiations, with lawmakers at odds over how loan rates should be set in the future even while they agreed that a doubling of rates — it kicked in July 1 when Congress failed to act before the deadline — would be bad policy and bad news for students.
The legislation links student loan interest rates to the financial markets.
They couldn't get a flat rate? Not enough of a return for the lender?
It offers lower rates this fall because the government can borrow money cheaply at this time.
This government has already borrowed enough.
If the economy improves in the coming years as expected, it will become more costly for the government to borrow money, and that cost would be passed on to students.
Even if it doesn't improve, because interest rates have nowhere to go but up. I didn't know this was a sex education class.
About 11 million students this year are expected to have lower interest rates, saving the average undergraduate $1,500 on interest charges on this year’s loans.
But they are still higher than they were last year!
Boehner called it ‘‘a good day’’ and a fine example of what Washington can accomplish when petty partisanship is put aside.
‘‘With the stroke of a pen, we’ve now officially taken the politics out of student loans,’’ he said.
And injected the uncertainty of interest rate swings. Thanks.
Obama cast the student loan deal as just the first of many measures the United States needs to make college affordable as a higher-tech economy makes advanced training and education a necessity for many workers.
‘‘The cost of college remains extraordinarily high. It’s out of reach for a lot of folks,’’ Obama said, calling it a burden as well on families who have to balance other priorities, like buying a home, with helping to fund their children’s educations. ‘‘We’ve got to do something about it.’’
Why, when they are just going to end up babysitting?
To that end, Obama said he would be looking to the same coalition of political forces that came together on student loans as he pursues further steps.
White House officials have said Obama plans to lay out a broad and aggressive strategy in the coming months to tackle the spiraling cost of a college education. Even as they passed the bill weeks earlier, congressional officials were already talking about a broader approach to curbing fast-climbing costs and perhaps scrapping the deal when they take up a rewrite of the Higher Education Act this fall.
WTF is with this runaround, kids?
Rates on new subsidized Stafford loans doubled to 6.8 percent July 1 when Congress couldn’t agree on a way to keep them at the previous 3.4 percent rate. Without congressional and presidential action, rates would have stayed at 6.8 percent.
As it is, they went up to 3.85 percent -- and it is called a cut. It is as if the argument was all fake so they could let the rates rise, then lower them but to a rate higher than they were, then claim they did you all a favor.
The compromise is a good deal for all students through the 2015 academic year. After that, interest rates are expected to climb above where they were when students left campus in the spring, if congressional estimates prove correct for 10-year Treasury notes.
And if they don't?
--more--"
That's odd; the piece of shit propaganda piece failed to mention that the government made $51 billion off the kids loans last year, and will be making $184 billion (or more) off of them the next 10 years. All so Uncle Sam can pay down the deficit.
Time to send in that form:
"Sallie Mae plans to split into 2, names new CEO" Associated Press, May 30, 2013
NEWARK, Del. — Sallie Mae plans to split into two separate, publicly traded companies. The student loan giant also named John Remondi as its chief executive.
Sallie Mae, formally named SLM Corp., said Wednesday that the two separate companies — an education loan management business and a consumer banking business — would help unlock value and boost its long-term growth potential.
The education loan management business would include the company’s portfolios of federally guaranteed and private education loans, as well as most related servicing and collection activities. Remondi will continue as its chief executive.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Lip-Smacking Debt Collectors
Yeah, did I mention Obama took over the programs so it would be easier to collect student debts? Too bad you kids didn't become banks; then you would have been bailed out.
The principal assets of the business are likely to include approximately $118.1 billion in federally guaranteed loans; $31.6 billion in private education loans; $7.9 billion of other interest-earning assets; and a loan servicing business with about 10 million student loan customers. This includes 4.8 million customer accounts serviced under Sallie Mae’s contract with the Department of Education.
Sallie Mae’s private education loan origination and servicing businesses, including Sallie Mae Bank and the private education loans it currently holds, will operate separately under the Sallie Mae brand. Joseph DePaulo, executive vice president of banking and finance will serve as the consumer education lending franchise’s chief executive.
The consumer banking business’ assets are likely to include about $9.9 billion of assets made up mostly of private education loans and related origination and servicing platforms; cash and other investments and the Sallie Mae Upromise Rewards program....
I'm sure that is all there to help you, kids.
--more--"
Related: Sweet Salle Mae Back in United States
Why did they leave in the first place?
Well, I have to shut it down for the night. Gotta go watch a kid.
