Sunday, July 1, 2012

This Isn't Surprising, Either

Lifeguard shortage leaves many pools, beaches unprotected

If I follow the math presented in the article, this job is considered a good deal because it pays .80 an hour above minimum wage, which means a lifeguard would earn $340 a week before taxes.  But, it costs roughly $350 to earn lifeguard certification.  So, in other words, for a 10 week job, one must surrender more than one week's pay for the ability to earn for a portion of the remaining 9 weeks.  Net gain before taxes = $3050

Or, one could work a minimum wage job which doesn't require any certification and earn a net gain of $3080 during the same time period. 

Gee, I wonder why they're having trouble finding lifeguards?

Of course, the other issue is that many young people don't know how to swim [more than since 1960, a fact I could prove if I could find where I put that statistic] because of dimished physical fitness standards in many public schools and fear of the sun [melanomaphobia].