I am a union stagehand. And I find that to be unacceptable.
I can also assure everyone that reads this that the stagehands in the San Diego theaters make enough to take care of their families and pay for a mortgage on a small house and no more. And many of us work 60+ hours a week.
Also the average non-union stagehand earns $14 an hour with no retirement or healthcare. So when they end up in the ER guess who ends up paying the bill.
And on a final note next time you go to a concert and look up to the 140,000 pounds of equipment over your head. Who do you want hanging it? A person making just enough to share an apartment with a bunch of other drug attics or a guy who has a family and a home to take care of.

[quote=bearishgurl]
You’re probably aware that SD isn’t NY and the salaries here are a far cry from those in NYC, yet the cost of living here is the same or close to NYC.

[/quote]

Uh….no, it’s not.

Really difficult to answer this. I’d say on average, costs other than housing in NYC are 1.25-1.5x those of San Diego.

“Normal” housing in Manhattan (i.e. not condos bought by magnates and Russian heiresses) is probably 3-6x as expensive per sq ft than San Diego, depending on whether you rent or buy, but most people don’t have as much square footage, simple as that.

Housing in convenient/nice parts of NJ is actually about the same as San Diego as far as monthly nut if you buy. Higher taxes in general (with a few exceptions that I won’t advertise to vultures here 🙂 ), but lower purchase price per sq ft.

$400k would probably mean $250k take home after taxes. You could do pretty nicely with this, the more if you bought housing 20 years ago when it was cheap and have it mostly paid off by this point. Those are stagehands in the sense of senior management, not errand boys after all — they’re probably been there a while 🙂

If those people bought a brownstone in what used to be a bad area of Brooklyn for a few hundred thou 20 years ago, it may be worth north of a mill now, and they’ll still be paying $200/mo in property tax (property tax for houses in the city is actually super cheap).

I’m not sure if this really answers anyone’s question, because the NY area is so damn diverse that it all depends where exactly one chooses to live. And moving a mile in one direction or another can result in a significant difference in costs.

Upper East Side — it’s actually cheaper than some trendier areas of Manhattan these days. It’s never been trendy, it has only one subway line (changing ca. 2015-6) and it’s considered a bit of an older area. And there’s a big difference between what’s west of Park Ave and what’s east of 2nd or 3rd Ave as well.

Think about it this way: this stuff needs to work. 100% of the time. Or big bucks are lost.

The salaries are high, but not as inflated as you’d like to imagine considering the financial cost of failure.

Besides, Carnegie Hall is a private non-profit supported by donors. Who cares?

[quote=bearishgurl][quote=tc]I am a union stagehand. And I find that to be unacceptable.
I can also assure everyone that reads this that the stagehands in the San Diego theaters make enough to take care of their families and pay for a mortgage on a small house and no more. And many of us work 60+ hours a week.
Also the average non-union stagehand earns $14 an hour with no retirement or healthcare. So when they end up in the ER guess who ends up paying the bill.
And on a final note next time you go to a concert and look up to the 140,000 pounds of equipment over your head. Who do you want hanging it? A person making just enough to share an apartment with a bunch of other drug attics or a guy who has a family and a home to take care of.[/quote]

I’d want YOU to install it over my head, tc, with all of the professionalism you have always demonstrated.

You’re probably aware that SD isn’t NY and the salaries here are a far cry from those in NYC, yet the cost of living here is the same or close to NYC.

Some of these jobs which are “unionized” no doubt look like a walk in the park to a lot of these Piggs who likely couldn’t possibly perform them themselves. Nor would they live in the “small (modest?) house” you bought with your “lavish” union wages.

Case in point: your $14 hr non-union counterpart whose family may be regularly utilizing SD’s emergency rooms who may or may not be doing the exact same job as you and likely doesn’t stay past a year on the job.

Thanks for posting, tc.[/quote]

I have done this exact job as a non-union memember in Las Vegas and I can tell you the Union Guys werent that good. In fact many times my team was called in to do the job when the unions guy weren’t getting it done fast enough cause “this guy can only do this and that guy can only do that bullshit”.

So don’t tell me that shit BG about many Piggs being incapable… It’s insulting to the point I have to say somethine. Been there… done that… and stayed in school cause the jobs were a “nowhere” job and to expect anything more of it was ridiculous.

Stage rigging is not rocket science though I will admit it is tough work to turn a show in 24 hours and a certian degree of can-do and creativeness is required. That is true of any job.

And yes… they dont make that much money but I dont’ want to hear that bullshit comment “union guys do it better cause they are paid too.” Terrible arguement that continues to be brought up evey other minute on this site.

I am tired of your attitude concerning the white collar profesionals on this site. You have a case of white collar envy.

Most of us weren’t born with a silver spoon.

I came from a lower middle class broken home. I worked construction roofing houses three stories in the air. I worked for AD Scenery (if you want validation of my story). I have done all of those Dirty fucking jobs to get to where I am today as a degree’d engineer and I know a lot of ppl here went to the school of hard knock as well.

So for once get off your high fucking horse. If you had it so figured out, which you want ppl to think from your 1 page “googled” rants, why arent you suceeding more in life? Don’t tell us you are exactly where you want to be and doing what you want to do.

I could be a cop… or a firefighter… Plumber… or any other of these jobs… Why?!? Cause like I said I had to at on point in my life and knew that it was a stepping stone to another better job. I HAVE THE PYHSICAL APPITUDE. I HAVE THE MENTAL AS WELL. As many ppl on this board do.

So stop making poor assumptions of other and saying stupid things.

I will do any job that I have to in order to make it in this world.

Right now, my job, as an engineer, is to tell union people and non-union people… how to do theirs…

Shove it.

CE

Thats not the same Opera Company.

Yes, I know. The New York City Opera Company declared bankruptcy two days ago. It operated in Lincoln Center. Not related to the Metropolitan Opera, which survives.
My comment was to wonder whether union pay & work rules played a part in the demise of the NY City Opera.