To be fair, submitter, that does represent a %300 or %400 raise, anyway.

Yeah, that's disgraceful. What are the laws on embassy workers organizing?

The government shouldn't be giving any raises with the current state of the economy.

Submitter, you're a dumbass. The State Dept. released a report that said the salaries were $1 per day. They later found out that info was wrong, and that the salaries were $4 a day, so they revised the report.

We "fixed" the glitch.

So um, Milton has been let go?

Glad subby was able to tie it to Obama's slogan so I now know to blame him for the fact that the State Department fixed an accounting error.

foreign nationals who work for the department earn so little that they must cut back to one meal a day and send their children out to peddle on the streets.

I wonder how many Republicans will have wet dreams over this.

Has Down's syndromitter never seen the price of something written out before? Pretty much every country in the world puts the symbol for its currency to the left of the amount.

Angel of Death: Has Down's syndromitter never seen the price of something written out before? Pretty much every country in the world puts the symbol for its currency to the left of the amount.

Who says "Dollar 1" in any country?

Angel of Death: Has Down's syndromitter never seen the price of something written out before? Pretty much every country in the world puts the symbol for its currency to the left of the amount.

Oh yeah? Tell that to the Swiss Franc.

I'm trying to live on less than $4 a day, so I'm getting a kick out of this topic.

I'd like to know what the countries are where we're paying foreign nationals that rate, because depending on the country and the position, that's an acceptable market wage.

Whamdangler: To be fair, submitter, that does represent a %300 or %400 raise, anyway.

You not only took my snark away from me, you also made it into a funny joke.

Obama should really do something about this. No American government employee regardless of where they are should make less than the federal minimum wage.

Can someone fix the glitch that farks up my pay every other period and has kept me from getting my bonus money for eight months now?

//By "fix glitch" I mean "fire some motherfarkers".

jayg22: Obama should really do something about this. No American government employee regardless of where they are should make less than the federal minimum wage.

Well, currency exchange rates often don't reflect actual cost-of-living. For example, someone in Beijing earning US minimum wage would be earning twelve times the median income.

Sum Dum Gai: jayg22: Obama should really do something about this. No American government employee regardless of where they are should make less than the federal minimum wage.

Well, currency exchange rates often don't reflect actual cost-of-living. For example, someone in Beijing earning US minimum wage would be earning twelve times the median income.

So? Would it be wrong if we paid the dishwasher who worked at the US embassy 12X the median income? I bet we would have the best dishwasher in the whole country and would be doing something awesome for him and a ton of his family.

jayg22: Sum Dum Gai: jayg22: Obama should really do something about this. No American government employee regardless of where they are should make less than the federal minimum wage.

Well, currency exchange rates often don't reflect actual cost-of-living. For example, someone in Beijing earning US minimum wage would be earning twelve times the median income.

So? Would it be wrong if we paid the dishwasher who worked at the US embassy 12X the median income? I bet we would have the best dishwasher in the whole country and would be doing something awesome for him and a ton of his family.

Because paying well over the local median income for a position may help that individual person, but overall, it helps wreak havoc with the economy and leads to major inflation. You may think you're doing good, but you're really just going to help make everything more expensive for everybody else--people who don't have the benefit of living on an extremely inflated US Embassy salary.

I live in a developing country, I get paid a local salary that's supplemented by the US organization I work for (and by supplemented, I'm still making under $10 a day). If I actually use up my full $10 a day, I'm splurging on things left an right, most of the time I get by on half that and still do quite well. US minimum wage is so disproportionate to what the average population makes that it's a ridiculous metric to even compare.

Obama should really do something about this. No American government employee regardless of where they are should make less than the federal minimum wage.


No problems here then, because the report is about foreign citizens working at the embassies.

jaylectricity: Who says "Dollar 1" in any country?

Idiots who can't read. I said "symbol." The symbol for "dollar" is "$", not "dollar."

deltabourne: Oh yeah? Tell that to the Swiss Franc.

If submitter is Swiss, I'll give him/her a pass. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the extra chromosome theory.

Angel of Death: deltabourne: Oh yeah? Tell that to the Swiss Franc.

If submitter is Swiss, I'll give him/her a pass. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the extra chromosome theory.

Spanish did it for a long time, Chinese do it still, same in lots of places in Asia and Africa.

You don't travel much do you.

Angel of Death: Has Down's syndromitter never seen the price of something written out before? Pretty much every country in the world puts the symbol for its currency to the left of the amount.

Bulgaria, Catalan, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Vietnam, Wales, and Ukraine, among many others, would disagree.

Hell, Portugal and France used to actually put the currency sign in place of the decimal point, before they adopted the Euro.

Just to be clear, they're FOREIGN embassy workers. Americans get paid well.

NobleHam: Just to be clear, they're FOREIGN embassy workers. Americans get paid well.

They're only screwing over smelly brown people? Whew, well thank god for that. And I was almost worried for a second.

Don't worry, though. They'll be able to make up the difference with corrupt practices.

Bob Porter: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him about it; but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck.

Bob Slydell: So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch.

In addition to the hardship caused to the workers because of inadequate pay, the report found that the United States is losing staff to other higher-paying employers, and may not be able to fill vacancies with qualified people.

...and they took our jerbs!!!!

Headline would be more persuasive if subby could write currency notations like a grown-up, instead of like a pre-teen texting her BFF Jill.

That's not actual pay. That's actually a specialized rate called a Per Diem. It's a non-taxable bonus income paid to help cover the cost of living in certain areas of the world. The lowest rates are now supposed to be $3.5 reserved for the armed forces in tents in the desert, to as much as $108 for certain travels.