Friday, March 16, 2012

Arizona is a Toxic Place to more than just Women



The toxic work environment of Arizona many times parallels and reflects a very harsh natural environment. The toxic work environment of not wanting to pay minimum age, let alone health care benefits, to employees is reflected in many of these anti-female, anti-immigrant legislative bills sponsored by low paying women’s jobs of $24,000 per year as with these female state legislators.

That women get low wages is a fact of life in America.  That many times, and from my own experience of having lived and worked in Arizona, it is the female spouse who is the primary bread winner in many Arizona households.  That and being the primary providers of Health Care coverage as well for the family.

The Arizona state legislature is far from a part time enterprise but for the time involved and the wages paid, I often wonder when I hear of anti-female laws passed or proposed by Kimberly Yee or Debbie Lesko, what is their real day job to supplement the minimum wage and per diem paid by the state to pass these draconian laws against women.

Being an anemic economic entity whereby big corporations come and go from Arizona as soon as tax breaks disappear is only part of the reason for these corporations leaving.  Cronyism is quite rampant in a thin economy.  Right to work is a means to eliminate union competition to get your son or brother in law on the payroll of whatever company happens to pull into Phoenix and Tucson for an average of two years.

That corporations see wages as less than half of what they are paying elsewhere and executives see the golf courses and the game is on.  Half the wages and one third the productivity from the average Arizona worker becomes rapidly evident and the company leaves town when the tax break runs out.  Some stay for whatever reasons, mostly poor management, or tax losses.  

The productivity issue is I think related to education issues and the inability of the state to maintain modern training or staying, building long term economic growth other than handouts from Washington that are rapidly divvied up by the McCain/Kyl Country Club crowd.

So, when I hear that a female employer or her husband holding the primary health plan has to ask permission to get Birth Control, the only thing I thought was that competition is tough and females needing Birth Control can be eliminated from the payroll in favor of your sister-in-law to get that job who is past child bearing years or a son who gets his healthcare on his spouse’s dime. 

Things are tough in Arizona.  It is more than the coyotes that eat their young there.