Splitting hairs

Bill and Alice are a retired couple from Florida (no, they actually lived there before they retired) who come up every summer and volunteer time at the railway for about two months. They spend a lot of time in the gift shop with me.

Yesterday Bill mentioned how shocked he was to go into a barber shop and see that a haircut is $15. I pointed out that the Cost Cutters at Wal-Mart charges $14.95 -- and that is for a plain haircut. Shoot up to a "style" and you are going to pay at least eighteen plus tip.

To put that into some perspective, most of the people working the seasonal tourist industry jobs in this town are making seven-fifty an hour or less -- the minimum wage that many are getting is only about $6.50. So a haircut at Wal-Mart costs them between two and three hours of pay. Oh, and seasonal jobs means that they are working these jobs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Come the end of the first week in September and many of them will not even have that going for them.

The vast majority of jobs here are part time. There are a number of reasons for that, but one is that it means employers do not have to provide benefits. In fact, if they divide the shifts right, they don't even have to give people a fifteen minute coffee break or lunch (half) hour, much less any health insurance or paid vacation. People wind up trying to juggle two or three part time jobs. They are probably lucky to find the time to get a haircut, even if they dig up the cash. And without health insurance, the can't afford to go to the doctor even if they can get the time off to do it.

Gasoline prices, as you know, have been dropping lately, and that is a blessing. Food prices, on the other hand, have not been going down, nor much of anything else.

A recent study showed that the average Social Security payment for an individual in Sauk County is about $12,000 a year. (This is low for Wisconsin, which is also low for the nation.) Actual cost for a retired individual to live in Sauk County [small apartment, food, clothing, medical] is $19,000. Around here, apparently, we still have folks eating cat food and skipping some of their prescriptions.

And this economic problem has nothing to do with what happened to Lake Delton. The damage to the tourist season matters, of course, because lots of people find themselves without even those minimum wages this summer.

It could be a cold, hard winter.

BTW, Tom cuts my hair and I don't even have to tip him.