In last week’s Beer-O-Nomics, we talked about Shipping and Guam’s Port. Here’s the next section on Trucking on Guam and Warehousing. If you missed the previous sections,check it out.
TRUCKING ON GUAM
From our Port, my beer goes to Guam’s truck drivers which are paid poverty wages of $12.48 per hour as opposed to the truck driver from Wisconsin that makes an average of $19.07 per hour. While the wages of Guam’s truck drivers have almost no effect on the cost of a beer, at least their pay stays on our island and is spent in our economy in our businesses. It most especially benefits local businesses such as insurance companies, tire companies, local mechanics and local gas stations.
WAREHOUSING
Once it is delivered to the appropriate warehouse on Guam it is unloaded by a worker who only makes about $10.84 per hour before it is loaded onto a light truck whose driver makes a miserable salary of a little more than $8 per hour. This is a prime example of where are system is tragically broken. The cost of living on Guam is 25% higher than that of Washington DC but the people that are doing the same Job on Guam as in the states are making 25% less! Imagine if we took the money that we are paying to warehouse workers in Milwaukee and paid it to our people instead. Not only would it improve the quality of life for them and their families but it would improve all of our lives because that extra money would be circulating in our economy.
Read the next section on Retail and Business next week!