The piece that I was interested in was productivity and
hourly compensation piece or as the artist named it Valorization “workers view
(dollar bill)”. Valorization is a piece by the artist Vandana Jain whose work
focuses on capitalism and how it shapes the futures and desires of people. The
artist uses artifacts of consumerism to create pieces that shed light on consumerism
and commerce.
Through the Valorization piece the artists present a view of
the American Economy whereas it can be seen from the graphs, over the years,
the amount of productivity has risen steadily while the compensation though it
has risen hourly, does not compare very well to productivity. As it can be
seen, the productivity rises each year, but compensation only rose for a few
years and then remained steady in that there is little to no increase in
compensation. This is crazy because if you consider the fact that the big
companies, retailers such as Amazon and Walmart and others, they need people to
fulfill their orders or to work in their warehouses, yet these people are not
receiving any increase in their salaries. If you work Retail, the most
emphasized thing is productivity and yet cooperates are always complaining of
low sales hence less pay for the employees.
Personal narrative, I worked at a Rite aid pharmacy,
overnight as an asset protection associate. One thing I noticed was that
Cashiers, who did the most amount of work, were the ones paid the least, then
the shift supervisor, who oversaw the cashiers and worked hard, got an increase
that was barely 2 dollars, then then asset protection, who risked getting into
fights and being injured were not paid very much. Then the assistant managers
barely made $20 an hour. The store manager, who was barely at work, made over
$25 an hour. The higher positions such as district managers, who are barely
doing any work at all made even better amounts.
As the author Kimberly Drew in her book states “Art matters,
artists voices are important in shaping society and public spaces are places for creative and free expression”,
the Valorization artist has used the little space on the dollar to shed light on
the disparity between compensation and productivity and through this has become
an activist advocating for a change or an increase in pay to workers through
this small change which K. Drew also says “ small actions foster change.”
The main reason why a change in pay rates should be considered
is because the way of life has become expensive from rent to car loans, student
loans, buying clothes and even food. To live a comfortable life demands a lot
of money. It demands more than what an average person earns.
The other part of the economy that needs a change is the
taxation of a normal/ average person. Despite not earning enough to live
comfortably in today’s world, there are heavy taxes on the average person compared
to rich corporations. In general, the average hard working middle class is exploited
for their hard labor and underpaid.
The picture attached is a photo of a pay stub. As it can be
seen, the taxes are at least a quarter of what the employee earns. In theory,
this worker would take home only three quarters of what he earns. The minimum
wage in New Jersey is around 12 dollars an hour. Personally, I do not think
that this is enough for people with families considering the cost of just rent
in New Jersey which is over the roof. A person earning 12 dollars an hour
working 40 dollars a week cannot afford to rent a house in New Jersey. If a
person is theoretically getting paid 12 dollars an hour, they would need at
least 2 jobs in order to be able to rent a house and have a roof over their
head. Consider the many, many students in colleges who work full time and study
full time, they have to choose one. In a way, the amount of pay you earn either earns or robs
you not only of your freedom but also of your time, desires, and future.
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