Doesent seem your in with the right people. I respect my employees without them I couldn’t operate.
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having a little trouble understanding - are you saying you are working for under minimum wage for over two years? If that is true…not meaning to get personal or offend you but @dabbedsloth what is keeping you at this particular job? Id like to hear more about your situation and the practices of your employer.
Every situation is different, but I’m glad I started this topic, thanks to everyone who has replied and shared information.
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What I think @Dabbedsloth is saying is that Arizona min wage has jumped twice recently… another jump (or two?) and it will catch, or surpass, what they’ve been making for the past couple of years. Without having to actually state their current wage.
given that the Arizon min wage has jumped almost $2.50hr in those two years, it would not be inappropriate to renegotiate.
Which I agree means they should write up their resume and start shopping it around…
I will admit to having extracted cannabinoids for less than the Arizona min wage for almost a year…when OR medical meant zero $$ were supposed to be involved in providing meds. Growers were supposed to grow for patients solely out of the kindness of their heart (or softness of their heads in my case). Volunteer Chief Science Officer, expenses only…
Ah the good old days…
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You often hear the argument that the fight to get into the industry caused many to take low paying wages just for the opportunity, cannibalizing the decent salaries.
I think this has a fair amount of truth to it, in the northeast it varies greatly on your experience and background. Out west you get guys with resumes that are legal 10+ years, out here you have to find a way to be creative about your younger years and flaunt any spec of modern education you may have.
At the end of the day the turn over to large operations that are mostly automated will determine a lot of those wages, when running operation is more of a manufacturing job and less a science job, like the petroleum industry. Distillation of crude oil requires chemists to deal with them to a certain extent, but theres still hourly workers in those plants.
I think Good Life Gang should unionize. 
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There definitely needs to be a verifiable network that allows our breed of working people to rise above the masses of people who want to get their hands on the good cannabis jobs.
I understand your concerns, I’ve been in somewhat similar situations. I found the best thing to do is grind and start building a review of your performance that includes specific examples of how you benefit the company. Make yourself on paper what you are in the lab.
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It puts the Cannabis in the tube.
Or else it gets the hose again.
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Do you run spd for your dispensary currently? If you are experienced, I may be able to help you make more. I am looking for someone to run spd in my lab (part time - full time) and I can guarantee, I will pay you more.
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Depending on where you are, a few operators that I trained back in the day are certainly interested and have plenty of experience with hydrocarbon extraction, ethanol extraction, filtration techniques, and short path distillation. Feel free to send a message my way
They are not currently operating.
Edit: It seems that @Dred_pirate’s message was directed towards someone in AZ. Not sure if my guys want to relocate like that but it certainly isn’t out of the question. That would come down to local jurisdiction too, as for whether or not they can work so soon, considering they aren’t residents of the state.
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My current place is in Winslow. I mostly only need someone for short path, I handle the hydrocarbons. Unless they are trained for passive. I don’t run active, I like terps. But, if you have anyone that is interested. Please, refer them to me. There is company housing with their own bedroom and there is potential they can make more than me.
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Getting them a DA card isn’t an issue with them not being a state resident.
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Anyone who has run hydrocarbons around me knows a thing or two about passive! lol (Though they’ve all played with pumps as well). And yes, they can run short path (experience on chemglass & lab society mostly - up to 12L)
I’ll pass the word along to them and get back to you if interested. Thanks.
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Extremely, please pass the word around. I am looking for people to bring on board.
7 years of school and many, many thousands in student loans. I make $52k a year as a 1099 building and running a lab with the goal of expanding. I did negotiate a vesting into very minor ownership but that will take a long time and they have about 4 more months to boot me without signing over a penny. Well, except for my 1k a week. Or $25 an hour. I’m happy to have an ownership contract but there are a million ways out.
On top of this I have designed and built the lab and all the equipment (not by hand, through orders), I am the Manager of Operations as well as the Chief Scientist. Which basically means I come up with ideas and then i tell myself to do them.
So don’t feel too bad.
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I’m a little late to reply but I hope this input helps. I only have one other partner we split everything 50/50. All material costs and businesses expenses come straight from the business’ money. We both work in the lab and pay ourselves $20/hr and everyone else $15-$20/hr depending on level of independence. We split final profits amongst ourselves. However, our current agreement is that all business profits (after expenses) goes towards new equipment and new locations. It is a plan with mindfullness of the future and we both make enough from the hourly pay to afford our bills. Overall a decent deal for everyone. Personally, if someone could manage my entire lab, I wouldn’t mind paying them a six-figure salary so that I could step away.
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Interested as well, but I’m SO Cal
https://corvallis.craigslist.org/sci/d/product-production-specialist/6620209305.html
Edit: just to be clear, I have no affiliation with these guys, it showed up in an RSS feed. I posted it just to answer @xsh0rty’s question from an OR perspective.
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@doc_simple the highest paid Ph.D chief scientist I’ve met worked above me when I was an assisting scientist and he made around 90k I believe, and that company paid higher salaries to avoid poaching, I was making around what you’re at now.
I’ve seen jobs advertised for Ph.Ds that pay over 100k, but they seem to be in NY where they can only do extracts so there’s big money in running a large lab.
IMO anyone worth their salt with at least an associate degree should start at 40k minimum if they are doing hands on tech work. Automated manufacturing plants are where 15/hr+ should start.
$40k for an associates is a hard sell. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of people with way more technical skills at that level than PhD’s.
In my last 2-3 jobs i was at about 70k so with the ownership stake I don’t feel bad.
Plus, like that Irish guy from Braveheart “ITS MY ISLAND!!!”
lol
You’re probably right about salary for that education level. If someone has at least 3-5 years experience on top of that then I would consider those pay ranges, that’s probably what I was thinking at least originally. I feel like the wages for these jobs will decrease over time with the exception of management.