I’m up way too late watching for breaking news on 13 coal miners trapped in a mine in West Virginia. Things like this happen every day. And really, I didn’t give a shit about this story until something one of the family members said caught my attention earlier this afternoon. Wolf Blitzer asked the sister of one of these coal miners why her brother took the job, and she said “the money.” And he asked her how much they paid, and she said “17 or 18 an hour.”
The 17 or 18 dollar an hour salaries of these guys are paid by a little company called the International Coal Group, Inc. A little company that made $158.4 million in their third quarter of 2005 alone (http://www.intlcoal.com/pages/quarter/2005_3RD_QTR.cfm). You know what 17 or 18 dollars an hour gets you? If these guys are married, after taxes it gets them $30,940. And that’s not counting any contributions to their medical or pension plans. They’ll work so hard their bodies will breakdown before retirement age. And every day their wives will worry they’ll turn on the news and find out they’re trapped in a mine (because, evidently, the families didn’t get a call from the company, they heard it on the news first).
It’s not worth it.
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