Small, close knit towns

[volosong]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

...
I wonder how many workers in Wyoming would be affected by an increase in the minimum wage limits...

With the amount of hours ranchers and their help put in, it could have quite an effect on the economy. Ranching, (and you can include fishermen and farmers), are just the first link in society's food chain. Their costs go up and it will ripple through the whole system.

They can get around the issue by putting everyone on salary. Y'all know what the first definition of one being on salary is in the dictionary? It's "overtime expected, but not paid for".

[WyoNewk]

Farm workers are one of those who have a lower minimum wage, iirc.

It's not so easy to switch employees to a weekly salary anymore. Gee, it's been decades ago that the feds instituted regulations on who could be salaried. For most salaried, their main duties must be in management, etc. If I remember right, that became law in the late '70s or early '80s. I ran a newspaper at that time, and it affected all my reporters and ad salesmen, most of whom put in a lot of overtime. I told them they were to keep tract of their hours, they were guaranteed exactly 40, and if they had to work more one day they should take some time off the next, but they were NOT to work more than 40 in a week. In other words, nothing really changed. I doubt I could do that today.

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

I think you're mistaken about dishwashers, etc. falling under waitressing minimum wages, EH.

- snip -

haha It may have changed through the years, but back when ElkHunter was in High School, I worked as a dishwasher and we did not meet minimum wage (if I remember right, at that time it was $1.09 an hour). However, each waitress was required to count up her tips and give me 10%. When I progressed to BusBoy, I increased to 15% of all tips. When I started handling cook prep and eventually cooking, I went on to minimum wage, which was actually less pay than when I washed dishes or buss'd tables, however, I had more hours so total, I made more.

Course, there's a lot of years for laws and standards to change, since then, so yeah, it's probably different now.

[georgiainwyo]

I was raised in the Basin/Manderson area (very small), lived in Greybull for awhile, and in Thermopolis for 13 years before moving to Billings for another 13 years. I missed Wyoming and went to Gillette for 3 years before settling in Cody almost 3 years ago. Out of all of the towns where I have lived I have to say I love Cody the most. It is not too small, yet not that big. I love the proximity to Yellowstone, as well as the short hour drive to the Big Horn mountains. For bigger "city" stuff, as shopping, more social/cultural events Billings is only an hour & a half away. People are friendly but a new person has to put himself out there to meet people and become involved in the community. This speeds the process of getting into that "close knit" thing you speak of. I have posted many posts in this forum about Cody, as well as about Gillette (as have others). Please feel free to peruse the posts Good luck with your proposed venture!

[ElkHunter]

I live in a small town of 750-800 (depends on how full the motel is) people. This town is about 15 miles from a town of 18,500. Because most towns in Wyoming are small, they tend to stock more items than a normal store would, just because it's a long distance to shop elsewhere. They want to keep business local. As such, you'll find that the selection of goods, entertainment, things to do, are far greater than a town of 18,000 most anywhere else in the country. I find that this town of 18,500 has everything I could ever need, but not necessarily, what I want. I'm talking little things. For instance, I grind my own coffee and I buy a particular kind of beans. The beans are available in town, but only in 11oz bags. That's pretty small, I want a bigger bag. So I talked to the manager at WalMart and told them if they had bigger bags, I'd buy them there, but for now, I order off the internet. The next month, when I went grocery shopping, WalMart had 33 oz bags of the beans I like. So they listen too.

As to the people in this small town, they are wonderful. When I first moved out here, the people seemed kind of quiet, reserved, stand offish, almost clanish. That's kind of typical in any town in Wyoming, even the larger towns, but there are so many people in the larger towns, you really don't notice it..... but they do. Once I was here for a month or two, and would stop and visit folks on the street, say howdy and visit at the local coffee shop, they seemed to open up. They also realized that I hadn't moved here to be a drain on society, but rather an addition to the community. It took a couple months, but I think that is reasonable.

There is nothing in this small town that neighbors wouldn't do for each other. I have a 4 wheeler with a plow on the front for plowing snow. I have plowed as many as 15 driveways around town on a given storm. I know people and some of their limits. I plow a few driveways for people I know cannot, age being the primary factor. I have plowed driveways for people that recently got out of the hospital, and even for people that their work has changed and their putting in 80 hours a week. I am not the only one that does that. If you go to the coffee shop in the morning and have a cup of coffee, listen. There is a table with about 12 old farts sitting there argueing about who's going to plow what, or trim who's trees, and who's going to help, or how the city hasn't been able to fix a fence, so let's go and do it. Yeah, I'd say these small towns are pretty close knit.

[Carrscandles]

I just want to thank you all for all your general chatter about life in WY. I worry about the cold, although according to weather.com, Wheatland (where we plan to move) has been warmer than here in PA. We are used to the cold, just not the wind, lol. But anyway, just reading through the threads on here, this one in particular, it makes me even more eager to move there! My family is all here in PA, but that's all I have keeping me here, and between the internet and phone, I'll have almost as much contact with them as I do now, lol.

I really want to live somewhere where my kids are safe. Where we live now, there's kids setting fires in the schools, bomb threats in the schools, kids getting kidnapped, being shot at...and I'm not exaggerating. Our girls are 12, 11 and 9 and they are currently cyber schooled because we refuse to let them go to this school district and we don't let them go to their friend's houses because of the parents or where they live. I hate sheltering my kids to protect them. The idea of being able to let them run around the neighborhood with their friends, like I did as a kid, appeals to me. In looking at the city data at the ratio of residents to sex offenders, Wheatland didn't look all that great until we looked at our own city to see that there are only 10 residents to every sex offender here....another reason our girls are never out of our sight!

As far as shopping goes, I do most of my shopping on Amazon.com as it is, lol. We rarely eat out, and the only store I really shop at is Walmart, and I looked and saw that there is one an hour away in Cheyenne! That's about 45 minutes more of a drive than I have now, but that just means I won't spend all of my husband's hard-earned money with my frequent trips....or I just need to plan my trips to get everything I need/want once a month instead of several times a week. :-)

Sorry to hijack the OP's post. I just had to say something about how great it is to read about the small town living in WY, as it is exactly what we are hoping for!