Aspen Waste System Puts a Freeze on Wage Increase in Unforgiving Economy

Aspen Waste Systems is a residential and commercial waste service with main operations in Minneapolis, MN and an additional service hub out of Earth City, Missouri (a part of the greater St. Louis Area). The company office that operates out of the Earth City location provides a wide variety of waste collection, yard waste hauling, and recycling services throughout areas of Illinois and Missouri. With service locations East of St. Louis as far as Fairview Heights & Pontoon Beach, Illinois and services west as far as St. Charles, Missouri, the company has a lot of residential and commercial ground to cover throughout the week.

Aspen has provided waste removal and disposal services to residents as well as large commercial companies like Target, WalMart, Commerce Bank, and Sam's Warehouse. While there are some better known companies like Waste Management who compete with Aspen, in comparing costs of local waste providers in the St. Charles, Missouri area, Aspen Waste Systems provides some of the most competitive rates for disposal at under $15 per month for once a week trash service.

The employees who drive their waste trucks typically work more than 40 hours per week and earn time and a half for any hours over the regular 40-hour work week. While most of the drivers earn well over the minimum wage (sometimes even double) and are highly experienced drivers, this year, they will not be getting their typical performance based raises. On December 14, 2009, the company issued a corporate wide letter to all employees to inform them that there would be "no wage increases until economic conditions improve."

Due to the harsh decline in the economy many residents are trimming the fat anywhere they can. People are sticking with just the bare essentials and skipping the rest. Customers are no longer willing to pay the optional cost of recycling as a good Samaritan or pay for yard waste they can push to the back of the yard and forget about, or burn in some inconspicuous location. Some residents even admitted they were burning their yard waste in their fireplaces this year. Apparently, trash services are not exempt from economical demise either. With everyone struggling financially, Aspen has lost some business income that they have grown accustomed to in the past.

According to one driver who wishes to remain anonymous, the yearly raise for acceptable or outstanding performance can be as much as fifty cents per hour for an hourly worker. That can be a decent loss for dedicated drivers with a clean, outstanding record. Suppose an employee received that .50 cent raise and worked just 40 hours per week for 52 weeks of the year. (.50 x 40 hours = 20 dollars per week. Multiply 20 x52 weeks per year and that is a loss of $1040 per year). That doesn't even count overtime. With 5 hours of overtime averaged per week they could expect an additional $195 per year as well. $1,235 per year could mean the loss of a very nice Christmas or a Weekend Family Vacation.

Overall, most of the employees that work for Aspen are still very satisfied with their positions and the overall operation of the company and will continue to work for the company despite the raise freeze. They are all very grateful at this time of year to be able to say they have such a great job and don't mind having to wait for their next raise. They are just glad to have a job through this horrible recession, where so many others have no jobs at all.