Get Paid For Commuting Time?

I see where workers in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle and other major cities around the country are asking their employers to pay for their time commuting to and from work. Some as much as 10 hours per week. They say it's a financial hardship paying for bus and subway tokens and those who drive want money in addition to the free parking they now enjoy. Yikes.

What more can they demand? After all, they get at least 14 paid holidays a year, sick pay, vacation days, maternity leave (men and women) 401k and other retirement plans, and mandatory 20 minute coffee breaks.

Now let's compare their lives to that of a Montana farmer/rancher, his wife and their three kids. You know, the very people who grow the crops and livestock that will feed those poor wretches living in the burbs and having to commute to work every day. Or at least five days a week.

The Montana rancher/farmer lives at his workplace 24/7/365. He's on call 24 hours a day ready to doctor an injured animal or fix a broken tractor. On St Pat's Day he might go into the local bistro for green beer, corned beef and cabbage but he doesn't get holiday pay.

A holiday/vacation for the rancher and his wife is when they get to go see their daughter or son play in a three-day state basketball tournament in a town 400 miles distant. They don't get vacation pay for this excursion.

And you city folks talk of commuting! How about the farmers kids who commute to school from as far as 45 miles on dusty, pothole strewn, gravel roads in order to get to school. It's also 45 miles hack home after school. That adds up to about 3 hours per day. And they have chores to do before and after school.

When you need a gallon of milk you step around the corner and up the street a couple blocks. When a Montana rancher needs groceries he will travel sometimes 120 miles round trip to the closest grocery story. Some live 180 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart. Double yikes indeed.

When the temperature dips to a chilly 40 below zero, the rancher and his wife are out in the deep snow bringing in the livestock closer to the main buildings so they can feed them easier. They do this horseback for the most part. How's that for a commute?

You city folks drive to work in your fancy Beamers, decked-out pickups (that you insist on calling “my truck”) or in public conveyances. I'll give it to you that I wouldn't relish the idea of riding a subway or public bus any distance in the city. But if you need your job that's what you do.

So unless you want to be on call 24/7/365, work outside in below freezing weather fixing a waterer for livestock, fighting an out of control range fire, putting up hay when it's 110 degrees in the shade, pulling a calf that just doesn't want to come out of the womb yet, kill a rattlesnake on your door step, drive 100 miles for a bottle of aspirin, work on all holidays, get no paid vacations, sick leave or help brand, ear mark, castrate and vaccinate 250 calves before supper, you should be happy where you are with your 40-hour work week and nine hours of commute time in a week.

Our Montana farmers and ranchers love what they do and ask nothing of their employers, you the consumer of pasta, bread, meat, eggs and bacon, only that you buy their products and appreciate the work that goes into everything you put on your table. And quit whining about how tough your life is.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening.