Living on the bare minimum (employee, debt, 2014, owner)
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There's little room for surprises in James Collins' monthly scramble to manage rent, bills, debts and gas.
The $250 repair bill for his fiancee's engagement ring didn't fit the budget. So he asked the jeweler if he could add the repair cost to his one-year installment plan for the ring. No problem, an employee told him last month.
But when he returned a week later, a manager vetoed that decision — and kept the ring as collateral on the bill.
"I still have this bill, I don't have the ring, and I don't know when I'm going to get the $250 to get it back," Collins said.
Right now, minimum wage is not a steppingstone. It's a place where people are stuck for long periods of time.
- Michael Reich, an economics professor at UC Berkeley
Such are the daily trade-offs in one of the nation's most expensive cities with one of the largest shares of working poor. Collins, 42 and a father of two, makes $9.95 an hour, just above the state minimum, as an activities coordinator at a nursing facility in Watts. On the day he needed $250 to repair the ring, he had less than $30 in his checking account.
More than a third of private-sector workers in Los Angeles make less than $13.25 an hour — the new minimum wage proposed by Mayor Eric Garcetti last month. City Council members supporting the bill would like to further boost the floor to $15.25 an hour by 2019.
It's a tough life for sure, but whatever happened to waiting until you could afford a family before starting one? I don't understand this mentality when you're already broke.
i don't think it's the employees' fault and it's unfair to blame them. $9 an hour is RIDICULOUS. when will workers get paid a reasonable, living wage? this guy is an activities coordinator at a nursing facility. for that they consider $9/hr sufficient? please don't blame him for having a family or trying to pay his bills. the real problem is in this day and age people are still getting paid $9 an hour in america.
i don't think it's the employees' fault and it's unfair to blame them. $9 an hour is RIDICULOUS. when will workers get paid a reasonable, living wage? this guy is an activities coordinator at a nursing facility. for that they consider $9/hr sufficient? please don't blame him for having a family or trying to pay his bills. the real problem is in this day and age people are still getting paid $9 an hour in america.
No one is blaming anyone, we are saying if you want to earn more money you need to work harder.
It's amazing to me how some people work so hard for so little money and others don't have to work at all or have relatively easy jobs and have all the luxuries of wealth in their life.
Unfortunately, you are paid for what you do typically, not how long you have done it. Salaries don't really increase unless you move into management positions. You are actually LUCKY if you are getting raises to match inflation.
I do think full time minimum wage should reflect more of a living wage. Definitely. However, with kids, it doesn't matter if you raise it to $15/hr, it still won't be enough. Can't have kids if you make minimum wage. Sorry.
I know dudes who make low wages and get by, but they live extremely minimalistic lifestyles that most amercians simply wouldn't go for. No GF's, no kids, 2(some 3)jobs round the clock, no smartphone, no living in a big sexy city, having to room with someone else, no car, no social life whatsover.
i don't think it's the employees' fault and it's unfair to blame them. $9 an hour is RIDICULOUS. when will workers get paid a reasonable, living wage? this guy is an activities coordinator at a nursing facility. for that they consider $9/hr sufficient? please don't blame him for having a family or trying to pay his bills. the real problem is in this day and age people are still getting paid $9 an hour in america.
Very true! It is extremely hard to find a job that supports a person and/or family. People believe since they figured out the maze that employment is now, anyone can do it. Holding others up to your own situation or example is not fair. Not everyone has the opportunity (whatever the reason), or wherewithal to do it.
It is disheartening the attitude(s) that a person must face by others who know nothing (or little) of their situation.
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