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When I was young and dumb and more conservative than I am now. I wholeheartedly believed that and tried to live it.
Then after slaving away at below minimum wage with not assurance I was even going to get paid at all I realized why they invented unemployment. I would make more now on unemployment a week than most minimum wage jobs, plus I'm not spending the time and gas. Lets me focus on getting a good paying job than a poor paying job.
If it's there, use it. If it doesn't make dollars it doesn't make cents. The numbers don't lie.
But then you worry about taking whatever job they throw at you and wondering how long you'll last until you're booted out the door, and when you're booted out the door, you wonder when the next opprotunity is coming, if the opprotunity is coming at all.
The trick is to not live on minimum wage forever. Less than 3% of America's workforce ACTUALLY makes minimum wage, despite what the liberal media wants you to believe, and half of those are either high schoolers, retired people just looking for something to do, or people who have a spouse that makes far more. To think there are just millions trying to raise a family on such wages is silly, but that's what they want you to believe.
And if you are making minimum wage....ask for more. I guarantee your employer is making far more off of you working than what you're making. Just ask for more. And any place of employment gives automatic raises at intervals. Just stick around long enough and do your job without being an idiot or ticking someone off.
i love this statistic and idiots who quote it. so lets say, for example, the minimum wage in my state is 8 bucks an hour. and lets say i make 8.50 an hour. would i be put in that 3%? no. but i just may as well be.
i love this statistic and idiots who quote it. so lets say, for example, the minimum wage in my state is 8 bucks an hour. and lets say i make 8.50 an hour. would i be put in that 3%? no. but i just may as well be.
Good question.
My wife got a second job which pays 5 cents above the minimum. But she gets deducted of state taxes information n this job, but not the first job. So she makes far less in the +5 job than the minimum wage one.
It was even worse on the beginning because they were withholding federal taxes from her as well. I told her to talk to her boss about it, so now she takes a little bit more home.
I can tell you from personal experience that they are fine. If you have been poor your whole life, then making a low salary or not having a rainy day fund feel normal. I grew up in a poor country and my family was very poor and my parents still have 5 children and we never had enough money or enough to eat. It was normal to us. On the other hand, if you have been rich and now you have lost all your money and live on the street then you would feel terrible every day.
Because by the time I turned 19, I will never forget the moment at work where I said to myself "I cant do this anymore, I have to do something else."
And I worked my damn TAIL off for four years and put myself through college until I got out of the min wage rut.
And this is back when min wage was actually BETTER compared to cost of living. These days it's absolutely unlivable.
Please do not confuse this with me saying lower wage works are lazy and need to get a better job, it's actually the opposite. Lower wage workers need a wage increase so that going to college or some other route of getting out of the min wage rut is more easily accessible.
Not everyone has the strength of character to do it all on their own. It's a HARD road.
And please also remember . . . some people have no family or friends to fall back on. I certainly did not.
They close their eyes just like you do, and hope tomorrow gets better.
^ Exactly and they pray if they're religious.
I can attest to this as I use to make decent money but moved to an area with an extremely rough job market and now work for half of what I use to make an hour which is about what I use to make when I did work study in college 6 years ago. I'm basically doing my current job out of desperation to pay my bills until something better is offered to me, more in line to what I'm use to making. That being said my current position pays horrid as I mentioned, I'm living pay check to paycheck for the first time in a few years and the job has a set of quotas I have to hit every week or I get axed. So I kind of know the feeling the OP is mentioning. I basically just work overtime unpaid whenever I get in order to hit these quotas as is mentioned if I don't lose my job and will be homeless.
As for others some people are lucky and live with their parents or own a home/condo already and have bare needs. Others are struggling daily. Tough life.
A better question is about people in high cost metro areas. The crappiest one bedroom apartment here in the bay area is $1000.
I would assume they either commute long distances from a cheaper area, live with a ton of roommates, in their cars, or maybe a homeless shelter.
I used to work in the restaurant business and the kitchen staff were generally immigrants. They often lived 10 or more to an apartment nearby. At least being an on-the-books citizen grants you minimum wage rights.
I know people who make 6 figures and live paycheck to paycheck.
Minimum wage people can more quickly find employment than 6 figure earners.
YOU make the decisions that determine your life, not an employer.
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