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Tips are also a big motivator. They can raise your pay by $.75 - $3.00.
that's what I don't get... even if tips are added to a good base salary, you still only make $15/hr... even if you make $20/hr, it's still lower than what a college grad is capable of.
I'm not saying that just being a college grad means they should make $50k+ right out the door, but just that they are capable of getting a job that eventually pays more. But working at Starbucks does not teach them how nor provide them skills that will be useful going forward in developing their career.
So why are college grads working at Starbucks? Even if they make less at a entry career job starting out, in 5-10 years they will be making more than the Starbucks guy. Why don't they just view the first few years at the job as "post-grad" education? All the other professional schools have things like residency/fellowship/postdoc work. Why not just treat it as such? But instead they get pissed at making $30k instead and think, might as well work at Starbucks for same pay and less stress?!? They also get no useful skills either.
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My student loans are based on my income, so if I'm making minimum wage I will pay 10$ per month versus 350$ if I had a professional job.
true... but in 10 years time you will still be making $10/hr and not have the loan paid off/making less money than if you had just sucked up paying $350/month for a professional job. Who in their right mind would give up a career job for a coffee job just to minimum loan payments?
that's what I don't get... even if tips are added to a good base salary, you still only make $15/hr... even if you make $20/hr, it's still lower than what a college grad is capable of.
I'm not saying that just being a college grad means they should make $50k+ right out the door, but just that they are capable of getting a job that eventually pays more. But working at Starbucks does not teach them how nor provide them skills that will be useful going forward in developing their career.
So why are college grads working at Starbucks? Even if they make less at a entry career job starting out, in 5-10 years they will be making more than the Starbucks guy. Why don't they just view the first few years at the job as "post-grad" education? All the other professional schools have things like residency/fellowship/postdoc work. Why not just treat it as such? But instead they get pissed at making $30k instead and think, might as well work at Starbucks for same pay and less stress?!? They also get no useful skills either.
true... but in 10 years time you will still be making $10/hr and not have the loan paid off/making less money than if you had just sucked up paying $350/month for a professional job. Who in their right mind would give up a career job for a coffee job just to minimum loan payments?
They are working at Starbucks while looking for an entry career job, it is not like they just choose that over everything else. I know several people, including my wife, who are working low wage retail, Starbucks type jobs while constantly looking for employment in a career, willing to take any level and pay to get their foot in the door. My wife having a finance degree, has taken several temp jobs at below $10 doing admin work, all in the DC area, just to get some skills and a chance to get a foot in the door, yet still works retail because nothing has worked out. This is the same for many people and many of her coworkers, a few of which have engineering degrees which is a surprise because I would think they would have no problems finding a job.
willing to take any level and pay to get their foot in the door.
but that foot is into Starbucks? Your wife working at temp jobs makes more sense, those jobs help develop her finance skills...
And I've said it before, but minimum wage jobs aren't really all that useful to just making money either. You can make more hustling on craiglist/ebay/amazon/in person than you can at a minimum wage job. Sure, it is longer hours/harder work/takes drive but it comes away with more money. And while doing so, you can network with people too. Unless minimum wage jobs, you get less networking opportunities. Or do you say "k350, your coffee is ready, here is my resume on the side, do you know anyone hiring?"
but that foot is into Starbucks? Your wife working at temp jobs makes more sense, those jobs help develop her finance skills...
And I've said it before, but minimum wage jobs aren't really all that useful to just making money either. You can make more hustling on craiglist/ebay/amazon/in person than you can at a minimum wage job. Sure, it is longer hours/harder work/takes drive but it comes away with more money. And while doing so, you can network with people too. Unless minimum wage jobs, you get less networking opportunities. Or do you say "k350, your coffee is ready, here is my resume on the side, do you know anyone hiring?"
The Starbucks/retail gig is because people have bills to pay, food to put on the table, etc. I doubt most people working these jobs with a degree really like being there, considering a person does not need a degree to work these jobs.
The DC area for example is filled with degree holders working these retail type jobs, many doing all they can to get a foot in the door. Even unpaid volunteer positions are difficult to get, with a volunteer position receiving hundreds of applications for them. Not sure what you mean by hustling on the ebay thing, not everyone has a talent for taking something and making a profit off of it, tons of people try and fail, and there is no guarantee of profit versus working near steady hours at retail.
The temp jobs are highly competitive as well, hundreds of applications for some $9.75/hr gig somewhere, metro not even paid. I just say all of this because some people think it is just simple to have a degree and go get any admin position out there, when in fact even the lowest paid ones are highly competitive with hundreds of applications for them, and this is just in the DC area with lots of these positions and a low employment rate. Many degree holders working those idiotic retail jobs would give anything just to get into a minimum wage admin position somewhere.
The Starbucks/retail gig is because people have bills to pay, food to put on the table, etc. I doubt most people working these jobs with a degree really like being there, considering a person does not need a degree to work these jobs.
The DC area for example is filled with degree holders working these retail type jobs, many doing all they can to get a foot in the door. Even unpaid volunteer positions are difficult to get, with a volunteer position receiving hundreds of applications for them. Not sure what you mean by hustling on the ebay thing, not everyone has a talent for taking something and making a profit off of it, tons of people try and fail, and there is no guarantee of profit versus working near steady hours at retail.
The temp jobs are highly competitive as well, hundreds of applications for some $9.75/hr gig somewhere, metro not even paid. I just say all of this because some people think it is just simple to have a degree and go get any admin position out there, when in fact even the lowest paid ones are highly competitive with hundreds of applications for them, and this is just in the DC area with lots of these positions and a low employment rate. Many degree holders working those idiotic retail jobs would give anything just to get into a minimum wage admin position somewhere.
Wow. I am shocked temp jobs in the DC area are paying less than $10 an hour. That is a very exspensive area to live. I heard DC is one of the most highly educated areas in the US. I think nearly 50% of DC residents have at least a bachelors degree. Maybe that is why it's so hard to get temp gigs out there and the lowball the pay so low because the area is saturated with college grads. Here in Atlanta you could get a decent contract to hire gig in accounting or finance that pays at least $18-20 an hour. I certainly don't see nothing wrong with a recent college grad working at Starbucks or a similar retail job to pay the bills as you got to do what you got to do. I wish you and your wife all the best at finding a permanant career in your professions and I hope you find the right temp to hire position that pays decent and will lead to full time work. I am working in a temp to hire position myself as a chemist and I hoping this job becomes permanant the end of next month. My contract states the company I am temping for can hire me on without penality after 180 days and I've been here since early February. Wish you and your wife the best in obtaining that stable job in your professions. I know it's hard and I know exactly what both of you all are going through.
I see a lot on C-D and other forums about people with English PhDs etc... being baristas at Starbucks.
I'm wondering if there is any data to actually prove that.
Lately I've been chatting with the Starbucks staff whenever I go to different locations. I've now done this at about a dozen locations around me and when I travel so not a big sample size... however...
The only people that have a degree (or admit to it) are the store managers for the most part. A Starbucks store manager makes in the 45-60K range in my area, so that's an acceptable position for a college graduate. There were a few baristas who were recent graduates who said they were in the process of looking for a different job. I don't know if they found jobs - but of that minority most of them did move on.
The VAST majority of the baristas told me they were in college or had plans to start college at some point relatively soon.
No one ever said they had a master's or higher and quite frankly most were too young to have accomplished that. The average age of the baristas I've talked to is definitely in the mid 20s, probably 27-28 at the highest except the managers.
Back in 1997 my best friend's sister had a Master's in English and was slicing meat in the deli of the supermarket. So I believe there definitely are people who are well educated in various fields in low paying crap jobs.
I was at Burger King talking to the cashier and she mentioned she's in school for fashion design.
It's no wonder as the service industry has the largest growth in the economy. Personally I think we have too many people going to college. It's getting to the point where a basic bachelors is not much better than a high school diploma. Going to a name brand school, networking, or even getting a masters or above is needed to stand out.
Underemployed is in regards to total annual income. There are websites like glass ceiling and a few others that plot out the average, low end and high end income for a given set of education, experience, skills, etc. Similar things are used with child support calculations for imputed income so the fact that the state govts are also using it gives credence to term.
If you are making far below your "resume" so to speak then you are underemployed. Sometimes this is by choice but most times its not. Most of the time it has to do with the individual not being able to get their foot in the door again after a lay off and their "filler" job becomes more long term.
This is an issue because it reduced tax revenue, reduces quality of life for any kids involved. It is less of a surprise when a PhD in English is working at startbucks than say a PhD in rocket science, but that trend is starting to happen where degreed engineers are finding themselves grossly underemployed.
People don't get engineering degrees to work at starbucks full time so it is an issue. Over time this creates disfunction in society because things that were suppose to be nearly gaurenteed pathways to a decent middle class life are no longer so. This creates a break down in trust of the system and then people don't want to do things like engineering, mechanicing, welding etc because either the jobs are too hard to find, don't pay enough or have some other highly undesirable aspect outside of the work itself (like too many companies imposing draconian policies or having too many lay offs, having to live in a hell hole, etc).
If only one bad actor company is doing this everyone jumps ship and that company goes under but when a majority of companies do it then it puts people in a bind and the kids see it.
Its similar to the fact that technically the military could stop paying their people and those people would legally be forced to say, but then once those contracts were up they would be gone and it would be so publicized that anyone alive when it happened would never even dream of joining the military. The military would be forced to draft for every bomb it wanted to drop or every police action it wanted to engage itself in.
The problem now is there is no safe career anymore. So you have people checking out and smoking weed working at starbucks because that's what their masters in engineering buddies are doing anyways after 40k in student loan debt. Or their mechanic buddies working at a jiffy lube.
Even if you wanted to start your own business there are so many governmental and financial barriers to entry its not even funny. Cost of real estate is the 300 lb gorilla in the room but also the cost of building materials, zoning issues, permits, taxes, etc, etc. Even if you got your mechanic cert and worked at starbucks there is no way you could even come close to generating the revenue you need to start your own shop.
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Originally Posted by eyeb
myth to me, they want to work there so it's their choice... how are they underemployed if they have a job? just not liking it doesnt mean they are underemployed. if they only get 15hrs a week, that might be under employed but they can find another 15 hours if they wanted too... again they choose to not work more hours for things like family or school. you dont call people working 50+ hours over employed do you? like if they only worked 40, they would hire a second person too?
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