Living off of Minimum Wage in SJ? (San Jose, San Francisco: sublets, rentals)

[ihaveaplan]

Hi,

I'd just like some financial advice regarding living off of minimum wage in SJ. I'm a 23 yr old female college student with one more semester of college to go in Vancouver, Canada.

I'm planning on taking a break before finishing my undergrad degree and moving to the Bay area in September to study for a grad entrance exam which I'll be taking in May in SF.

I'll only have about $4k saved up before the move and plan on working full time once I get there. This isn't meant to be a vacation by any stretch of the imagination and living in luxury is not an option. Assuming that I can't find ANYTHING better than min. wage work, is this breakdown of monthly finances reasonable?

Income:

Work 40 hrs/week ($10/hr) = $1600/month
(I have no idea what tax, retirement other deductions are in California- can someone answer that? Also is a 40 hour work week reasonable?)

Assuming that I won't be robbed of more than 30% I'm left with $1120/month.

Costs:

Rent = $650 including utilities (obviously a roommate situation)
Food =$150
Personal Care = $80
Cell phone= $50
Transit = $70 (I think that's what a month pass costs in the Bay area if I'm not mistaken. I may save on this anyway because I prefer to commute by bike.)
TOTAL: $1000
Saving: $120

My first major concern is being able to find 40 hours of work a week with reasonable working hours (no night shift for instance). I am a visible ethnic and religious minority - I'm hoping that won't be any more of a problem than it is in other metropolitan areas. However I'm guessing it might be a little different south of the border. I've lived in Vancouver almost all my life and experienced little racism/Islamaphobia in general and none when it comes to employment. I'd appreciate it if someone pointed out possible differences.

My other major concern is safety. Just the though that people can be walking around with guns scares me. That's not something I have to think about in Canada (for the most part). The metroVancouver area has had 215 homicides since 2009, can the difference be just population differences? (metroVan=2.4 million, Bay Area= 7.1 million)

Thanks in advance!

For background on my relocating situation see these 2 threads:
//www.city-data.com/forum/san-j...childhood.html
//www.city-data.com/forum/legal...childhood.html

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

What about an au pair position? That would give you housing and income.

I'm assuming you know about finding ads and placing ads on craigslist.org?

I manage an apt bldg in Santa Clara, next to Santa Clara University. There is a law school there. Santa Clara in general, and this neighborhood in particular is very safe. North San Jose is right on the other side of campus.

I only rent studios and one-bedrooms, so don't normally have room for rent situations here, but...

You might look into a sublet situation or roommate situation with SCU students. They have a university website where off-campus housing rooms and sublets are listed:

Santa Clara University - Student Life - Off-Campus Housing -Rental Listings

Would it be an option for you to get a job at Starbucks now, while you're in Canada? Then perhaps it would be easy to transfer here? There are Starbucks all over the place here.

Retail Careers | Starbucks Coffee Company

If I was your Mom, I'd feel safe having you live in Santa Clara. And you may even want to stay and go to law school here.

[cornblitz]

Keep in mind that many minimum-wage jobs will be limited to part-time so that the employer does not have to provide health insurance benefits. I wouldn't count on 40 hours per week from one employer.

[ihaveaplan]

Yes, I do have an ad up on CL amongst other sites, and Starbucks was on my mind I've already gotten one response from a grad student wanting to share a place up in Oakland. If I'm not mistaken min. wage would be 8/hr there and I don't think that would work. On the other hand if I'm able to commute to SF min wage there is 10.5/hr....

I'm afraid although I get told a LOT that I'm "good with kids" I'm just not interested in child-care.

cornblitz - Yeah I realized that too since it's only 9 months I'm thinking of getting insurance from here before I go so that I don't have to worry about that. But that would be another cost I would have to look into.

On the other hand I am qualified for some higher wage jobs. While in college so far I've worked with at-risk youth, as a medical receptionist, as a tutor and I have a ridiculous amount of volunteer experience (food banks, summer camps, schools, school clubs etc). I also speak Spanish and basic ASL which might help.

[ihaveaplan]

Question: If I live in Oakland but work in SF would I be paid SF min. wage?

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by ihaveaplan

Question: If I live in Oakland but work in SF would I be paid SF min. wage?

Yes, but commuting to SF for minimum wage sounds like a bum deal.

[sjnative]

Originally Posted by ihaveaplan

On the other hand I am qualified for some higher wage jobs. While in college so far I've worked with at-risk youth, as a medical receptionist, as a tutor and I have a ridiculous amount of volunteer experience (food banks, summer camps, schools, school clubs etc). I also speak Spanish and basic ASL which might help.

Use this.

Speaking Spanish in the SFBA is a near requirement in nearly any customer service position given our large (illegal) immigrant population.

Service jobs are generally dominated by those very immigrants, though, who are neither students nor otherwise transients and are dedicated to do those jobs for at least the mid term. That's why you'll be competing with them.

Also, jobs here in nearly any type of work are had mostly through social connections and in some cases through outright nepotism.

Combine those factors with our continuing recession and large population of poor who will work for less here and you have a difficult metro in which to get a job.

In order to get a job, you're going to have to use some avenue that many people here don't have or distinguish yourself from the crowd with a skillset most people don't have.

Re: commuting into SF:

Will you need to go everyday for the usual 9-5 business day?

Or just some days?

Can you commute off-hours to avoid rush hours?

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

Yes, but commuting to SF for minimum wage sounds like a bum deal.

I would say working anywhere for minimum wage is a bum deal, though you can live in an okay area in San Jose, for a lot less than in SF, and commuting by VTA will cost a lot less than BART. Either way, minimum wage here is not really even really subsistence wages for 40hrs/week. I think you need to go up to 50hrs/week for that. OP should seek better employment than minimum wage, in truth the minimum is meant more to give jobs to those that are in ways dependent on family members or others, and don't need to get enough money to live as someone else is helping them out. If OP is from somewhere else I would discourage them from moving here, low skilled workers here don't need more competition.

[ihaveaplan]

Originally Posted by sjnative

Also, jobs here in nearly any type of work are had mostly through social connections and in some cases through outright nepotism.

Combine those factors with our continuing recession and large population of poor who will work for less here and you have a difficult metro in which to get a job.

Yikes!

Originally Posted by sjnative

Re: commuting into SF:

Will you need to go everyday for the usual 9-5 business day? Or just some days? Can you commute off-hours to avoid rush hours?

If I choose to commute to SF it would have to be from somewhere closer like Alameda. I bike to work and biking from SJ to SF every day would not be worth the extra 50 cents!! (On that note, the bay area does have bike lanes ... right?)

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

I would say working anywhere for minimum wage is a bum deal, though you can live in an okay area in San Jose, for a lot less than in SF, and commuting by VTA will cost a lot less than BART.

The entire metroVancouver transit system is under one company so
I'm a little confused as to the whole BART/VTA thing. Do different companies run transit in different regions?

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

Either way, minimum wage here is not really even really subsistence wages for 40hrs/week.

So my financial breakdown just isn't realistic, huh?

Originally Posted by cardinal2007

OP should seek better employment than minimum wage, in truth the minimum is meant more to give jobs to those that are in ways dependent on family members or others, and don't need to get enough money to live as someone else is helping them out. If OP is from somewhere else I would discourage them from moving here, low skilled workers here don't need more competition.

Thanks for the advice. I'm thinking I'd be better off securing a job while here before I move or at the very least have some interviews lined up for when I get there!

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by ihaveaplan

The entire metroVancouver transit system is under one company so
I'm a little confused as to the whole BART/VTA thing. Do different companies run transit in different regions?

Yeah, it's crazy. In San Francisco alone you have MUNI within the city and Daly City, the BART system, Golden Gate Transit going to Marin, Caltrain going to San Jose, Samtrans going to San Mateo County, AC Transit going to the East Bay, WestCat going to Richmond, and I'm sure there's even more I'm forgetting.