Minimum Wage
I been looking for work for several months now. I been in property management, sales, finance, even senior care you name it...I have a lot of experience but don't have a college degree. I guess I never wanted to get into debt. My excuse is ... I am not cut off to go back to school. I been applying several jobs that in the past they would of paid a good salary to live off. Now everything is a joke, I really don't understand. What are employers thinking about...Several positions I applied for as an Office Administration. During the interview they mention oh we start you off at $11.00 to $12.00 an hour, But with time you can be promoted to other positions making a bit more. What .50 cents more after a year! How are people supposed to pay their bills, rent, and car payment on this kind of salary?? Its a joke. I was making that in high school! I thought about going back to school but right now I am broke, doing side jobs... selling stuff online, even swapmeet on the weekend just to pay stuff. When I go to interviews I don't even mention I do stuff on the side just because at my age I am embarrassed. I cant believe how the market has changed. Some employers are not even offering health insurance and offer minimum wage. Big companies in property management used to offer $15.00 to $20.00 an hour as a assistant manager now they want to pay $10.00. So whats the point in asking for experience if your not willing to pay the fair salary. I can work at a fast food place for $10.00 an hour to make that kind of money. The other thing that upsets me is that employers are asking for a college degree and all this type of experience which I have the experience and qualifications not the college degree. Is anyone experiencing this too? I had a county job which was laid off due to budget cuts after 15 years and now I finding myself struggling to find something. I used to work with the elderly, now this kind of job in private sectors only pay $10. an hour. This is a joke!! I feel for those people that have a family to support. if I am having problems to make it each month I feel for those people that have children and have to pay child care and who knows what else.
I feel your pain!! We’re using the wrong measuring stick. Laws refer to the “minimum wage” when they should be using the “living wage” to determine the right median of how much workers should earn to meet the requirements of a basic quality of life. Over-supply doesn’t help either. All the new jobs are either high skill - high paying or low skill - low paying but nothing’s happening in the middle. The key is to identify which are the better paying jobs and find a way to adapt those skills to make yourself eligible for those opportunities. I’ve met tech workers that earn a good living and have no college degree. In fact, I just remembered an article I read in Wired magazine declaring the Coding occupation as the next blue collar job, (I’ll add the article for you). There’s plenty of free to affordable short term online training available to learn coding and other tech skills. Another option is to get into industries with a high demand for workers like Trucking or Advanced Manufacturing. There’s a long list of government subsidized programs available that offer training to work programs at no cost applicants who are interested. I know you’re not interested in schooling but building skills that are in high demand is the only way out of minimum wage. You have to show that you can contribute something unique to a company to get to the better paying jobs. Multiple years of experience in common areas is not enough to compete in this employment environment and with the recent decline of the brick and mortar retail industry, good paying jobs are going to get even more competitive. I’m in one of those low paying jobs right now but I’m taking online classes towards a certificate that will eventually put me in a better position for a better opportunity. This is the Wired article I mentioned above, https://www.wired.com/2017/02/programming-is-the-new-blue-collar-job/