Some background, I work for a mining company in Australia, I signed on to become a carpenter with them for a minimum of six years once I'm qualified, in exchange they pay me a decent wage (far better than a regular apprentice), but to become fully qualified there isn't a chance to do most of the tasks I require to get my accreditation on the mine sites, so myself as well as the 11 others on my intake were sent to Sydney to work for qualified builders to gain the required experience.
Overall the builder I'm apprenticing for isn't too bad, but the other day we were discussing the commute, my trip is 38km (about 24 miles) each way. If you've ever driven in Sydney you know the roads are set up to try to force people to take toll roads, but the tolls are exorbitantly expensive, it would cost me $25/day or $125/week to take the toll roads. It would save me about an hour of travel time each day but I can't justify the cost, I'm barely making ends meet as it is.
The builder I work for doesn't pay me at all, in fact he's paid by my company to take me on, the government pays him to take an apprentice and he also charges the clients for my wages, in the end he makes $1,250 extra per week off of having me on, plus my free labour.
When he heard that I didn't take the toll roads he called me a tight ass and said I was being cheap, honestly it pissed me off, the other 11 from my intake tell me the builders they're working for give them cash each week for fuel etc, buy them tools, and give them toll tags on the company account, meanwhile I get nothing.
While I appreciate the experience I'm getting, I don't like being called cheap by a guy that is making cash hand over fist off of me while I work my ass off for him doing back breaking labour.