*NOTE: I'm from the Netherlands *
So yesterday I was approached by a homeless man. I was waiting at a bus stop to take a bus home, it was about 11 at night. I was pretty sick (thankfully not covid) but I had to be somewhere that evening so by the time I met him I was in a bit of a fever haze. I still am to be honest lol.
He came up to me and asked me for some spare change, he told me he was going to sleep at a nearby shelter, but they gave his bed to someone else and he needed a few euros more to sleep somewhere else. I had just taken all the change out of my pockets the other day, but there was an atm right across the street so since I had 3 minutes before my bus I dashed over there and got 10 euros out for him.
He was very sweet and had written down his name and number so I could call him for my money back as he thought 10 was too much. I assured him it was fine. He still asked if I would take his number and I could maybe call him if I had any jobs for him, like gardening work or whatever. I do actually but my immediate response was I can't afford that. Because I can't pay him the wage I think he should be making for a few hours of gardenwork. He insisted that he would work for whatever I would give him and then my bus showed up so I had to run. I did take his number with me.
Now I don't know what to do. I want to offer him work, but I can't afford it. Money is a little tight right now, I have the room to give 10 euros to someone who needs it, but I can't afford to pay someone a whole afternoon's wages*…. unless I exploit them. Because I could get cheap labor here, he even offered. But it doesn't feel right to exploit someone who is so desperate he will literally work for scraps. On the other hand, anything I can give him is better than nothing and this way at least he would be able to pay for a bed again for a night or two. But is that fair?
Is it better to severely underpay someone for an afternoon of hard work so they can at least pay for their shelter bed that night, or do I stick to my principles that everyone deserves a real wage even if that means I won't be able to afford his labor and he ends up with nothing?
*I consider 15 euros an hour a reasonable rate for someone who doesn't know much about plants and would just be doing cleaning up and dragging heavy stuff and such, if he did know more about gardening then 17-20 is probably more appropriate.