Category: Antiwork

The Salvation Army in Somerset Pennsylvania pays their store associates $7.50 an hour (a 25cent raise was given at the start of 2022.) Not only does this ignore the 7%+ inflation we are experiencing, but ignores the inflation that's occurred in the THIRTEEN YEARS since the minimum wage was last increased. Every single thing they sell is donated, they get it all 100% for FREE. The store brings in THOUSANDS of dollars a day. They only have TWO cashiers. They pay them 7.50 an hour. $60 a day before taxes… I dont know what i hope to achieve by sharing this here… but I hope that maybe, just maybe, if this gets big enough, it might help somehow.

So I have spent around the past 7 months applying to jobs going from a research tech that turned into a lab manager position trying to move to fulltime lab manager in the North East. I applied to at least a hundred jobs and did around 20 interviews and got maybe 15 offers. This was one of my top choices as I loved the lab and the PI (primary investigator aka PhD in charge of the lab). If you don't know how payment works in academia research, it is funded by grants including salary. I am not even completely sure on the specifics but the universities assign “tiers” to roles (research tech, lab manager, post doc research associate, staff scientist, PI) and they each get paid a certain salary. This salary is established on some level by the provider of the grants (NIH/DOD/etc) and negotiated via individual institutions. Now, you…

I'm a server and my previous employer did not take out Federal Taxes. I'm pissed. I've really done everything I can. And I've reached out to a tax attorney. I don't really want anything except a bit of vindication. How stupid is it that an employer doesn't take out Federal Taxes? It's negligent. It's hap hazard and stupid. And I know I'm not the only one.

I’m in a college town bar. Why are we supposed to live off of the expectation that a customer wants to tip? Why is it expected that they tip a dollar or two for us just pouring or making a drink? I make below minimum wage and there are days we see less than 50 for working a full day. Why can’t companies just pay us a live able flat wage and then plus tips? This isn’t Las Vegas or a downtown NY or Chi city bar. Why is the wage the same? Everybody I’ve ever known who’s a bartender has the same problem and we barely have enough time to pay for school rent and the cost just to live in this country for our own free time. I feel like it’s all work and then school. The social standard of tipping is stupid because nothing stops anybody from…

Mind my pessimistic outlook but I feel like crying out just isn’t enough to get our voices heard. For years know people have been complaining about the same things in regards to healthcare (like how insulin shouldn’t cost so much, how it’s literally not the expensive to make but is marked up ten fold) or how the minimum wage isn’t livable. We try to fight this politically but it’s always the same result, broken promises and half-assed legislation. Don’t mind me and my rant, I understand that change won’t happen with outcry, im just frustrated.