I've been looking for a job for several months in my field, but I graduated in the midst of the pandemic and couldn't find many companies willing to take my word for my experiences (especially when they couldn't meet me face to face). However, I've been scraping by, saving, making payments to student loans. This quickly turned against me as I lost weekends and free time to “the grind” and began losing sleep. So, I started looking for a position that would pay me more than the breadcrumbs I receive now.
I thought I'd finally found a job that would pay me better (they boasted $24 an hour for the same work I was doing now). I interviewed and received an offer, but upon asking for an exact salary, I was quickly redirected. I asked two more times and couldn't receive a straight answer. Eventually, the team began pushing me for available dates for preliminary training, but I asked for an official salary estimation before I confirmed.
Just got the email back.
It's more work for the same pay I'm getting now.
I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I'm so sick and tired of getting jerked around by companies that refuse to pay more than the bare minimum. Their justification is “it's what everyone gets paid” which makes it worse, since clearly working there for YEARS won't change the pay. I'm so defeated and don't know what to do – this just keeps happening.
Why aren't we worth a living wage?