Per title: I work for the county government, across the street from City Hall and five minutes away from the state capitol campus. I make around double the state minimum wage. I can't afford to independently live anywhere nearby and it's driving me crazy. I'm 30 years old and working a job that requires the applicant to have some familiarity with plumbing, mechanical, electrical, carpentry, HVAC, and basic troubleshooting.
Any apartment that's in my price range has an income limit – probably calculated to ruthlessly suck up any left over spare change from someone that gets housing assistance. I'm lucky I have an arrangement with family members to be able to live in the area but it's rough because of the personality clash.
I'm one of the newer guys on this maintenance crew so my word means squat, but I've brought up to management that if they want to retain talent they need to actually pay them. I get told that even if the pay sucks the (admittedly great) insurance, vacation time, sick time, and state-backed retirement should make it worth it.
Well, I can't eat my benefits and I certainly can't use them to pay for my own place! Even if I decide that I want to chase that sweet, sweet state pension I'm not convinced I'll be able to afford to live in the area long enough to do so. I enjoy this job and the people I work with, but financially it's impossible to keep going on like this.