Lurker here, really wanted to post my story. Last year was real hard – I graduated UNI at the hight of COVID, and I have to stay in the small city where the Uni is because my GF is finishing her Master’s degree. Thing is, the median income for this city is less than $45,000 and despite the rentals not being absolutely insane like some places, it’s still over $1,000 for most places, even awful small apartments. We’ve made national news recently, because the income disparity is CLEARLY based on age, so people less than 30 almost universally make less than 25K a year, and in turn more than 50% of us spend more than 50% of our income on rent.
Other than gigs, I left my last job to lead the 2020 protests in my city – a great experience, but unpaid of course, so I used most of my savings. Then, the job market here absolutely collapsed, and since then only gigs have been available without a connection. I myself only made an average of ~$650 a month last year between delivering for doordash (which pays pretty good but is so saturated here that it’s almost impossible to get hours) and donating my goddamn plasma. Please believe me that WITH a degree I applied to nearly 200 jobs, most not needing any creds at all: I got three calls back total. I tried and tried and tried, and even McDonald’s pretended I didn’t exist! Here, they have a constant supply of young people to be exploited, so I think my degree is actually unattractive to these kinds of jobs.
After so long trying, I finally got a job as a dishwasher at the best local restaurant. Honestly I love being a dishie, I did it all through uni, but the pay and respect are usually horrible. I started at $13/hr, WAY more than I had ever made previously (at $9/hr), and now I’m making $15/hr after securing a raise last week. I’m contented for now with this – obviously it’s far from anything like what we want, but at least I can pay my half of the bills now! The respect I’m getting is unprecedented for me, and since I don’t eat much, the food I get is most of what I need.
The moral of the story is things are horrible, and to even get a measly wage is something I consider myself lucky for. But things are getting better for my situation, despite how hopeless things felt last year. I just wanted to let any reader here feel like things aren’t totally hopeless – keep fighting, and keep demanding raises and leaving shitty jobs! My $15/hr is absolutely the most a dishwasher is making in this town, so now I’ll be telling every dishie to demand the same AT LEAST!