just found out my job is paying me less than half of the industry average in my area. I'm furious. I'm in an apprenticeship programmer position. This company offered me a position while I was at a homeless shelter, paying me 20 an hour, ~33K per year. I'm in Seattle.
I'd grown a little suspicious of how good they claimed I was getting it lately, especially after I saw an ad for working at Dick's drive-in, a fast food restaurant in Seattle, which had better benefits, and payed a dollar less. then the other day I talked to someone who's been deeply involved in the programming industry for a while, and found out that their company offers about 100K per year for apprenticeship programs. which, tbf, is higher than the industry standard. which brought me to look into what the industry standard actually was. turns out, in my area, it's ~90K per year. It ranges from a lower end of 80K to a higher end of 100K. for an apprenticeship, which is what I'm doing. they're paying me a third of the average for my area.
so, this company came around, offering jobs to vulnerable, homeless youth, for far less than they should actually be making, and took advantage of the fact that we have little to no background experience, paying us far less than we should be making. not only that, but I was led to believe that I had “good” benefits, but, as it turns out, Dick's Drive-In, a fast food chain, has better benefits than me, and I could probably be making more there in the time I've been working for this company, do to raises.
I don't even know how to feel right now. I thought this was a good opportunity. I thought the company seemed cool. my boss is trans, my mentor is gay. but I've been struggling to get by, to pay my bills, I've even run out of food. and they've failed to pay me on time a few times. I guess it was a lesson I needed to learn tho. as progressive as a corporation may appear to be, they are still a corporation. I should never forget that. I'm just really disappointed over the degree to which this company has disappointed me. but I'm gonna have to work there until I have enough experience in the industry to find a different job, which sucks. because I know that if I quit, at this point, it would be almost impossible to find another job in the tech industry, especially for a beginner like me.
TLDR: a company took advantage of me while I was homeless so they could get cheap labour.