Couldn't think of anywhere else to post this, & figured y'all would be as upset/shocked as I am about this.
I'm in my last year of secondary/high school in the US. Today, as the rest of the school was choosing their classes for next year, they took everyone in our grade into the auditorium to talk to us. The first day (there were 2 days of this) was just basically “get a summer job it's good” & showing places locally we could work for. Today, the second day, it was solely trying to recruit students to work for the school district next year, after we've graduated. It was a lot of “oh if you want to be a nurse, you should be the school nurse!” or “you should be a custodian!” type stuff & telling us what they did. Then, one of the presenters said that the “competitive pay” is $15/hr. (Minimum wage here is over $14/hr). Someone raised their hand & loudly asked “How is $15 competitive?”
The presenters immediately changed course, saying that “well you can negotiate the salary,” “it's a stable job” “that isn't important/relevant” & very quickly changed the subject. For reference, all of my working friends (also secondary/high school students) make at least $15/hr working fast food or at gas stations. Really seems like the school district can't hire anyone because they won't settle for shit pay when they could get better at a grocery store. Pretty pathetic honestly.