my mom always talks about how she had a serving job while in college and was able to pay for school by herself. at the time, the minimum wage was $3/hr ?! i guess she also got tips but it was southwest missouri in the 90s — can’t imagine the tips were THAT good.
my partner and i live together in a one bedroom apartment and both work retail and also uber on the side. she makes $15/hour and i make $16/hr. we can BARELY cover the cost of rent and our very minimal bills.
some people can’t even land a job at all — if they submit an application online, it gets lost in the incredibly over saturated stack of applicants. if they go into the store, the employees/managers just say to go online. it’s nearly impossible to even get in for an interview at these jobs, let alone get a consistent paycheck from them.
gen x and boomers love to act like we are helpless lazy little sh!ts when the reality is that even a job that pays over the minimum wage isn’t enough to cover basic costs of living. i’m so lucky that i’m not on my own because me and my partner could not make it work if either one of us was single. it’s so frustrating when family members act like we are freeloaders or like we have 0 motivation when it’s impossible to get a job that pays more that $16/hour without a masters degree or a massive amount of experience. guess we’ll be working retail well into our old age!