Im 3X years old and have a bachelors degree in biotechnology. I live in Florida and im unable to find any job that pays more than $17 dollars an hour. Ill never buy a house or anything to live in in this state. My parents bought the house i live in 20 years ago for $150,000. Now it is worth $600,000. I only exist because my family has a successful business and know if they dont help me I will be homeless. Ive spent months applying for jobs, not just in the field i work but everything ranging from bartenders, laboratories, manual labor and things im not even qualified for. Ive had a handful of interviews, no offers. The place I live has a large population but no well paying jobs. The competition is fierce and all the people moving here only makes it worse.
My family business “gave” me a job because they need help during the busy season. The pay is $17 which is what my father started at 20 years ago. This does not cover my expenses for the month so im still slowly maxing my credit cards. They hired me because they need someone to work 12 hour days for 100 days straight. That was the deal they made with me. To give me a job, in exchange for working the busy season. I had no other options. Credit cards debt climbing, no money at all. What else was I to do? Im lucky where I own my vehicle with 200K miles on it so no car payments, funny what one considers lucky now a days.
Some of you might be like 84 hour weeks? Youll be rich with all that overtime. The joke is that this business is agriculture related which means NO OVERTIME. Whether you work 41 hours or 125 hours I will get paid $17 an hour. I asked about bonuses because Ive heard of the myth. My father gets a bonus for working surly im going to get one. I was told “maybe $500 at the end of it” but also “if you work over 70 hours youll get a $100 cash bonus” This was a knife to my heart. I figured i might get something. But for 100 days straight. Ill get a whopping $1400 at the end of it. This job is very physical and Florida weather will literally kill you if youre not careful.
The worst thing is that im doing better than most people and its not a good feeling. I know my roof is not disappearing. I eat, maybe not well but there is food to be had. Im healthy and my teeth dont hurt. I at least have a car that functions without the fear of it getting repossessed. I look at my few friends that I have and see that they live with their parents. Dont have vehicles or have unreliable vehicles that they cant afford to fix. The few that have newer cars their parents bought or have $800 car payments with the severe fear of not being able to pay for it.
Ill say it again.
They win.