For context, I’m a full time college student living with my parents in a rather cushy and expensive part of California.
I recently got hired at a lovely little bistro-type cafe as a kitchen worker, specialising in morning prep for their food. The hours are awful, 3:30am-12 most days, but it’s what I signed up for. The advertised pay was a start at $18 an hour, plus tips.
During the phone interview process, the hiring manager mentioned “… we try to pay our employees a liveable wage, especially for this area…”
Now, I get that it’s not up to interpretation of what the actual “liveable” wage would be. The average rent for an apartment around here is $1350-$1800 a month, which would include utilities. However, at $18 an hour, and 35-40 hours a week, my paycheck would hand me anywhere from $1200-$1400, making that $2400-$2800 a month.
Gas is also about $5-5.29gallon, averaged between the lowest prices in my area of 4.69-5.49. My car holds 14.5, and my commute is close to 10 miles a day, 20 round trip, plus school which adds another 5. I drive about 25 miles every day, and have to fill up about once a week, for $78.
Purchasing groceries, textbooks, gas, rent, health insurance, car payments, and phone bills all adds up to another $500-$700 a month.
Their wage isn’t liveable, not by an immediate 20 mile radius of the job standard.
So what do they base this off of? Federal averages? A mindset of “well at least we pay more than minimum” assertion?
It makes me frustrated knowing that even these “cozy” and rather lucrative jobs for someone privileged enough to be in my position would still be poverty wages for someone else. Especially knowing how smug this guy sounded over the phone when mentioning how much the company paid.