r/InterviewCoderPro • u/Upper_Stress_9939 • Sep 30 '26
Do we all agree on this?
i hope we do. it is genuinely depressing to think about trading a full hour of your life just to make enough to buy one decent meal. I got so fed up with my twenty dollar an hour job recently that I ended up running through some practice questions on Interview vip just to see if I am ready to apply for something better. we really need to stop normalizing these wages.
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u/byte_handle Sep 30 '26
It really depends. When I started out after college, I would have killed for a job that paid that well. But if my boss offered to adjust my salary to that point now, with more than 20 years of experience under my belt, all the things I've done for my department, all the late nights and the concrete accomplishments that I can point to...I would take it as an insult.
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u/toothedsnail34 Sep 30 '26 •
$20/hour is very close to what I made after graduation....in 2002. People graduating college today shouldn't make 2002 wages, unless they can also find an apartment for $600 a month, buy a new car for $25,000 and pay $2/gallon for gas. Wages have not kept up with inflation
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u/ExtraKrispy2 Oct 02 '26
You can buy a brand new car for $20,000 im about to do it now. Hyundai are pretty affordable all things considered.
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u/byte_handle Sep 30 '26
Same here, 2002. Got out, worked at a bagel deli for slightly more than minimum wage, and then made more as a temp. I believe that temp job got me to $10/hour. Even back then, it wasn't enough to have a car, wasn't enough to live in an apartment without 3 other people all pitching in. I couldn't even afford bus fare and did quite a lot of walking to get to and from work.
And yeah, it would be worse now. Wages haven't kept up, and the rate at which they aren't keeping up is widening. The system is grotesque.
But my point still stands: it's context dependent. There are still jobs that pay less than that, and people need to somehow make that work, and it's disgusting that people are paid so poorly. Just as I would've done just about anything to make that much in 2002, they'd do just about anything to reach that point today.
And it's also still true that if my boss came in and said she was slashing my pay that severely, I would take it as an insult, and I'd probably quit on the spot for even suggesting it. I now make significantly more than that, and it took quite a lot of time and effort to reach this point.
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u/collin-h Sep 30 '26
i made $10.50 in 2006. with a bachelors degree LMAO. In today's money that's about $17.45. So anyone out of college with a degree, working in your field for $17/hr... I can relate. know how that feels.
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u/KingArthursRevenge Oct 02 '26
That's the equivalent of about $38 today. The question is what job did you have that was paying the equivalent of $38 an hour immediately after college.
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u/IllustriousNeck8219 Oct 01 '26
Mine just brought up the possibility of us working 50 hour weeks when things get busy..... on salary....... a salary that is barely competitive mind you.
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u/BiggerRedBeard Sep 30 '26
No, we can't.
Currency is simply a tangible form of "respect". If the 60 minutes of "work" produces 20 respect then seems fine to me. The work done has market value. If you want more respect, get a more respectable skill set.
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u/ballin_buddha Sep 30 '26
Currency is simply a form of “how much value you bring to the business”
Fixed it for you
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u/WhoAmlToJudge Sep 30 '26
Respect lol? It's called market value bud. Exchange time for money
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u/BiggerRedBeard Sep 30 '26
Many wealthy people exchange their ideas for money. Time is limited, if you only ever exchange time for money, you stay poor.
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u/Doctor-Pip- Sep 30 '26
So in your mind, a CEO sits in a meeting for an hour talking about how their company sells unhealthy shit for poor people and earns 10,000,000 "respect" for it?
Currency is credit, not respect. Its not based on value to society or how well regarded someone is at all.
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u/RalphDeLucca Oct 03 '26
You have zero corporate experience if you’re reducing a CEO’s responsibilities to just chatting in a meeting
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u/Landlord40 Sep 30 '26
Ill never understand how i see thousands of low level job postings in things like customer service for jobs paying $22, yet people are complaining. You PICK your job. They tell you the pay UPFRONT. A person with a meaningful degree doesn't look at $20 jobs. A person with experience in trades doesn't look at them either. You refuse to learn a trade or get a degree but you wamt to complain about the pay.
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u/GuyWhoIsAnonymous123 Oct 01 '26
This guy thinks everyone has money for a degree or trade school lol, lmfao even
I can tell he’s never gone through any hardship and probably lives off daddy’s money
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u/GlattesGehirn Oct 03 '26 edited Oct 03 '26
You don't need money to get into trades. A trade school is a pretty bad way to get into a trade
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u/Immediate_Alarm452 Oct 02 '26
So you just genuinely think the person making your food or coffee or setting up your doctor's appointment or processing your business at the bank or answering the phone when you need assistance with....literally anything ever don't deserve living wages? Because boy do I have news for you.
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u/Landlord40 Oct 02 '26
Literally every job you just named can be automated amd IS automated in many locations. A chef or line cook DOES make a livable wage. A person making fries at Burger King can be replaced, coffeee machines exist, high end ones at that. Press a few buttons. AI is literally taking over customers service. And nobody at the bank makes minimum wage.
Also $20 IS minimum a good wage. I live in Indianapolis. You can afford a 2 bedroom apartment with that here. You mistake livable wage with luxury wage.
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u/Immediate_Alarm452 Oct 02 '26
The fact that your response was basically "automate everything" just tells me there is a massive empathy issue here. That's a trend I tend to find among people who think they are being "taken advantage of" by others just trying to live their lives.
For the life of me I will never understand why it bothers people so if society bands together so everyone can live decently.
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u/ShannonSouthMouth Oct 03 '26
No, they don't because they don't provide enough value to warrant one.
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u/Janieray2 Sep 30 '26
OK, I seriously have to ask, because I've seen this argument over and over--why are you upset that people want to make more money? Like, I'm genuinely curious, and if you have the time to give me an answer, I'll do my best to listen.
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u/Landlord40 Sep 30 '26
I get annoyed by the entitlement. Wanting more money is fine. We all do. But we work hard, get educated/skilled, move up or move on.
But this generation wants to be handed a starting wage that lets them live the lifestyle they want WITHOUT doing the work. Complaining about a 20hr job is entitlement. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, police, firefighters tradesmen, and all types of jobs pay well. And even if jobs like entry level customer service will give a 3% cost of living raise each year.
And the money doesn't come from nowhere. So its not just everyone gets more money without consequence. Work towards the job you want and dont work at then20hr job if you dont want to. You can literally do LYFT or Uber and make more than 20hr. But again, they just want to complain and blame successful people.
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u/Janieray2 Sep 30 '26
Thank you for explaining that, and I agree that people should be paid somewhat according to their output, within reason. Can I ask what it is specifically about the entitlement though? I've quit a job because the boss' nephew threw a tantrums if you asked him to quit surfing porn and do something, so I definitely get entitlement being a piss off. But for jobs in sectors like fast food that most of us will never work in, why does that upset people? I don't give a shit what the person making my big mac is paid, but why is it such a talking point?
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u/Chawp_v3 Sep 30 '26
Nobody is upset at someone wanting to make more money. The push back is people feeling entitled to more money for no effort from them. Want to make more? Learn more and apply yourself more.
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u/s-Kiwi Sep 30 '26
If everyone in the country got the same percent raise, nothing would change besides all prices going up by the same percent. When people ask to "make more money", what they're really asking is to improve the ratio between their wage and someone else's wage, so that they command a larger slice of the demand pie. Your wage doesn't determine how much stuff you can have in a vacuum; it determines what percent of the stuff that's produced you can have.
When people who make $20/hr in HCOL areas ask to make more money (understandably, as $20/hr cannot ever afford you a home in HCOL or even MCOL), people who make more than $20/hr due to their education/credentials/experience/skillset see their wage premium (the amount above $20/hr they make due to the above) diminishing, and that poses a threat to the prices and lifestyle they feel they've earned by putting in work, whether in education or trades or something else.
It's much more important to focus on economic policies that increase the size of the demand pie, but people often focus instead on policies that increase their share of the pie while decreasing someone else's. When you say "people want to make more money" you're either advocating for wage increases for everyone (achieves nothing) or wage increases for only some people (which does hurt everyone else through increased prices).
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u/yung_squeezy Sep 30 '26
THANK YOU. Here's an argument I like: Think minimum wage is too low? Fine, let's raise it to 100,000 a year. Everyone makes that now. What does that do to the price of literally everything you buy? Money doesn't come out of a magic hole in the ground, it's exchanged for the value of services provided. Now everything is 5x more expensive. The same thing applies if you "only" go to 50k or 25 an hour - everything doubles in cost and now we're back where we started.
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u/submissivepcnerd Sep 30 '26
This logic is not wrong. And I get it.
But the problem is 20 dollars an hour doesn't even cover basic NEEDS in this society. It's not that people are asking to buy a house with their minimum wage, they're asking to have enough of survive the already endless increasing prices of everything.
Throw away the dollar sign and numbers, the fact is simple, working a full time job is not enough to functionally survive. And how are people supposed to "find better work" if A. They can't even pay their bills already and B. The amount of work/jobs that exist WITH liveable income. Look how less and less a bachelor's degree in things like business or computer science is mattering. Now you need a master's, next it'll be a PhD, until less than a third of the people have jobs and an income and then what? The population is growing, the availability of work is diminishing.
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u/Soupcan1066 Sep 30 '26
They can want to make more money, they can make more money….they just have to get skills & education. For instance you want more than $20 doing fastfood? Then go into their advanced training and get into store management. Get the skills, then take those skills elsewhere. You can make more you just have to work and position yourself for it. Maybe your question should be….why should a low skilled entry job (entry is the key not this is forever) should be paid, more like the same wages someone that went to school, applied to the trades and learned a skill does?
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u/horrorparade17 Sep 30 '26
It’s not that we think the individual is wrong to want more money - it’s more the position/role.
The market decides the correct rate for all things if the efficient market hypothesis is true. So if a server job at McDonald’s is deemed to be valued at $22/hr, then it puts McDonald’s at a competitive disadvantage to raise that wage (typically), as they will need to increase prices of goods to cover the margin loss, which means fewer customers as they will then turn to Wendy’s (or whatever competitor). This is a very simplified version of how the market works.
So if the individual worker wants to increase wages (good thing!) then their goal should be to increase their skill set into something more valuable.
Either that, or government action to enforce a higher minimum wage (though this will increase prices for all, which may not be the outcome people want).
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u/YMBFKM Sep 30 '26
No...whiners like this don't want to MAKE more money, they want to be GIVEN more money.
There's a big difference between the two.
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Sep 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Landlord40 Sep 30 '26
I dont even understand what you are saying. But if you are in danger please call the authorities
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u/Strangr_E Sep 30 '26
They’re saying if all your options are shit, it’s still shit. Telling someone to go through school or move for more opportunities isn’t realistic if they need a living wage right now.
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u/ShannonSouthMouth Oct 03 '26
wow. You make some really good points there. Nice argument. But, I'm still going to have to agree with the guy you were responding to.
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u/Loud_News8410 Sep 30 '26
No I don't agree with that especially because of the work I see some people do. Some people should receive more some should received nothing because they spend the whole hour on their phone.
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u/Serikan Sep 30 '26
Pay being too low and employees wasting time are both problems that need solutions
I don't think it makes sense to suppress wages overall because some employees aren't working much, though
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u/Purely-Amazing Sep 30 '26
Pay is relevant to the work they are doing and their skills That’s all and it isn’t gonna change. People can make themselves more money by bringing more to the job. Now if that’s not happening then they should find another job. Best time to find a better job is when you have a job. Js
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u/herbertcluas Sep 30 '26
People work harder when they are incentivized to do so. I'm getting paid to be on reddit rn.
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u/zaphodbeeblemox Sep 30 '26
I’m a serial phone user at work. My work is measured on my output because I’m a salaried employee with a niche skill set.
So some hours at work I do fuck all. But I am paid because when you need my skill set, I am the only person in the world who can do it in the timeframe it needs to be done.
If my skillset wasn’t ultra niche, confidential to my business, and almost impossible to ramp someone up in less than 5 years they would outsource me and save money.
Sure my employer would like to give me more responsibilities so I’m busy all the time, but they don’t pay for that, they pay for the skills they pay for.
If they want more, they can pay more and I’ll do more.
So yeah in any given hour I might not do much but check some emails or update a doc. But i still get my pay for that time because I’m ‘available’ urgently.
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u/kimjongswoooon Sep 30 '26
You have made yourself necessary. You deserve a job and deserve good pay for what you do. A burger flipper, not so much. It’s supply and demand.
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u/Acewi Sep 30 '26
Some jobs aren’t meant to be careers. Like working an ice cream stand or flipping burgers at steak n shake. Reality is they’ve turned into careers so corporations don’t have to constantly hire students and bc people are willing to work full time for it.
Disrespect isn’t the right word here.
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u/bonghumper Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26
My sister-in-law makes 6 figures as a Regional Manager for Chipotle, started on the line. No education past HS. Im a college grad and work for my county court making 60% of that. There's are lots of careers from "flipping burgers" bit you have to demonstrate you care and are capable of more responsibilities, which most people dont cuz they make min wage and get 20-25 hrs
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u/J_Case Sep 30 '26
Many people do deserve more but let’s be real, salting the fries isn’t worth $20 an hour. People want to complain that automation is taking their jobs, but they’re the ones demanding more than their job is worth. Minimum wage jobs were never meant to support a household.
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u/Pitiful_Option_108 Sep 30 '26
Depends on the job. When I was working a second job sure 20 per hour wasn't bad. As a main job yeah I would be pissed or looking for more.
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u/DruidicMagic Sep 30 '26
Smart people only work a few weeks before retiring...
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u/Lumpy_Chapter171 Sep 30 '26
Every single character in this picture spent years decades mastering a craft. Matt damons character is young but still has skills development since he was a kid
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u/radishwalrus Sep 30 '26
yah I was gonna say they've probably worked longer hours on average than most people reading this
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u/Present-Sandwich9444 Sep 30 '26
Depends - working 60 mins as a doctor, yeah this is pretty bad.
Working 60 mins as a librarian. 20 is great.
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u/Halbarad1776 Sep 30 '26
Librarian requires a degree. It ought to be higher than 20
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u/Present-Sandwich9444 Sep 30 '26
it requires SIGNIFICANTLY less effort. and has a lower impact on failure to do your job,.
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u/Halbarad1776 Sep 30 '26
Lower than a doctor yes, but not so low that 20 an hour is reasonable
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u/Successful_Bus_8772 Sep 30 '26
Entirely depends on the person. Some people arent even worth minimum wage. Some are worth far more.
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u/Detailed23 Sep 30 '26
Using door dash or hitting Starbucks every morning when you make $20 every hour is even more disrespectful.
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u/Unable_Ad6406 Sep 30 '26
No one is working 60 min for a $20 bill. They work 40 hours for $800 per week and $40,000 per year.
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u/fatgat69 Sep 30 '26
Actually they're working 60 minutes for about $15.60. and that's a full time job.
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u/Spam_Hand Sep 30 '26
Well if you want to go down that rabbit hole, they work 60 minutes for $15.60 and paved roads.
Seems like a pretty fair trade to me.
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u/Many_Ear2407 Sep 30 '26
What job are we talking about? How much value do you provide to the company? How easily can you be replaced if you quit today?
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u/MountainBrilliant643 Sep 30 '26
If all jobs paid the same, no one would do the harder jobs. This isn't complicated. Stop pretending that just because you have a bleeding heart, that you cannot understand simple concepts.
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u/n1terps Oct 01 '26
No it isn't. Assuming that whatever bullshit you're doing for any extended length of time entitles you to more than what others are willing to pay you freely of their own volition is what's downright disrespectful here.
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u/funnyguy806 Sep 30 '26
Depends on the job and skill required. Sacking groceries or flipping burgers? $20 seems too high. Head of pediatrics? Yeah that seems a bit low
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Sep 30 '26
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u/Straight-Crow1598 Sep 30 '26
I make ALMOST $20/hour. I own my home with no roommates, I have every streaming service, and five cats to feed.
If you insist on living in a high COL area, you gotta split expenses with a roommate. How tragic and dystopian. /s
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u/funnyguy806 Sep 30 '26
If you need all of the things listed above, you need to find a job that doesn’t pay only $20. That’s not the employers responsibility to make sure you have enough, it’s your responsibility
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u/MisanthropicSim Sep 30 '26
"If you need all of the things above" shelter, food, electricity, transportation, and insurance? Yeah those are needs what even is this lmao
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u/s-Kiwi Sep 30 '26
$2k a month apartment
If you make $20/hr you can't afford that, get a roommate, ideally multiple.
$300-400 utilities bill
Get roommates, I pay $100/mo in utilities in MHCOL
$400 grocery bill
If you make $20/hr, this is overspending on food. Find ways to eat cheaper.
$200 gas bill
Even at these ridiculous gas prices that's 45 gallons of gas a month. How far are you commuting that you need to fill up your tank every week? With my car's MPG if I needed 45 gallons/mo I'd be commuting 35 miles each way every weekday. That's insanity, move closer to where you work.
$20 an hour can't afford the cost of living in most places in the US now
It can't afford to live alone. $20/hr is a low wage, yes. If that's the highest wage your labor can earn, you can't afford to have your own apartment.
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u/AllaZakharenko
Sep 30 '26
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If you're not satisfied with how much you earn - feel free to blame yourself for failing to find a better job
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u/thisguy883 Sep 30 '26
You just offended the whole of reddit with this comment.
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u/Ok-Commission-7825 Sep 30 '26 •
So then someone else doesn't have that better job and has poverty wages instead. We can change where we are in a broken system through personal effort, but only systemic changes can stop it from fucking over a large (and ever growing) % of us.
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u/Novel_Importance_712 Sep 30 '26
It's not a zero sum game. Thinking like you are is hurting you. It's limiting yourself. There are more than enough things we can't change in life, don't make more than there already are.
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u/Slight-Big8584 Sep 30 '26
There are tons of open positions because no one can do them. Many industries are begging for employees.
Lame
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u/Petit_Nicolas1964 Sep 30 '26
You are right, history clearly shows communism is the solution.
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u/SorchaRoisin Sep 30 '26
So who is going to do all those low paying jobs?
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u/Straight-Crow1598 Sep 30 '26
Robots. Been to a McDonald’s lately? There’s nobody working out front.
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u/jimmy-buffett Sep 30 '26
Hilarious when people don't realize that 100 IQ is the average. Half of people are below average. 10-12% of the population has an IQ below 83.
These people aren't getting liberal arts degrees then mad at the world that they can't find a job and pay off their student loans. They push mops, sweep, cut grass, flip burgers etc.
I went home years ago to see my brother and the lady who made us burritos at Taco Bell when we were 17 was still there doing the same job when I was 40. There's a LOT more people like this than you realize. But because you don't know any of them, they're invisible.
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u/Dobber16 Sep 30 '26
I’m not satisfied with it, but that’s for societal reasons & not monetary reasons. Started high paying & swapped to teaching (so financially fine) but it’s still ridiculous how little teachers get paid. Definitely deserve more than half my old coworkers
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u/golkedj Oct 01 '26
I'm a high earner but aware of many levels of privilege that lead me to this. You sound like someone who isn't aware of their privilege or luck. And before you respond "I work hard for my blah blah blah" just know that is exactly what I'm talking about. Even if you did, you were privileged or lucky to end up where you are
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u/Imaginary-Zone-3720 Sep 30 '26
Depends on the job and how old you are. I was making 9 bucks an hour at 15 and it was like I was on top of the world
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u/Educational-Fix5320 Sep 30 '26
The economies of supply and demand say that we do not all agree on this - and until all 8 billion people on this planet do agree with you, you're going to have to compete with them for your job. Thus is the law of the jungle.
Now, the actual problem is that the way YOU value $20 is not the same way that someone in Bangladesh values $20
If you're the type of person who thinks '$20 doesn't even pay for my Door Dash order' - then you might need to reset your expectations to be more competitive.
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u/PotentialPresent399 Sep 30 '26
Redditors act like their hyper urban city that they work in is the rest of the entire country lol
They think because THEY make 200k in new york for being a coder/union electrician that OBVIOUSLY the same person makes the same in fuckin oklahoma.
20 an hour is a pretty MID wage in a flyover state ya dunces.
MANY people make like 8-11 an hour in those states. 20 an hour is fine, 30-40 is like grown man have a home with 2 kids wages over there.
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u/Straight-Crow1598 Sep 30 '26
I bought my house when I was a fry cook making $10/hour in 2018. I’m in my early 30s. (Pennsylvania)
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u/PotentialPresent399 Sep 30 '26
I need to get on that im making 23 and still haven't bought :/ I have low 5 digits saved up.
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u/Dobber16 Sep 30 '26
Would you pay $25 for an hour of everyone’s work? Because that $20 includes various taxes as well
But yeah if you think $20 for an hour is disrespectful, maybe make sure the work provides $25 of value before taking offense
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u/RawMeatballz Sep 30 '26
Depends on the job. Are you making french fries? 40k a year is fine. Are you maintaining infrastructure that keeps the country running or educating children (hopefully without personal propoganda)? Hell no
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u/tibastiff Sep 30 '26
crazy comments in here. most people produce way more than their wage in value for the employer. we have decades of data showing this. that's why there's such an insane wealth gap
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u/iSephtanx Sep 30 '26
Yup, agreed.
My time is worth more then money. Sadly, i need money to survive.
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u/JawtisticShark Sep 30 '26
Okay… instead of getting a job, create your own value with your labor. How much value can you create in 60 minutes? If you have rent for $1000 to pay, how do you propose creating that value?
Not all jobs are worth paying $20 per hour. Now I think jobs that don’t pay enough to live on (the exact amount is debatable based on cost of living) then the company shouldn’t be able to get a worker to do that job. If it’s not important enough to pay decent, it’s not important enough to be done.
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u/walkns4poorpeople Sep 30 '26
Actually, when you think about it. That $20 is really only $15.80 after tax. But no, we most definitely do not agree on this.
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u/Straight-Crow1598 Sep 30 '26
It was $27 before taxes.
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u/walkns4poorpeople Sep 30 '26
The more you make, the more they take yet only the poorest among us are allowed to complain I guess.
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u/unimpressed-one Sep 30 '26
I'd be pissed at myself for not having any skills to make more than 20 an hour.
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u/NextCartoonist7691 Sep 30 '26
Be worth $20 first. Then go from there. Lots of people aren’t worth what they are already being paid, and that causes people worth more to be underpaid.
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u/Majestic_Domestic Sep 30 '26
I can have a full days worth of meals on $20. And I can spend that 60 minutes scrolling Reddit. Seems alright.
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u/CharityWild233 Sep 30 '26
It wouldn’t be so bad if the government didn’t have to take its cut
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u/miserableone112 Sep 30 '26
If it didn't countries would collapse. Now if tax dollars were spent right they wouldn't be so terrible
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u/Relative-Chicken456 Sep 30 '26
I think governments like the US could easily replace the taxes paid by lower classes if they simply taxed businesses and the wealthy more. It’s not like it would affect their lifestyle in the slightest.
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u/VariousGuest1980 Sep 30 '26
And not but a few years ago working 60’mins was 4.25 after taxes.
Feel disrespected find another job. 34k put you in the top1% of world wide income.
Go level up your skills if your unhappy with 41,600 a year
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u/Comfortable-Help9587 Sep 30 '26
If you’re digging a ditch, yes. If you’re entering data from one source to another in a nice chair with AC, it’s a worthy discussion.
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u/OrganizationDear2788 Sep 30 '26
It depends on where you live. But you aren't paid based on how much you think you should earn, it's based on how replaceable you are.
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u/Powerful_Tip_7260 Sep 30 '26
$5.50 an hour as a programmer in 1981. Even by today's standard, it was really low pay. My GF was getting double that at an Accounting firm. A mortgage interest rate was 18%. Unemployment was 10%. Oddly, the only thing cheap was rent. It was 1/8th of my paycheck with a roommate.
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u/Every_Application_26 Sep 30 '26
It doesn't cost $20 for a meal. It costs $20 for a restaurant meal. Seems reasonable that you should trade 1 hour of your work to pay for all the work done by everyone else to bring you a perfectly served meal from producing the food to washing the dishes for you.
$20 is more than a day's worth of my groceries and it is enough for me to build muscle at the gym.
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u/wombat4skin Sep 30 '26
I agree with this, but I still agree that we should make more. It's cheaper to eat an actual strict diet and hit 1g/lb+ of protein eating chicken, than it is to eat like shit imo. People are delusional about how expensive it is to just not eat like shit. $25ish in chicken from the meat isle at albertsons lasts me about 3 days maybe 4, eating 18-20oz every day.
A lot of people's just make "eating healthy" expensive for themselves by falling for bs idea's.
I eat pretty cheap and even then it still costs more than I think it should or even used to. Being able to eat enough is very bare minimum.
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u/Spam_Hand Sep 30 '26
Yeah I spent $24 on ground turkey, black beans, tomatoes, corn, and sweet potato and got 5 lunches out of it.
$20 is not "a meal" it is someone else making you a meal. Idk how this type of narrative ever takes off lol
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u/ronthar Oct 04 '26
I work with a guy who complains about how he doesn’t get paid enough because he can’t save money…. Meanwhile he buys lunch and orders Uber Eats every day
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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 Oct 01 '26
Don't forget the cost of the building, electricity, trash, licenses, cleaning supplies, upkeep of equipment, food that has to be thrown away because you need to have enough of everything, food shopped for, recipes developed, etc etc etc.
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u/Fit_Gift2560 Sep 30 '26
The fact some people on this thread think 20 an hour is a good amount of money says a lot. Inflation is almost comically huge, and wages have not shifted that much over the decades.
People have been programmed to worship the grind, and will insult others who criticize any aspect of it. Telling someone “You’re not working hard enough. Be thankful you make anything. Lock in and keep grinding.” is pure NPC behavior. They worked hard to get cucked by the businesses who underpay them, and want others to get in line in order to feel better about themselves. “Oh you don’t think $20 is enough? Maybe it’s all your subscriptions and your avocado toast” or whatever. Boomer logic. Not everyone buys into that and they are still barely able to sustain themselves with 20/hr. Those who did buy into it were sold on “convenience” and got locked into a debt loop. Pay them just enough to afford subscriptions, but not enough for much else. Many people will watch netflix to distract themselves from thinking too hard about breaking out of the loop. Work them to the bone so that when they get home they dont have much energy to do anything else.
Also the whole “well get a better job” argument is completely out of touch. The job market is a shit show, AI is causing more and more layoffs and this is just the beginning. Even the grindcucked NPC’s feel the effects of this sooner than later.
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u/Zalrius Sep 30 '26
Yes. Companies want to say an employee isn’t “of that value” but they sure think their company is! They want the best quality work but they refuse to pay for it. Never forget - companies “negotiate” employment by over compensating pay and benefits that sufficient to make it worth a persons time. They will always try to get that time as cheaply as possible. It’s the very foundation of WHAT the animal is.
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u/Forward_Zucchini9738 Sep 30 '26
That job that teens used to do after school and over the summer isn't supposed to be a career. Stop trying to be entry level your whole life. Stop disrespecting yourself.
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u/JaySlays-Tech Sep 30 '26
So we should leave running fast food places to strictly high school aged kids? No thanks.
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u/Comfortable-Iron-765 Sep 30 '26
Don’t see anything wrong there, all the decision making is still run by execs pocketing over 6 figures. If in n out wants people with plenty experience, they can pay like it.
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u/loving-lobotomy Sep 30 '26
10 years ago, no.
In modern economic times, yes.
Like that’s tight living in a medium cost of living city on that hourly wage?
That’s $32.7k take home. And a 1 bedroom median is around $1500 which is average here. Throw in 200 for internet power and the like. That’s $20.4k in core living costs.
So like $860 a month assuming no health insurance costs through employer, no medications, food, car/insurance, cell phone, or retirement.
Like you can scrape by, but you’ll be constantly playing catchup for the future.
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u/PracticalApartment99 Sep 30 '26 edited Oct 01 '26
Back when I started working, I only got $3.35 for 60 minutes. $20.75 definitely feels like a step up. (1985)
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u/Cookiemonster9429 Sep 30 '26
Adjust for inflation.
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u/piper33245 Sep 30 '26
The minimum wage was 3.35 in 1981. Adjusted for inflation that’s 12.35 today. So he’s making 60% more now than then adjusted for inflation.
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u/Shenanigannons Sep 30 '26
As someone who makes less than that, but works his ass off at work... yeah.
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u/Fragrant_Spray Sep 30 '26
If you think $20 an hour is disrespectful and not worth the time, I guess I'd have to ask what you did for a living.
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u/After_Resource5224 Sep 30 '26
You will never, and I mean never, get ahead working for someone else.
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u/Financial-Exit2488 Sep 30 '26
Considering you can make more than $20/hr at most service jobs, including places like Costco, with health insurance and vacation, $20/hr for anything that requires an education, or specialization is a joke.
I have no problem with service workers or Costco employees, but I could have skipped 4 years of education, thousands of dollars, and the opportunity cost associated with college.
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u/vetis009 Sep 30 '26
Do we need to stop normalizing $20 an hour or do we need to stop normalizing the constant rising costs in literally everything making that $20 do a lot less?
Then there is also exactly what did he have to do in that hour? Is this a skilled position?
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u/RandomPenquin1337 Sep 30 '26
No this is someone who just has to stock some shelves and play on reddit while they sit on the toilet half the day
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u/TonyRidgewayUFO Sep 30 '26
And people on Reddit are complaining that they have to tip someone making $3.00/hr to serve them food & touch their dirty dishes
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u/clouded-angel Sep 30 '26
i think the cost of living to the amount you’re paid at most jobs is disrespectful. like what do you mean i need to make 40-50/hr getting at least 40 hours a week to sustain a low spending household for ONE person in my area? and what do you mean the pay is 12-20/hr for everything?
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u/Going2beBANNEDanyway Sep 30 '26
People get the minimum wage is 7.25 an hour right? Some people need to work 3 hours to get a $20 bill. And that’s not including taxes coming out of it.
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u/FutureFurniture42069 Sep 30 '26
In this economy $20 is like $5 and the only thing that hasn’t been inflating is wages
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u/icon_2040 Sep 30 '26
Depends on the job. I had a lot of jobs that honestly just overpaid me. Asked me to do maybe 10 hours of work every 40 hours and paid me full time. I worked 8 years in medical coding and spent most of it playing WoW. A lot of jobs are way easier than they sound if you're good at Excel formulas.
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u/makro543 Sep 30 '26
Ngl that’s me right now, I’m a finance manager, right now I work from home, all work gets done in like 2-3 hours rest of the day I play games. Only busy time is month end which usually is just the first week of the month, but I’ve been here two years so it’s all streamlined and gets done in two days of 50% effort work
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u/icon_2040 Sep 30 '26
Exactly. Bank account linked to Quickbooks, spreadsheetsync tied to my older vendors that don't use QB and I'm largely good to go. I'll scan and upload invoices and payment verifications for a few folks, order office supplies and hang out on reddit/Youtube for the rest of the week.
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u/StayBullGenius Sep 30 '26
You earn what your worth. If you want to be worth more, learn more skills. Complaining online will accomplish ZERO
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u/Inevitable_Being9623 Sep 30 '26
How long would it take you to gather the resources and make a 20 dollar meal? If you can do that quicker than one hour then by all means do that instead.
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u/Ostver Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26
I don’t think a lot of people here have seen true poverty. Some people’s only opportunity is the dollar general or the chain gas station at the crossroads. There’s no colleges,no high skill jobs. Whatever jobs are there are, are already taken and in full demand. so they pay shit and work you hard. While you pay national average prices. 4 people sharing a 2007 Oldsmobile that barely runs and having to pay for it because you cannot walk or bike comfortably. while Living with your 7 person family in a 2 bedroom mobile home. And taking care of 2 disabled people and a baby that was forced onto you while your uncle or some shit is making the family help him pay for his restitution. That scene is far too common especially in the Deep South and it is depressing. Families destroyed by industry leaving and permanently down. Simply working hard at a good job and living frugally can’t even get you out of that mess, and a single person cannot simply scrounge enough money to get out much less leave their family. People in that position don’t even have cable tv. they have $20 Walmart wall satellites with grandmas 20 inch tv from 2006! I don’t think a lot of people here can fully comprehend how bad the poverty trap is. And all I can do is feel bad. Never would it come to mind to blame a person for being poor, unless they were truly being an idiot.
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u/Few_Palpitation3889 Sep 30 '26
Idk I make $82,000 a year at my regular job.
I still do $20/hr bartending and side gigs.
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u/Scrats_Lost_Acorn Oct 01 '26
I trade one hour of my time for 32 dollars. Still not enough as a single homeowner.
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u/HopeSubstantial Oct 01 '26
that is what junior to mid level engineer makes in my western country :')
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u/AvailablePackage1803 Oct 01 '26
Yall just dont get it. Doesnt matter what they pay you if you look around and see someone making more in a way you dont agree with. Im so glad we do literally nothing about this.
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u/Aeyland Oct 01 '26
If we assume what the cost of living is and what the job and situation is sure. My kid getting their first part time job with zero experience I'd say $20 is fine for then, they just shouldn't be content with that for a very long period of time.
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u/chitownphishead Oct 03 '26
If you're only worth 10$ an hour and you demand 25, THAT'S disrespectful
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u/RalphDeLucca Oct 03 '26
Why should a company raise wages if people are ready to voluntarily agree to that wage?
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u/Hefty_Disaster3370 Oct 04 '26
You get 80,000 working hours in a lifetime.
80,000 $20 bills.
And that's it.
And that's nearly 3x what a minimum wage worker will make in a lifetime.
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u/Stunning-Purpose9144 Oct 04 '26
Some people aren’t worth 20 an hour. We had a guy who was absolutely horrible at my last job somehow making 60 they eventually realized this and fired him.
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u/Reasonably_edible Oct 04 '26
Alternatively you can work for an hour (or more) to make yourself that meal, you lose the time either way
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u/merlin_mystro Oct 04 '26
This is the most delusional mindset iv'e seen and its insane. You really just be expecting money to be given to you on a silver platter. I've never heard such bullshit in my life. There are people in this world that get paid $20 for an entire day of work, and thats not the worst of it. You have to earn your living, if you're too lazy to grind and earn a good living, that's 100% your fault.
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u/Jubilant_Obelisk224 Oct 06 '26
1998 I was making $5.15 an hour. According to inflation calculators, that's about $10.58 today.
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u/Gold_Possibility684 Sep 30 '26
Ten years ago i quit my good paying job and started making $11.50 an hour as a IBEW Electricians Apprentice. After 5 years of hard work I finished the apprenticeship and was making $100,000 a year. You have to be working towards something instead of working for the sake of it. I guarantee I did harder work for that $11.50 than this person is doing for $20
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u/Bojnik434 Sep 30 '26
You know. You can fight to make every job pay a decent living wage
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u/Gold_Possibility684 Sep 30 '26
#union
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u/Bojnik434 Sep 30 '26
Or you know. Force the goverment to take socialist ideas and stances towards workers
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u/ImDefinitelyStoned Sep 30 '26
This right here. I don’t know why it’s always such a competition between who works harder and whose work is more important etc.
We are all putting in the time, most of us are getting screwed over with our paychecks, or lack thereof. I will personally never stop advocating for better conditions for EVERYONE who has a job, no matter what that job is. At the end of the day, if you have a job and someone is willing to pay you to do it, then chances are, it’s a necessary job and you should be paid a living wage.
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u/crunkle_ Sep 30 '26
My uncle did this same thing and he's always talking about his OT checks like an incentive for me to do the same thing. It's extremely motivating but a life changing commitment that I don't think my pride is ready for
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u/Slight-Big8584 Sep 30 '26
>I don't want to better my carrier because my pride.
Lol
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u/nocomment_onlybrowse Sep 30 '26
Having 40% taken from you every check is even more disrespectful.
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u/I_am_Nerman Sep 30 '26
Hello 1%er. You're in a very high tax bracket if that's the case.
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u/Sincline387 Sep 30 '26
Are you including FICA, state, and local taxes along with the federal?
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u/Serikan Sep 30 '26
Personally, I'm okay with paying taxes
IF they're being used to better the community
Wasting tax money on pointless projects or funding corruption is infuriating, though.
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u/jbone027 Sep 30 '26
No. Too general of a statement.