Working two full time jobs and still can't pay rent

[babalou1]

If she's making that little + kid. She probably on state assistance as well.

Which means: Majorly discounted daycare (100 a month, tops). SNAP will probably give her 200+ month for food. WiC as well if she applied for it.

Even with that many jobs, if her income is less or even with her outgoing, she can get state assistance.

[Celista]

If she's making that little + kid. She probably on state assistance as well.

Which means: Majorly discounted daycare (100 a month, tops). SNAP will probably give her 200+ month for food. WiC as well if she applied for it.

Even with that many jobs, if her income is less or even with her outgoing, she can get state assistance.

Um, no. Out of curiosity, I looked up "discounted" daycare in my town...1300 a month full price, 700 a month if you make 180% of poverty level or less. And after looking at 20 daycares online, all but 1 of them had a wait list (yeah, I was that bored that I visited the websites of the closest 20 daycares in my area).

If she's working that much, she might not qualify for discounted child care because her income might be too high. She might have a thing against handouts or have some other, more significant bills to pay. She should be on SNAP or WiC though, no question.

Since the OP lives in the South though and cost of living is likely cheaper than where I live, child care still may be a lot cheaper, but wages also tend to be lower there in relation to the rest of the U.S. (with some exceptions).

[Tulune]

Wow, living expenses really vary from place to place huh? My fiance and I found a 1 bedroom for 675, including heat, water trash and snow removal. Plus a pool and tennis court. It's not a huge place, but more than enough comfortable room for the two of us. Then again, I live in the middle of nowhere lol.

[Deleted]

Rent is $950 per month and its in Tuscaloosa Alabama.

That's weird, a typical minimum wage, full time job in the uk pays about 12-15k a year, which is about £1000-£1500 a month, which equates to about 1500-2250 $? she's then working two full time jobs 5 days a week and 2 part time jobs two days a week, that means she theoretically should be making over 5000$ a month i imagine, that is of course, basing it off the information from where i'm from so some values could be wrong but i don't think they'd be wrong enough to make it so that it's not possible for her to pay rent, that should be plenty to pay rent and bills and still have enough left over to save or spend on other things, I think she needs to sort her spendings out and you may need to give her warnings and explain that you have bills to pay as well so can't afford to have her keep getting behind on her payments

[S7orm]

Wait wait... The minimal wage for an adult is $7.25 an hour? Holy shit that is bullshit. What the fuck is your government doing letting people get paid that bad. Our dollar is almost the same here and the minimal wage for an adult is almost $20.

Australia is the country with the highest min. wage and it's a bit below 16USD, i'd hardly call it "almost $20" (not to say you need to sign a loan to buy a videogame)

back it: it's not possible she can't afford to pay the rent with 2 full-time jobs, she's lying or wasting a ton of money, in both cases deserves a kick

[Komati]

Don't let her skip paying rent. It will make her more likely to skip paying rent in the future, and yourself more likely to let it slide.
You have to be firm. If it's just her and a kid she can probably get a smaller place to live. 2 people don't actually need an entire house.

[Vuljatar]

also as a sidenote to vuljatar who thinks that employers make up the difference. A little shattering of your bubble is about to commence. Firstly not a single employer i know of and i used to work as a waiter and bartender for some time has ever paid the difference. And though the law is on the books there is no law enforcement or any government agency that enforces the law. So please wake up and take off the rose colored spectacles and step into reality.

(Citation Needed)

First off... topping-up isn't very common because it's almost never needed. Out of half a dozen friends and acquaintances who have waited tables at some point in their lives, not one of them has ever had to have their paycheck topped-up, and most of them made substantially more than minimum wage every single week.

Second, no serious corporation would risk the kind of trouble they could get in over saving a few bucks on those rare occasions when topping-up is necessary. Avoiding legal trouble is basically the guiding star of any good business. Of course, it's entirely possible that a small independent restaurant would pull that shit out of ignorance of the law and it's consequences or out of simple desperation, but any place that stupid or desperate isn't a job worth having and isn't a business that will last long anyway.

Government agencies that enforce these laws include the IRS, the State Workforce Commission, and the U.S. Department of Labor. You want reality? The reality is that Applebees isn't going to risk a lawsuit costing (at minimum) hundreds of thousands of dollars just to steal a couple bucks from their waitstaff. You've obviously never worked for a big corporation if you don't know this.

I had you fingered for a thinker, but damn was I wrong.

Do you need someone to bullet-point everything that direct at you? I don't think it's necessary to elaborate any more on the things I've said, but I need to now.

*~*~*~ 1:.) Be kind to others. (This may seem counterproductive to the Almighty Dollar you worship, but trust me: if you do well to others, it will happen to you.)

*~*~*~ 2:.) Don't give bad advice. (This also may seem counterproductive, but this time to your self-centered attitude and not your cash-god. You've heard one side of story that, in its entirety, wouldn't make a paragraph and you're meting out judgement. Life-altering for those involved, sans you via the anonymity of the accountability-free internet.)

*~*~*~ 3:.) Don't lie on the internet. (Nobody will believe you anyway.)

My mind is totally blown by what an arrogant and self-righteous prick you are. Your vitriol is ludicrous on it's face--you don't know the situation any better than any of the other posters in this thread.

Not to mention the fact that you seem to live in the magical kingdom of fairies and leprechauns, since any landlord on Earth who followed your advice would end up homeless themselves. He isn't running a homeless shelter, he's running a business. How long would your local grocery store stay in business if anyone who wanted could shop, say "Sorry, I don't have any money" and take whatever they wanted for free?

Wait wait... The minimal wage for an adult is $7.25 an hour? Holy shit that is bullshit. What the fuck is your government doing letting people get paid that bad. Our dollar is almost the same here and the minimal wage for an adult is almost $20.

I'd assume your living expenses are vastly higher than ours. $7.25 an hour isn't nearly as bad as you seem to think. It's enough for food, transportation, and low-quality housing for one person in most areas.

Infracted: Please do not insult other users

[pmgbro]

Rent varies from state to state. Here in Virginia, rent is outfuckingrageous in places considered northern VA because of people commuting into DC to work. It's not uncommon to live 2 hours away from DC (without traffic) because that what you can afford. 950$ a month north of Fredericksburg will get 4 walls and a bed.

[Celista]

(Citation Needed)

First off... topping-up isn't very common because it's almost never needed. Out of half a dozen friends and acquaintances who have waited tables at some point in their lives, not one of them has ever had to have their paycheck topped-up, and most of them made substantially more than minimum wage every single week.

No actual experience waiting tables yourself? I put myself through college waiting tables for 4 years, worked myself up to a very expensive and lucrative fine-dining job from a piss-poor waitressing gig that on average earned me a little more than $9-$10 an hour in a city where rents averaged around $1600/mo for a two-bedroom apartment. Topping-up happened, and all of my jobs were in downtown Chicago, which for the most part had a good tipping culture except from the poor/ghetto kids from the South/West side. Usually you would get sent home early if things were slow, but if you were there an hour with no tables, you should expect your paycheck to reflect the full minimum wage for that hour. Live in a part of the country where tipping culture is a lot worse, and/or work at a slow restaurant in a small rural town, and I can see people not making much from waitressing.

Second, no serious corporation would risk the kind of trouble they could get in over saving a few bucks on those rare occasions when topping-up is necessary. Avoiding legal trouble is basically the guiding star of any good business. Of course, it's entirely possible that a small independent restaurant would pull that shit out of ignorance of the law and it's consequences or out of simple desperation, but any place that stupid or desperate isn't a job worth having and isn't a business that will last long anyway.

The restaurant industry is pretty corrupt, I can tell you some stories...in any case, you're probably right that a large corporation is less likely to try and pull some shenangians, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. At one restaurant I worked at (part of a large corporate, nationwide restaurant chain), managers were bonused off of their labor hours--the less hours you had for employees on your shift, the larger your bonus at the end of the fiscal quarter. Suffice it to say, that restaurant had a lot of "errors" with their labor hours (which btw was very hard to prove as management had the ability to change your clocked in/out hours in their system, so essentially it was your word against your manager's as to when you were "cut" for a particular shift that month).

Government agencies that enforce these laws include the IRS, the State Workforce Commission, and the U.S. Department of Labor. You want reality? The reality is that Applebees isn't going to risk a lawsuit costing (at minimum) hundreds of thousands of dollars just to steal a couple bucks from their waitstaff. You've obviously never worked for a big corporation if you don't know this.

As I mentioned, this is false.

I'd assume your living expenses are vastly higher than ours. $7.25 an hour isn't nearly as bad as you seem to think. It's enough for food, transportation, and low-quality housing for one person in most areas.

$7.25 an hour at a full time job is a take home pay of $1300 a month before taxes. Kids are expensive. Good luck getting a roommate with a kid, or finding a place with a room to rent if you have a kid (as having roommates is almost always cheaper than living alone). OP's tenant can easily find a place cheaper than $950 a month though for that area, but let's not pretend that $7.25/hr is a livable wage for most people in this country, especially for a single mom with a young kid.

[Vuljatar]

The restaurant industry is pretty corrupt, I can tell you some stories...in any case, you're probably right that a large corporation is less likely to try and pull some shenangians, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. At one restaurant I worked at (part of a large corporate, nationwide restaurant chain), managers were bonused off of their labor hours--the less hours you had for employees on your shift, the larger your bonus at the end of the fiscal quarter. Suffice it to say, that restaurant had a lot of "errors" with their labor hours (which btw was very hard to prove as management had the ability to change your clocked in/out hours in their system, so essentially it was your word against your manager's as to when you were "cut" for a particular shift that month).

That doesn't sound like it would be your word against your manager's, it sounds like it would be your manager's word against you and everyone else who was working that day and knew you were working. Also, most if not all payroll systems employed by major companies keep track of any manual changes made, leaving obvious and conclusive evidence of such dishonesty.

As I mentioned, this is false.

It's not false. Just because in your brief time at Restaurant X you were aware of a manager committing a crime for which he had not yet been caught and punished doesn't invalidate my completely true statement that "a big corporation isn't going to risk a lawsuit costing (at minimum) hundreds of thousands of dollars just to steal a couple bucks from their waitstaff". The moment any executive or district manager caught wind of what was going on (which, as I said, would be proven by the payroll system's records), that manager would be fired in the blink of an eye. It's pure practicality, the corporation has vastly more to lose from it than they have to gain.

$7.25 an hour at a full time job is a take home pay of $1300 a month before taxes. Kids are expensive. Good luck getting a roommate with a kid, or finding a place with a room to rent if you have a kid (as having roommates is almost always cheaper than living alone). OP's tenant can easily find a place cheaper than $950 a month though for that area, but let's not pretend that $7.25/hr is a livable wage for most people in this country, especially for a single mom with a young kid.

I stand by my statement: It's enough for food, transportation, and low-quality housing for one person in most areas. (If people can't afford kids, they shouldn't have them.)

[Celista]

Sadly, it's not like I had ONE bad experience at one restaurant with one shitty manager. I can give you literally dozens of examples. Sure there are better restaurants out there that are better run; I worked at one restaurant that I could say was extremely professionally run. The rest had management sleeping with waitstaff, giving said waitstaff that was putting out preferred sections, management skimming tips off of the tip pool, drinking on the job, etc. The restaurant industry is not like working a 9-5 where you have an employment contract and an HR rep making sure that your work environment is discrimination-free.

I stand by my statement: It's enough for food, transportation, and low-quality housing for one person in most areas. (If people can't afford kids, they shouldn't have them.)

Okay, then this is completely irrelevant to the thread as she already has a child, and I don't know many parents that are willing to part with their 3 year old.

[Dazzy]

So there is this lady who rents my house from me who works four jobs, 2 full times on the weekdays and two part time on the weekends. And she still says she can't make ends meet. My mind is blown how this could happen. I don't want to sound like a self centered person, but why even get a house if you can't afford it? You work four jobs.

I know 100% of this is my fault because when I looked at her rental application and it said she worked four jobs I should of immediately trashed it. She hasn't paid in a month. She now owes double rent and I don't want to take her to court but I do have a mortgage to pay as well. She is a single mother of one and I just don't want to throw them out on the streets. This is a tough situation, what should I do?

The general rule with rental properties is, if you can't afford to pay the mortgage for 6 months on it, including your own house, don't get into it. (6 months mortgage is probably worst case in a lot of areas, but 6 months of mortgage in that house's account (use separate accounts for each one) is generally enough to cover any major unexpected repairs.)

[Kraenen]

could be buying drugs. or one of those burnt out moms that drinks a lot

[Xzan]

Well, you do the math. What is the minimum sum she makes with all the jobs combined? What could be her expeditures? Maybe she has some debt as well...
Still, if you need the money for your mortgage, you will have to act sooner or later anyway...

[Kraenen]

I don't know where "here" is in this context, but you likely have taxes and living expenses that are 50% or more higher than in the United States. Part of that results from paying minimum wage, non-skilled labor $20/hour.

funny thing is people say that if you remove the minimum wage somehow the lower class will get paid more.

[Spectral]

could be buying drugs. or one of those burnt out moms that drinks a lot

I don't think that's unlikely, but people manage to blow money in all sorts of bizarre ways.

[prwraith]

at 4 jobs she's rolling in the money unless she's paying child support to two different dads and a loan.

If I had that amount of money rolling in I'd feel rich even if it was a minimum wage job. I work one job now 40 hours a week making 11 and change and that's MORE than enough to live comfortably.

[Vuljatar]

Sadly, it's not like I had ONE bad experience at one restaurant with one shitty manager. I can give you literally dozens of examples. Sure there are better restaurants out there that are better run; I worked at one restaurant that I could say was extremely professionally run. The rest had management sleeping with waitstaff, giving said waitstaff that was putting out preferred sections, management skimming tips off of the tip pool, drinking on the job, etc. The restaurant industry is not like working a 9-5 where you have an employment contract and an HR rep making sure that your work environment is discrimination-free.

I'm not sure what you think I do for a living (cushy executive job in a corner office, maybe?), but I'll clear it up right now--retail. Yeah, it's just as "bad" as the restaurant business, if not worse, but it's a job and all things being relative I don't consider it to be bad.

I'm not saying waiting tables is a great job. Of course it isn't, it's entry level stuff with no real requirements. I just have an issue with someone like SirTolomay telling me that a "shattering of my bubble is about to commence", "not a single employer has ever paid the difference", "there is no enforcement of labor laws", and I should "wake up and take off the rose colored spectacles and step into reality".

People like him hate their jobs because they have convinced themselves that their employer is their enemy. Well, I've got news for them, if some asshole coworker is stealing from you (in one way or another) it's not the company's fault, and the company is on your side 100% because they know that they are liable for said other employee's criminal actions.

Okay, then this is completely irrelevant to the thread as she already has a child, and I don't know many parents that are willing to part with their 3 year old.

Yeah, it wasn't a response to the OP, it was a response to someone's incredulity at the U.S. minimum wage. I was saying that since it's just barely enough for one person to live on independently (in most cases), it's really not that bad (since someone living independently and making minimum wage has no logical reason for choosing to have a child).

---------- Post added 2013-06-10 at 04:24 AM ----------

funny thing is people say that if you remove the minimum wage somehow the lower class will get paid more.

Only the good workers.

I know I'd make significantly more if the minimum wage was lower or nonexistent. And I know that at least half my coworkers would make much less.