What jobs actually pay minimum wage?

[Lilly32]

Been a lot of minimum wage chatter here lately and Im just wondering what job could be so horrible they only pay minimum wage? Until I was 23 I waited tables since I lived in a tourist area. I usually averaged $150 a night working from 3-10. That works out to around $21 an hour. Even a slow night making only $100 was still $14 an hour. The dish washers were usually Mexicans. Most couldnt speak a lick of English. They made $10 an hour. The typical fry guy in the kitchen who never graduated highschool and has been arrested probably a dozen times was making $10 an hour.

Now lets move onto a job that probably requires a little more effort than scrubbing dishes or dropping fries but still doesnt require anything like a college degree. As everyone in the US is probably aware its been pretty damn cold this week. Well even though I had shut my water off every night and drained my pipes the hot water pipe on my outside shower burst. It wasnt inside the house and was only the on/off valve that cracked so a pretty simple job to fix. Plumber shows up, snips a 5 inch section of bad pipe, puts on a new piece of pipe with a new plastic valve, and hands me his bill for $100. Guy was maybe here an hour and thats being generous. So basically he made $100 an hour for fixing a 5 inch piece of busted pipe.

I have had other jobs besides waiting tables like installing propane tanks, fireplaces, and running gas lines and also worked for UPS for a few years. Both of them started me off at $10 an hour. I live in rural SC so cost of living isnt exactly through the roof. So what crap ass job do you have to take to only get paid $7 an hour? I mean you actually have to go out of your way and try and find something with pay that bad.

[Wells]

Idk you could look it up.

[macphistofly]

The issue isn't the current minimum wage. It's that wages as whole are not increasing anywhere near the same rate as the prices of everything (rent, food, gas, etc.) have gone up. Even 10 dollars an hour to start is not going to get you very far. And as pensions and everything else have all but disappeared, people are expected to try and put money away for retirement while trying to pay for everything they need now. There are many other reasons, but it's not just the 7.25 an hour jobs. It's also the low paying jobs that pay slightly more than minimum wage. 10 an hour for 4 weeks is only 1600 before taxes. Estimate about 550 out of that in taxes and you have about 1100 to pay rent, food, gas, childcare and whatever. Cheapest rent in my area is about 600 for a 1 bedroom per month without utils so that now chunks the monthly leftover to 500ish to buy food, gas, pay utils, etc.

[Sargiean]

I know that Regal Corp - the largest theater chain in North America - pays its employees minimum wage, and has tried very hard to initiate a Manager Reduction Initiative to force more work on management and more on floor staff, since 2008. They pay management (basic management, higher than a supervisor) only $2ish bucks more an hour, depending on location. They work you hard and long there - sometimes I was working till 4am cleaning up etc - we could have lines wrapped around the block or down stairs into the lobby (half an hour wait just to purchase food!) and they would under staff us. Naturally, I quit.

I know every fast food place out there pays minimum.

[Lilly32]

Cheapest rent in my area is about 600 for a 1 bedroom per month without utils so that now chunks the monthly leftover to 500ish to buy food, gas, pay utils, etc.

damn where is that at. Just looked near my house on craigs list and there are 2 BR appts for $500.

[Payday]

Mostly people who live in red states.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank...-minimum-wage/

[Yuni]

Wal-Mart, most grocery stores, amusement parks, a lot of retail stores don't pay much over, same with fast food chains and the likes. I know back in the day, Gamestop used to pay you in Monopoly money, but they had "good benefits" (free borrowing of games, certain percentages off of purchases in Starbucks/Barnes and Noble). I'm not sure what it's like there now.

This is all from my knowledge of where I live. I believe the minimum wage here is $7.25, might've raised to 7.45 late last year.

I really hate the way you worded your post by the way. Congrats on landing a job that doesn't pay like complete shit, but "trying hard to get a job that pays such shit"... I don't think people would agree with you there. The job market's been a rough one, not all states have the same employment rates, and a lot of people just take what they can get. I saw a lot of that at Wal-Mart. People working there upwards 20 years making terrible pay but stayed for the benefits. It's sad, but it's very much the truth.

[Ave07]

Usually jobs that don't require you to have a HS diploma or GED.

I got paid min wage when I worked at Subway during high school and would get a 25 cent raise yearly lol.

[Deleted]

ive never worked min wage, jobs ive worked that usually pay min wage are as a dish washer, shelf stacker, waiter and multiple customer serive jobs, none were min wage

[Tradewind]

I got paid min wage to work in a crappy video store when I was like 16, which was a unique experience cuz they rented adult videos, but as long as I wasn't stocking the shelves it was legal for me to work there under 18...it was still neat when people would rent pornos...soooo awkward, especially when it was like "Hermaphrodite Gang Bangers"...I am not making that one up.

But for the most part I worked there after school, and got paid to watch movies and do my homework, it was pretty slick. Plus I got free rentals on stuff during the week, for movies and nintendo games. But the owner was a Korean and decided one day that he hated me and fired me, I'm not sure if mentioning he's Korean is important, more a statement of fact...as opposed to he fired me cuz he's Korean. It went out of business shortly after cuz word spread that he fired me for no reason...which I clearly had nothing to do with...

[abb93]

Guy was maybe here an hour and thats being generous. So basically he made $100 an hour for fixing a 5 inch piece of busted pipe.

I know this probably is irrelevant, but where I'm from, most electricians, plumbers etc, charge for a minimum of 2 hours + materials. And here (Norway), a plumber costs something like $100-$150 an hour, then there's material. The guy probably only sees 1/3rd of the hourly wage, the rest goes to the company to pay off insurance, retirement fund and the guys in the office. That's my guess to why the prices are so high.

[grandpab]

The only job I ever got paid min wage for was my pizza delivery job. If they could have had it there way they would have paid me $4.50, a servers wage, because I made tips too, but the law is weird and drivers have to be paid at least min.

[vindicatorx]

Any fast food job, mass retail: Best Buy, Wal Mart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, grocery stores, a lot of local government jobs like parks dept, lots of service jobs like call centers.

[Airwaves]

The fact you are depending on tips to make enough money is the problem. Other countries make sure people have enough to live off without tips. Which is how it should be.

- - - Updated - - -

especially when it was like "Hermaphrodite Gang Bangers"...I am not making that one up.

.. I just googled that... I should NOT have googled that. :/

[Tradewind]

.. I just googled that... I should NOT have googled that. :/

That's just not smart and you paid the penalty accordingly.

[Spectral]

The fact you are depending on tips to make enough money is the problem. Other countries make sure people have enough to live off without tips. Which is how it should be.

To the best of my knowledge, there's no evidence that the resultant compensation in other nations is higher for service industry jobs. If anything, I'd wager that good bartenders and waiters do much better in the US.

[Tradewind]

To the best of my knowledge, there's no evidence that the resultant compensation in other nations is higher for service industry jobs. If anything, I'd wager that good bartenders and waiters do much better in the US.

Is it because of the good service though? The expectation for tipping? Or guilt-tipping because most everyone knows by now that these people can't afford to live off their wages alone?

[Spectral]

Is it because of the good service though? The expectation for tipping?

Mostly because good servers and bartenders (people in it as a career, not just there for 6 months) wind up at establishments where the bills are big enough that a percentage cut of it winds up being really good. There's a lot of work that's been done that's shown that there's not very much relationship between quality of service and tip though, interestingly enough.

Or guilt-tipping because most everyone knows by now that these people can't afford to live off their wages alone?

I guess I don't see how following basic cultural conventions and means of paying people is "guilt". Whatever, I hate the tip argument. Tipping works fine and servers generally make incomes well in excess of any minimum wage. Regular salaries work fine too. There's scant evidence for either system being superior.

[Deleted]

I don't know about USA, but here where I live in Britain it starts I spose at shop workers, most chef jobs unless you are sous chef or higher, hell even my qualifications in customer service and 5yrs+ experience as manager and I was offered 10pence above minimum wage from most jobs I recently went for

Most places know that the number of people wanting to work is greater than the number looking for hire. Thus wages plummet even if you are qualified

[Bombercloner]

I know this probably is irrelevant, but where I'm from, most electricians, plumbers etc, charge for a minimum of 2 hours + materials. And here (Norway), a plumber costs something like $100-$150 an hour, then there's material. The guy probably only sees 1/3rd of the hourly wage, the rest goes to the company to pay off insurance, retirement fund and the guys in the office. That's my guess to why the prices are so high.

Pretty much this. I worked as a plumber making 9 bucks an hour and my company charged 66 dollars an hour before mats.