I think it’s really interesting to read the estimated hourly wages for the downscale jobs in the United States.
- Waiters & Waitresses: $4.21/hr
- Early Childhood Teacher’s Assistants: $7.96/hr
- Teacher’s Aides: $8.21/hr
- Food Preparation Kitchen Workers: $8.43/hr
Doesn’t this explain so much about America? You can earn more money selling knockoff Coach purses than you can as a waitress — and you’re taxed heavily on your meager earnings while serving my coffee and schlepping my eggs, too!
Do you work in one of these jobs? How much do you earn? Is your salary worth it? The comments are open — leave an anonymous note!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
sometimes i sort of wish ALL salaries were transparent. it’s such an arbitrary thing, i find. i’m amazed how little certain people accept. but then being white with a master’s degree definitely puts me in a tier where a lot more options are open to me. not as many options as a white MALE would have, but certainly more fotunate than most.
Institutional racism and sexism exists, but there is just as much institutional stupidity and thoughtlessness. I think salary *ranges* should be transparent, but I don’t want people to know how much I earn. I don’t want the burden of knowing your salary, either. Tthere is such acrimony when people know how much you earn. Like — how is that douche bag worth $200K and I’m making $50K less? Well, maybe that douche bag has some magic skill — but more than likely, he benefits from something (a penis, charm, good social skills, a stupid boss) that got him to his salary level.
Food prep workers get 8.43 an hour? Wow. A year ago I got paid 8 bucks an hour to work as an EMT on an ambulance. 8 an hour to save someone’s life, you’d think that’d be worth more, especially b/c it involves special certification.