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78FANGIRL t1_j0gqo1t wrote

Everywhere I shop or eat people bitch about being short staffed. At $13.80 an hour, I would say fuck that. Pay your employees better. That is a shit wage. Politicians want people in poverty. It's fucking sick.

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Rico_Solitario t1_j0gw0ve wrote

Even setting morals aside it’s just not possible to live off of that wage. 13.80 an hour won’t even cover rent and food unless you’re working insane hours. No one but the most desperate will accept those jobs and even the most of them will find more productive uses of their time.

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yupuhoh t1_j0h4iak wrote

Single person living in a efficiency apartment paying 600 a month could swing it

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TDGroupie t1_j0h5s99 wrote

Yeah, cause affordable housing is everywhere

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yupuhoh t1_j0h6byl wrote

No ones talking about available housing. Just what you would be able to do with a certain amount of money.....

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iglidante t1_j0h8zv2 wrote

I honestly haven't seen an efficiency under $1000 in a long time. Like, I get that it used to be an option, but today I don't think it is.

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yupuhoh t1_j0ha781 wrote

Probably not in Portland. In Belfast they have some that have shared kitchens so it's just a bedroom you rent. But like I said. If you are single it'll do until you can get a better job and make more

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Scary-Bad-7872 t1_j0hck11 wrote

Of course, lots and lots of people have done just that, "gotten a better Jon where they're making more." Which is precisely why we have these staffing shortages in the service industry. Myself, I really don't care too much because I know how to cook, but it's very obvious that the world has changed drastically in the past three years.

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yupuhoh t1_j0hdc2f wrote

Absolutely it has. It's getting scary.

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PuzzleheadedMine2168 t1_j0kzwnj wrote

Problem is the apartment is in Belfast, the JOBS are in Freeport, Portland, Augusta, Rockland, you know, places you need a car to get to FROM Belfast--and that's a whole OTHER issue.

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yupuhoh t1_j0lz3p4 wrote

Belfast McDonald's pays 18$ an hour. Idk wtf you are talking about.

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SecretAsianMaine t1_j0ha7rh wrote

Because it’s not available if you can’t afford it.

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yupuhoh t1_j0hb4tz wrote

At 13.80 an hour for 40 hr week you wouldn't be able to afford 600$ a month? Wow. When I was making 8$ an HR I was paying 400$ a month to rent a room. It should be easy to swing.

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MaineJackalope t1_j0hoiqa wrote

I just checked Craigslist for the Bangor area. The cheapest efficiency is $675 a month and there is only 1, every thing else is a couple hundred more minimum, and if the person has kids there's no way to try and support them too without government aid. At which point the government is just subsidizing businesses who don't want to pay a living wage

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yupuhoh t1_j0hqpfz wrote

I make 28$ an hour and still barely make it supporting the family. But I'm over the mark for help by like 7 grand. So I can't get any help at all. If you are making min wage with kids for starters you won't be getting an efficiency apartment. And 2 you would have everything subsidized including groceries and healthcare. So you wouldn't have much want for anything.

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TarantinoFan23 t1_j0h9pfk wrote

Paid that. 20 years ago.

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yupuhoh t1_j0h9xt1 wrote

You can still find em. 1 bedroom with shared kitchens. It's not glamorous by any means but if you are making min wage then you shouldn't be expecting a 3 bedroom 2 bath townhouse

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razor_sharp_pivots t1_j0jlykn wrote

With opinions like this, you shouldn't be expecting anyone to take you seriously.

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yupuhoh t1_j0lytgi wrote

So you should expect to start at the bottom pay level and be able to afford living in luxury? I fucked up my life by doing drugs for 17 years. When I got sober I started actually working for a living and started at 8$ an hour. Couldn't afford shit but a bedroom in someone's house. I worked hard and moved up. Now I make 29$ an hour at the same business. This took 8 years. Anyone that starts out shouldn't expect more than what they can afford. If you want more then earn it. It will NOT be GIVEN to you. Had I done this 20 years ago when I was 20 then I would be that much better off now. We all have to start at the bottom. Especially if you don't make the right choices early on in life. If that's a bad opinion then so be it. But it is the way the world works. Cry about it all you want. It's not changing anytime soon

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fffangold t1_j0hepfr wrote

Lol, I haven't seen apartments going for $600 a month in years. To be fair, I am around Portland, so maybe in more rural areas that's available. But I also visit Lewiston frequently, and with Portland rents going nuts, Lewiston's have also shot up as people spill over to there.

I also have a house now though. So mostly it's apartment hunting for friends when they need it these days. Still, I haven't seen $600 a month rents in forever.

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yupuhoh t1_j0hff64 wrote

Efficiency apartments in my area are not "apartments" its a bedroom with a shared kitchen/living area.

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iglidante t1_j0i6ya6 wrote

Isn't that a flophouse or boarding house? Efficiency apartments are a specific real estate term, was my understanding.

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CarcassFiend t1_j0h4uyc wrote

That's the fact of it. In this country poverty is a policy decision, not a lack of resources. Policies made by the wealthy who want to stay or become more wealthy.

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dancingowlonthemoon t1_j0otsk0 wrote

The last job I had before covid hit was 13 an hour working in a kitchen, with no benefits. It was difficult to find enthusiasm after a while when I realized just how little they cared for my mental and emotional health yet expected me to show up to my shift with a "positive, can do" attitude. Let me tell you how happy I was to make 13 an hour as I remade a customer's order three times over because they were purposely being difficult or the time I had to argue with my chef just to get coverage for a sick day, or the day they (management) threw me and two other of my coworkers on a busy shift with absolutely no training on how to cook or plate the menu.

People don't want to work for peanuts, plain and simple. And they sure as shoot don't want to handle the aggressive behavior that seems to have taken prevalence as we move forward (post pandemic feels weird to say).

I know there's good folks paying their staff well and taking care of them because they're decent, compassionate humans. On the whole, we're way behind where we need to be. And the sad thing is, we could all be living in a better more utopian setting if our entire system wasn't based on capitalistic greed and exploitative working conditions for certain sectors.

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