A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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Our Goals
What the fuck is this? "How employers might help change that" Answer: they wont, they just might be forced to let employees give themselves a fee-free loan from their own retirement account, oh and here's a slightly different new emergency savings account. It's still all just your money...What the actual fuck?
What about the half of US workers that don't have a retirement account? I guess fuck them?
Isn't the answer simple? HIGHER WAGES.
Man, this made me incredibly angry.
Paying higher wages doesn't get people to start bank accounts, much less retirement accounts.
Many people on the poorer end of the spectrum literally hide money in their walls/mattresses rather than get bank accounts - I know many of these people firsthand.
A bank account isn't going to magically make you richer.
Not having one does make you poorer, but this is neither here nor there.
My point is, someone hiding money in their mattress isn't going to put much value in 401(k)s and likely does not have one.
I just want to know what type of emergency only costs $500 anymore?
Uber to the hospital.
Emergency pizza and ice cream?
A simple blown tire that renders you only reliable way to work that doesn't pay enough to cover your basic living expenses is a catastrophic emergency that could cost around 500 bucks.
A part of a tree falling on your windshield.
Seriously, that's what it ended up costing me, and I did part of the body work needed to be able to fit a new windshield in right. If I hadn't kept the tools around, that would have been another 500.
Mind you, the 500 I did pay out included some other body work I just couldn't physically do. The glass and installation of the glass was "only" 150 ish (can't remember what the tax was).
The one before that, that was barely under 500 was the AC unit for the house freezing up and fucking the compressor.
And 500 is a single emergency. You get hit by multiple, and you're fucked .
Had a tree limb fall during a storm and crush my wife's car roof. That was an f.u. moment.
Exactly. A cheap car repair is that with labor. Add kore than one thing in a few months and most people start to really bleed.
And somehow these CEOs are still talking about pandemic money 3 years later.
They are. And it would be funny if it weren't such utter bullshit. As if the sizeable chunk of the population that lives paycheck to paycheck could actually afford to hold on to a couple thousand dollars in stimulus funds. When shit is waaayyyy more expensive than it was 3 years ago and wages haven't really climbed that much.
My employer got $600,000 in ERC. Meanwhile, I haven't had a pay increase in over 2 years. Been with the company for over 10 years.
The $800 stimi will never be forgotten.
Nobody has any fucking money. You can't afford medical, you can't afford a house, you can barely afford a car. You can barely afford rent. Everything is more expensive. Food, gas, everything. Wages can't keep up with inflation and employers could give a shit.
And yet nothing is being set on fire.
How employers may help change that? PAY YOUR FUCKING PEOPLE MORE MONEY.
As a non American can I ask about your monthly budget? I'm really curious as to what's really going on and how much it's costing because everyone from different states are talking differently.
to an extent, it really does differ by state. however, housing costs went up significantly for both buying a house or renting in the last 2 years.
I live in the greater Seattle area, but not in Seattle, which is fairly expensive. I make about $50k per year, which is about $3400/ month take home after taxes and paying for health insurance. $1550 of that goes to rent. internet costs me $60/ month; I could get cheaper, crappier internet, but this way I also get to work from home a few days a week and enjoy online video games. power varies, depending on if I need to run the heat. for the summer, it's about $60/month, in the winter it might go up to $200/month. I don't do well in the cold, I could save money but sleep poorly and risk getting sick by not warming up so much. my brother has a deal for phone service, so we share a family plan where my share is $30/ month. I don't have a car now, I ride the bus generally. that's about $50/ month, but varies if I need to be in the office more or go more places than my usual sedentary habits.
if you're keeping track, that's about $1600/ month left after allocated expenses. I haven't talked about food or other household necessities, or any fun leisure stuff. you'll also notice I don't have any student loans or medical debt or a car loan. I did spend a full year unemployed during covid, and ran up my credit card staying afloat. so I've got about $20k debt that I put at least $500/ month toward.
getting a car would be prohibitively expensive here - in addition to the cost of the car, I'd also be paying $100/ month to park it, +gas, +insurance. I've lived in other states where not having a vehicle meant you couldn't work, because there was no effective public transit. usually those places didn't have the parking expense, but gas and insurance alone are more expensive than my transit costs here usually are.
I'm pretty ok for this area. my rent is pretty cheap for a studio apartment (no bedroom, just living area, private kitchen, private bathroom). my debt is fairly low, and my credit remains pretty good, so if I need a loan it's an option.
Thanks for the detailed information.
The US is massive and each state and city can have wildly varying costs of living and pay.
So it's a bit hard to compare someone from NYC to someone who lives in Austin Texas.
Generally on the north east coast the cost of living is high due to density and so wages/salaries tend to be higher than somewhere with a lower cost of living. As you move into the mid west and central US things tend to come back down before going up again on the west coast.
This is why predatory payday loan companies still exist.
I work full time for CVS and I have 26 cents in my bank account, nevermind 500. I literally cannot save, every cent is expenses. When an emergency happens I am straight up fucked every time.
An emergency happened for me in june and I was homeless by July, working fucking full time. Thank fuck I have a family I can stay with.I fucking hate this country. Literally standing in line to donate plasma for gas money. Christ.
I'm tired, boss.
The land of the fee.
America is kinda fucked up. Seeing it from the outside, nothing is surprising, the solutions are fairly obvious. If nothing else, the direction in which to go. Yet, it's just dumb and dumber.
You had a real shot at change with Bernie Sanders. At least one of the three pieces. At this point, you'll have a revolution within the next 5-10 years that changes the two party system, or it's lights out.
Neither of these options is going to happen. The country will not fail, and there will be no revolution.
Whatever happened to Andrew Yang? Been praying for my universal income
Yanggang is still around, but it's not looking likely we're getting any kind of party nomination. I think it's microwaved Bidem for dinner this round.
How much has the price of milk gone up in the last 4 years?
I still see LOTS of people with massive trucks, muscle cars and SUVs though.
Next time you see one of the fancy lifted "brodozer" trucks, pay attention to the tires. Often times they're in bad shape, nearly worn out.
That's because they bought this thing for $700 per month and never took into account that the fancy tires are $300+ each.
Same article from decades ago. This is nothing new, it's not gotten better, it won't get better anytime soon.
Employers could pay their employees' student loans, stop forcing them to commute, and pay them well
First it was 40%, now it’s 63%