Hourly Work doesn’t Provide Financial Stability or Financial Growth
Here are three videos that I watched recently that reinforces my belief that the employer-employee social contract has been broken.
Meet this woman in her 50’s who lost her $180k salaried job and has not yet been able to find another job. She has since turned to Gig Work, namely becoming an Uber driver, to have money coming in.
This is an educated, skilled worker 10+ years from “retirement age” who has had a market event significantly change her financial journey.
With a society that largely lives paycheck-to-paycheck, it doesn’t take much to take away someone’s financial and housing stability.
In this video, Soledad O’Brien meets a mom who is working 7 days/week and is living in a car with her children.
This last video hit close to home as I have previously owned a restaurant (and there’s a likelihood we may again in the future).
This video shows how the restaurant industry is struggling to hire and retain employees.
Historically, restaurants have low margins as a business and they often aim to have labor below 30% of revenue.
If this were a true 360 report, I wish they would have talked to restaurant employees who are job hopping. Employees are not leaving high-paying jobs right now, so if they can earn an extra $1 going to the restaurant down the street, they will.
Why did I decide to write this blog? These stories are becoming more common. People don’t feel like the economy is doing great because while people are seeing gains in the stock market, more Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Wages have not kept up with cost of living.
There’s a common quote:
“The average millionaire has 7 sources of income.”
When it comes to the minimum wage worker:
“A Colorado minimum wage worker (at $14.42/hour) would need to work 105 hours/week to reach the $79,210 salary needed to live comfortably.””
So what can we do with this information? I would love to hear your ideas!
Here are a few of mine:
1 - Advocate for workers’ rights and an increased minimum wage with your elected officials.
2 - Tip generously when and where you can.
3 - Support non-profits working with the homeless.
4 - Supports businesses that support their employees. Look for ESOP and Co-ops. Avoid financially supporting businesses that have a bad reputation.
Send me a message with your ideas and I’ll add them to the blog.
