8/hr won't keep the lights on

too bad... Home Depot doesn't owe you a portion of their profits beyond what they agree to pay you per hour x's 40 hours a week.

 

revenue doesn't mean profits...

 

I know... but he was upset that HD, in order to make a continued profit... cut hours....


Too bad in my opinion...

 

Freedom = making decisions for yourself and dealing with the consequences of those decisions.

Some people make really good, well thought out and executed decisions that lead them to success. Others, like you, make poor decisions and end up struggling to get by, or worse. Either way, you make the bed you sleep in. The responsibility is, at the end of the day, yours.

It's really easy to pick apart your past and say "you should have done this", or "you should not have done that". For instance, to be blindsided by the job landscape AFTER you have already completed college is a common pitfall. That research should have been done BEFORE you decided on the career path you would take. In hindsight, you'd have been MUCH better off becoming a welder, or an HVAC tech, both of which pay REALLY good money pretty much anywhere in the country.

The difficult thing is to take where you currently are and make changes to set you back on a new path to success. You may have to back-track to get there. Move back in with parents for a time, etc. You are already making some better decisions; eat your own cooking rather than paying someone else to cook for you, sacrifice your privacy for cheaper 'group accommodations', etc.

You're obviously not stupid; so you must already know all the reasons why simply having government force business to pay you more will not really help you in the long term; business will predictably REACT to such legislation by laying you off, replacing your job with robots, raising your prices, closing its doors, moving to china, etc. It should be no surprise to anyone when businesses do these things.

My unsolicited advice to you would be to either move to one of those places where your chosen career skills are most marketable, or to find out what is paying the most money in the area you want to live and train for those skills instead. And don't be afraid to become a truck driver in North Dakota for a time while you build a nest egg to pursue your dream of Graphic Arts.

I wish you luck on your journey. Make good decisions based on needs (not wants) and you will succeed. Demand government fund your status quo, and you'll get more of what you have.

 

I'm responding to this thread only because I am also a graphic designer. Have been for over 50 years. I did my time in L.A. and San Francisco. I did very well and was rarely ever without employment. I own my home and have a second home in Lake Tahoe. I put my son through college, I have money in the bank, I have a retirement income..in other words, I have been fortunate and the 'trade has been good to me'. But I also would like to impart some advise. Graphic design today, isn't what it once was. Especially freelancing. You will find yourself with a massive amount of competition. Most coming from people that merely need a computer and the latest version(s) of Adobe Creative Suite, and some place to 'plug-in'. I'd venture that the greater number of 'freelancers' are living at home so, unless they require a new Beamer every year and like to wear Ralph Lauren, exclusively, $8 per hour is adequate. That's your competition.
Back in the day, I worked at numerous agencies earning anywhere from $30-60 per hour. That's when a dollar was still worth a dollar. Maybe not the highest remuneration.. but still quite comfortable. But those days are gone. If I had to hand out any advise, it would be, get a second vocation. The one you chose relies too much on luck. There's a lot of hacks out there in cyber-space passing themselves off as graphic designers just because they have a pirated version of Photoshop and Illustrator. Then again, there's a lot of actual talent as well. There are a few Design Competition sites. Join one or two of those. They can be lucrative if you have some ability. Even though I'm 'officially retired' I still like to keep my head in the game. I frequent a couple of design competition sites, last year I brought in about $8,000 from them. For maybe a total of 100 hours of actual work. That's roughly $40 per hour. Granted, you can't depend on it, but if you're any good, you'll get rewarded.
Anyway, persevere. Be positive and learn how to market yourself.

 

What he's saying is that in higher wage areas, the landlord is going to charge you more rent.

 

Every generation has done better than the last up until this generation and I'm a firm believer it's because of NAFTA and Free Trade. I don't see much changing until their wages comes up and transportation costs rise to ship it here.

If your going to spend thousands going to college, you need to pick your major wisely and see what your chances of getting a job in it after graduation.

 

I can only talk about the last 8 years with 1 GD on staff. $14.80 per hr and 40 hrs per week and no benefits. Of the last 8 years we have only hired once to replace the 1st one whom worked for us 5 years. When I advertised that a position was coming open for a GD the response was overwhelming. Many applications and interviews for 1 position.

This is Colorado

 

There *are* other choices.

 

Try the last 25 years.

 

It's the same here we have more people that aren't from around here working. They'll come from Ontario and put in 2 or 3 months then cash out and go back home to their families. We have people on my crew from as far as Portugal.
In Vancouver I have tons of friends that complain about not having a job in their chosen field but aren't willing to go work the farms or the oil fields where the money is. Even just 4 months out here could keep most people afloat for the winter until they find something.

 

That's as messed up as saying that the function of a cart is to push a horse along. It's wrong and completely ignorant of cause and effect.

If the cost of housing was based on personal income, I should be living rent-free. Guess what? I'm not!

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that property values are a function of desirability, not income. A house on the beach costs more because people like beaches, not because sand magically makes people talented. Supply and demand, not magic spells. It's common sense!

Clearly there's a reason why that unknown economist that he keeps on citing is a nobody.

 

In Estevan, Saskatchewan where there is an oil boom going on, a town of 15,000 people just renting a room from someone is minimum $1000/month. No beaches around there for miles. There are 500 people man camps where a 10x10 room with a bed and a 15 inch TV costs $100/night up in the oil sands it's the same thing. I can live in Vancouver for cheaper with access to many many beaches. We have no landlord restrictions on rent in those places here in Canada so the landlords base it off supply and demand. If the demand is high so is the rent.

 

Here's an interesting little analysis I just did.

Some poster issued the challenge: "Go ahead, try to live on minimum wage".

So I took the state with the highest minimum wage; WA.

A 40hr/wk minimum wage job there pays $18,640/yr for 50wks/yr.

For my city, I chose Spokane because of its relatively low cost of living index.

There, rent plus utilities come out to $9,924/year (avg) for a 1 bedroom apartment in the city.

That leaves a whopping $726/month surplus for food, transportation, etc. Any single young person could easily live on that!

But wait.... you must factor in taxes. Once you remove the $11,579.21 in payroll and federal income taxes, you're only left with $138/month to live on.

So, if you are willing to live in a below average apartment outside the city, work more than 40 hours per week, and do not take a 2 week vacation, etc. And you are willing to eat spam on white bread and drink water instead of having pizza and Red Bulls delivered, you could arguably (barely) survive on minimum wage and have some modern comforts like air conditioning. If you manage to somehow tear yourself away from PF and go get a girlfriend, who also works a minimum wage job, then you could live together in relative comfort on the dual minimum wage income.

 

Does not persons working for minimum wage and lower incomes have various and assorted government subsidies to supplement their incomes and help them make ends meet? I've known numerous guys and gals in fast-food jobs and all of them say they dental and health plans and have welfare incomes to some extent. Plus their incomes are not even taxable. And now, of course they are getting Obamacare. All of them say they are doing just fine.

Maybe some low-income earners are too proud to apply for subsidies and such. But that's silly. Eventually, they'll probably have better paying jobs and they'll likely be paying a lot of income taxes. So they should take advantage of government doles whenever they have the opportunity..

 

when people work 40 hours a week ever week and get nowhere, have trouble paying the most basic of bills, it can lead to social unrest

 

Labor, too, is a commodity that responds to supply/demand pressures. As long as the demand for labor is LOW, and supply is HIGH, prices (wages) will remain low. If there were more jobs than there are people to fill them, then a "minimum wage" would become unnecessary because the market would naturally drive wages higher, as your example illustrates. As wages go higher, so do prices.

On the other side of the coin, if you artificially raise the price of a commodity, as through government mandate, then demand for that commodity will necessarily fall. Higher cost of labor means less demand for labor. Less demand for labor means fewer jobs.

One cannot rationally demand a rise in minimum wages without also expecting market reaction to that rise. For the OP to think that his cost of living will remain the same after a forced hike in the minimum wage, is short-sighted. And for anyone to believe that business will respond to an increase in operating costs (labor, tax, raw materials, etc) by 'just digging a little deeper, cause we can afford it', is absolutely delusional.

 

Why not just find a job that pays better than a graphic designer?

 

they made their own bed.... noone forced them into a life a mediocrity....

The boss man is not obligated to make up for your loss of earning power.

 

Yes, and if we're going to mandate a minimum wage that won't even cover subsistence expenses so that a relative handful of billionaires can continue to stockpile wealth, then we shouldn't be shocked by our ever expanding requirement for an extensive welfare state.

 

The minimum wage is not subsistence coverage.

 

Tell me about it!

It hasn't been since about 1980.

 

It's never been. Ever...

The historical poverty level should tell you that much.

 

Yes there is, it's called inflation. The hidden tax on everyone. The growth engine of the economy.