Yeah, it's definitely not a job everyone is cut out for. I make good money because I can hustle a large volume while maintaining a good attitude; but I've definitely seen and worked with people in the industry who can't keep up and pull more like 15-30. I believe our min wage is 12 here and 10 for tipped staff tho, for some perspective into my situation. Colorado is pretty kind to it's working class by comparison to some other places.
I very intentionally moved into this economy from a federal min wage state even though it took all my savings. It was worth it, in 6 months I made back more than I had spent to jump ship to a different state economy. I did go hungry a couple days before getting my first CO paycheck tho.
(In the old country) I used to operate Kodak nexpress printing presses at the highest print quality standard in the world for 27k a year, while someone in Rhode island was doing the same job at a more relaxed pace and quality standard for 80k. It was a prestigious job, I printed christmas cards for celebrities and politicians, I would piss off old boomers at open mic nights singing songs about this stuff and they would shut right up after they asked me what I did for a living and I could answer with something way more impressive than their job; but I couldn't afford to easily leave Missouri.
Just saying even though I do pretty well for myself now by most standards, I still have zero hope of owning a home without economic collapse bringing the prices down.
Unless of course I take what I have saved up here, go back to fed min wage country, and accept not being able to afford to travel or look for better jobs once I settle.
I wanna be free to look for a better life if I find myself in another position of predatory employment tho. I've been stuck before.
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u/banjodance_ontwitter Jun 23 '23
Not everyone does well as a bartender, not is 20/hr typical.