Question: What bad decisions cause an adult to only get minimum wage?

IQ's and work ethic's come in all shapes, sizes & colors my friend

time vs survival

Felony doesn't help.

choosing to live free over taking a slow death behind a desk climbing the ladder to nowhere maybe?

The job market doesn't think so

Not everybody can be self sufficient, owning their own business, or a lot of major industries would collapse.

A criminal record can fuck up your employment opportunities quite easily. Lack of direction. Inability to be told what to do (bad attitude).

It's really amazing how many people are lazy self entitled shit heads. And that comment is coming from a former lazy shit head. I had a temp job at an Amazon warehouse over the holidays and you wouldn't believe how many lazy ass people thought they should be allowed to follow their own special rules. And those were the people who were able to get hired....imagine the ones they passed on.

I was a dumb-ass in High school and barely graduated.

After two years of bullshit jobs I decided to learn electronics.

Shit load of math and hard as fuck but I eventually figured it all out.

I paid for my education 100%

I now own my home. I have two sports cars, a few motorcycles, a boat and a modest daily driver.


It can be done.

Living free = minimum wage? Sorry but hard work and commitment, following your dream. If you believe the gov is here to take care of you then more than likely you're a minimum wage mouth breather.

Yes it can

Voting for hoax and chains!!!!

I mean can earn enough to pay for their existance

Also having a kid without a husband

I am college educated and had a great paying job 4 years ago, worked for the same company for almost 15 years.

Got laid off (was the last employee let go) due to lack of business (manufacturing industry).

I made a bad choice not going into the medical field. I had to take a job paying min. wage as that was all I could find.

I plan on going back to school, there are tons of people in my position.

Last Edited by geminilion on 04/28/2013 06:19 PM

Usually those that are paid the most make those decisions for the rest of us

It would take a big, big tent to cover all the possible answers to this question.

Stay-at-home mother forced into workplace by divorce, let's take that one.
Nah, still can't see her needing to go to minimum wage. Even day care work, pretty low-paid, does pay more than minimum wage.

And anyone showing some gumption would not stay in that first position, most likely.

But some of us are not the best earners. The habit of thrift is able to stretch a small salary - but minimum wage is hard.

I am not sure any adult stays long at minimum wage. It's up or out.

A winner speaks!

I got layed off at 53 but I had my house paid for and the kids college saved for. I also had made sure my skills were up to date and marketable. Got a new job in 16 weeks during the worst of the recession.

Excellent, sometimes Change is Good.....

It starts with someone asking what bad decisions can causer an adult to get minimum wage.

For if you dont know the minimum then the minimum you will get.

Bad decisions like putting family and raising children first?

Many women choose to drop out of the work world or set their educations aside to be housewives at their husband's request or decide to stay at home with their kids during the most crucial development years.

When their kids get older, their husbands lose their jobs or take a pay cut, or they get divorced or widowed they have to start all over in terms of employment.

It isn't always a bad decision that can cause someone not to be making big bucks. A lot of older experienced workers laid off and recent college grads are having to settle for minimum wage jobs because of the economy.

Your idea of self sufficiency is only tied to the amount of money someone has? What about all the trust fund babies?

A lot of lower income people are the most knowledgeable about self sufficiency. People who have money often tend to be the least self sufficient people, especially in a crisis.

People who say, "you can't make a livable wage at Wal-Mart" should be kicked in the balls. Wal-Mart isn't supposed to be a "career". You aren't supposed to support a family off Wal-Mart wages. Or McDonald's, Burger King, or Wendy's.

These are non-skilled jobs for high-school students. I truly feel sorry for people who can't do any better than Wal-Mart. I have a cousin who, at 53 years old, had to go to work at Wal-Mart even though he has tons of computer skills. He's skilled in Pro-Tools, anything to do with the Mac, general PC and networking skills, pretty much any technical help-desk, etc. But, he made some bad choices. He didn't like the way the child support system worked so when they tracked him down, he quit his job.

Once he relocated in the city, he ended up with a misdemeanor marijuana charge. That little mistake has cost him dearly. He has missed out on several decent job opportunities including one I am now working at, because he couldn't pass a T1 background check. Or the prelim T2 or T3 for that matter.

Many of the people working those types of jobs have a similar "back story" they don't tell people about; who would want to? It's embarrassing. I do feel sorry for him but the fact is, he did it to himself.

+1

Being self sufficient has nothing to do with making a lot of money.

I worked for 19 years, did a good job, worked hard - that didn't matter when someone in another country was willing to do my job for pennies on the dollar.

And now I'm a mom, the most important job I've ever had. When my child is old enough to not need me to be home all the time, minimum wage is all I'll find.

Really glad we're working on being self sufficient, so we wont have to worry about making tons of money.

What will all the folks who only have cash do when the economy collapses? Or when the guberment decides to give you a "haircut " like they did in Cyprus?

Yes it should.

Learn IT, and you'll always have a well-paid job, at least in the UK.

so you retired as a multimillionaire at age 37, and also began building your hotdog empire that made you a multimillionaire at age 37? your story contradicts itself, but it's inspiring, despite being openly flawed.