The blog Political Calculations took data from the Congressional Budget Office, “which published a study of the lowest-wage workers in the U.S. from 1979 through 2005,” and looked at the occupations of the bottom 20% of earners in the U.S. Then it took a chart of the 10 full-time jobs with the lowest annual earnings as compiled by BizJournals.com and estimated the hourly wage based on 40-hour weeks. Conclusion: don’t plan on operating a Tilt-a-Whirl and retiring comfortably.
Three of the jobs—waiting tables, bartending, and, uh, bellhopping?—don’t include unreported tips. After the food and beverage jobs, the next lowest spot on the chart is “Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants.” Interesting—this could explain why that Zipper ride operator at the fair yelled at us when we were kids and tried to scoop up spare change that fell out of riders’ pockets. That was his money.
* does not include unreported tip income |
Waiters and waitresses* Waiters and waitresses’ assistants Bartenders* Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants Baggage Porters and Bellhops* Food Preparation Workers Not Classified Elsewhere Early Childhood Teacher’s Assistants Maids and Housemen Teacher’s Aides Food Preparation Kitchen Workers |
$4.21 $5.94 $6.39 $6.97 $7.20 $7.77 $7.96 $7.99 $8.01 $8.43 |
“The Jobs That Pay the Least” [Political Calculations]
“America’s 25 Best and Worst Paying Jobs”
(Photo: Mister Scratch)
More From Consumerist
-
Costco CEO Comes Out In Support Of Minimum Wage Increase
-
Fast-Food Workers Reportedly Walked Off The Job Today During NYC Strike Over Wages
-
Domino’s Franchisee Finally Forced To Pay Up After Treating Workers Like Indentured Servants
-
My Employer Will Only Pay Me By Prepaid Debit Card. Is That OK?
-
Waitress Fired By Amy’s Baking Company Tells All
Wow, I thought I was making good money at my pay rate. Looks like I have one of the lowest paying jobs in the US.
I have yet to come across anyone who describes their occupation as ‘houseman.’ WTF is that?
@Pec: MOST employees at the amusement parks are college/highschool kids working part time.
Then once you get to a certain level of management the money can be a lot better than the list states. also most people that stay at the job make more than that average, not much more but still. plus the benefits can be fairly decent.
Actually most of these jobs are jobs that are often held by college/high school people and are part time.
Not every job out there is meant to support a family, or provide for retirement. That kind of thinking is dangerous. someone bagging what i buy at walmart, should not make nearly as much as me with a engineering degree. after going to college for years,
Minimum wage for waitstaff in Ohio is $2.13 per hour. I was a waitress (for a week)and it was explained to me that my reported tips were expected to be enough to bring me up to minimum wage.
The employer is expected to record tip totals and if it doesn’t equal out to minimum wage by the end of the week, the employer has to cover the balance.
Just read Ohio is increasing minimum wage for tipped employees to a whopping $3.50
At 40 hours a week & 52 weeks a year
That’s an annual income of $7280 before taxes (and tips of course)
@chemmy: They’re raising it to $3.50/hr in 2008
That’s a whole $7280 per year (before tips & taxes)
Darn, sorry for the double post.
@barty: And your perfectly entitled to that opinion as I feel the same. But I am actually making a effort to force the government to make the food service industry actually pay a WORKING wage that would enable a server to make at least minimum wage so the tips actually count as a tip, and not the other half of their pay. Are you?
Every waiter/waitress or Bartender I know makes about twice as much as I do.
Then they turn around and pretend they are soo poor because of the mean people that don’t give them 20%+ tips …
@chemmy: Aftert that week you did the smart thing and got a job that actually paid right? That is one of the problems with wait staffers that complain about the wage….go to walmart, target, a grocery store. Nobody has to be a waiter, unless your family owns the place.
Don’t wait-staff and bartenders make tips? I did when I worked those jobs.
@JeffM: i think those $110k jobs you speak of might be early childhood teachers who are also early childhood professors. in college i worked in childcare and i think the most i ever made working in a regular preschool was $7.00/hr and i know my supervisor was not making anywhere near $100k. interestingly, only a year later i was making close to $15/hr at a recreation program for a local city – and an early childhood certificate was not required for that position.
there’s no question, the early childhood assistants in the private sector are some of the lowest paid people out there. and if you’ve ever worked in that field you know that it’s not all college students… i was actually surprised at how many burnout weirdo moms i worked with at various preschools. yikes.
@Kevin Cotter: * does not include unreported tip income
Which is stupid because I know some people who bring home an easy hundred dollars in tips, they can claim whatever they want. I worked at JCPenney’s in 06, and I made $5.75 an hour working utility (stock shelves, unbox pallets, clean vomit, do visuals, pretty much everything except check-out.) My buddy worked at a Mom-and-Pop restaurant and made $4.50 an hour, but when you figure in an easy $80, but closer to $120 for tips, that’s like $14 – $19. Of course, they can claim whatever nil number they want for taxes.
In 1982, the University of Virginia released its student job statistics and reported that the average Speech Communications major was making $62,000 per year. This was when one was happy to make $20,000 per year. They neglected to mention that one of the Speech Communications majors was Ralph Sampson, the NBA basketball player who presumably skewed the average up a little bit.
@Joafu: Not true anymore. Restaurants have started recording tip and submitting them to the government, so the day of hiding them from the Fed has passed.
And you basically proved my point, that if you paid servers a real wage, the tips become a tip and not their pay. $4.50 is twice as much as my fiancee made from a Brinker owned restaurant 3 years ago. Most only make the bare minimum of a little over 2 bucks. the difference between 2.50 and 4.50 is twice their salary.
Might also be interesting in seeing how many low paying jobs require more than a high school diploma (such as many early education and health care positions).
Public librarians (who must have a master’s degree) start out at around $35K now. When I started my career in 1999 in an academic library I only made 27K.
So more confirmation that our mothers were right. Get an education and a good job. Let these kinds of positions be stepping stones, not a career.
@Jerkwheat: Ah, ok. In the old days we called them bus-boys.
@TangDrinker: Quick question, why is it that to become a librarian it takes a Master’s? Is there something special to it? Most public libraries I’ve seen could be run by a Wal-Mart trained stocker.
Perfect example as to why “tip wages” laws should be repealed.
@ivanthemute: Because runnning a library properly requires a Masters in Library Science, a highly specialized degree that involves library operations, community relations, information science and other disciplines. It’s not just tossing books on the shelves.
I don’t get the waiters’ argument. If at the end of the day, including tips, they don’t make the mandated minimum wage is the employer not legally obligated to step in and make up the difference?
My understanding was they they do. So it seems incorrect to say anyone actually makes less than the minimum wage, because at the end of the day they have to go home with at least that much.
@yesteryear: They were not professors, however they were in the same union as professors and similiar pay-grade which is why they were paid such an exorbitant salary.
Where’s “adjunct professor”? WAAAAAY less than minimum wage. (Although I guess since you’re paid by the class, not the hour, real hourly wage depends on how much prep and grading you do.)
@BayStateDarren:
Chance of getting hit by a car = rather high.
Chance of pocketing tolls if they don’t pay you enough = rather high.
I’m in the last stage of my MA (the, um, finishing my dissertation so I can graduate stage), and looking for jobs. My field is large and exceptionally self-contained. Trying to find an entry level job is next to impossible. Unfortunately, when I was thinking about this two years ago, I was looking at the average yearly wage (high $60s to low $80s). I know better, now. I’ll be lucky to get $30,000 (in the DC metro area, to boot!) when I start.
Yes waiters have to ‘report’ their tips. Most if not all make enough to hit the min wage requirement.
But heres the kicker, thats all they tend to report.
if they worked a 7 hour shift, they would report ~30 dollars in tips to hit the min wage, the rest would go straight to the pocket.
In bussier places you could walk out with 100-200 dollars a night TAX Free.
And its even worse then that, since their ‘offical’ income is so low they would get all their taxes refunded at the end of the year, making their effect tax rate 0%.
Its annoying when if you work in a ‘real’ job, 20-30% of your check goes to uncle sam, but these poor wait staff people complain about how broke they are.
@ivanthemute: You don’t see 95% of what it takes to run a library – and that’s how it’s supposed to be; the patron’s experience is supposed to be pretty transparent. What you do see is, in many places, done by circulation clerks and pages who make, you guessed it, around minimum wage or a little over.
I’m a paraprofessional (un-degreed library worker doing the job of someone with a master’s degree) and my duties are very complex and sophisticated. You would be surprised, I promise.
Nearly every time I eat out I pay my bill (including tip) with credit. I assume this means it’s reported. I wonder if any waiters/waitresses can chime in with what percentage of their actual tips are electronic vs. cash to give us a better idea?
Well here is NC, restaurants can now “pay” their servers and bartenders $2.25/hour. I work part-time as a bartender and listen to the servers complain about assholes who think they make minimum wage and leave them 2 dollars on a 50 dollar check. The paychecks we do receive are lucky enough to be around 35 dollars every two weeks. If a server has a bad night, they are no where near making minimum wage. I hate the people who think we make all this money and don’t claim any of it. It’s not an easy job and luckily I only work part-time because I challenge any of you to work in a fast paced resturant for one night.
Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants, $6.97?
I wonder if this includes BIG amuesment parks. I was making close to this in 1993 at our local Theme park.
@yesteryear:
Ain’t that the truth. My friends mom has been working at an early childhood daycare center for years and she’s only making 9.50 an hour. Oh yeah, and she’s wierd as fuh.
I’ve worked as a waitress and bartender near Atlanta for about 11 years. I don’t know about the rest of the country but the most I’ve ever made hourly is $2.13. After Federal taxes are taken out of our paychecks there isn’t enough left over for Georgia and we are screwed at tax time! That’s why we are pissy when we are left crappy tips!