Knowing my worth

On Friday I received a call from a mush-mouthed woman named Meg from a company in nearby Orange County that manufactures products used in tactical defense situations (think LAPD). Daniel was excited by the phone call because he is familiar with the company and its products (he owns several of their flashllights and laser pointers); and because as an employee, I would get a substantial employee discount.

The position I had applied for via careerbuilders.com was a low-level admin position requiring a high school degree and one year of experience. I reasoned I was over-qualified for the job, and therefore was a shoe-in. However, I have applied for similar positions with similar requirements in the past and have not so much as received a nod, so...

When Meg called she went through a series of quick questions (Do you currently live in Long Beach? Would you be able to commute to Fountain Valley? Would you be willing to submit to a government background test? Easily my favorite type of interview questions.) culminating in: What is the minimum hourly wage you would be able to accept for this position?

Yikes.

Daniel says it's not likely that I will ever again make what I was making at Aerospace Company X (unless I learn a specific skill like design or engineering). I tend to agree. I'm not going to expect this company to pay me 70K a year for a secretary position. But the question is, how low can I go?

I reason that if I got a job making $18 an hour (37.4K per year) I would end up making roughly the same amount of money I currently make on unemployment (if you take into account taxes, medical, etc.). Unfortunately when I told Meg I couldn't accept less than $18 an hour, she said that was out of their price range.

Out of curiosity, what's the figure your company is willing to pay? I asked in exhasperation.

Meg didn't hesitate to resond with, Fifteen dollars per hour.

Again, yikes.

Admittedly, that is not a bad wage for a person who only has a high school degree and one year of experience. More so, that's not a bad wage if you live somewhere where cost of living isn't so ridiculously exorbitant. Given that I pay $1200 a month for rent and have a college degree and seven years of work experience, fifteen dollars an hour is ... (I don't want to say insulting so instead I'll say) un-liveable.

Could I live on fifteen dollars an hour? Sure. If I didn't have rent to pay, bills to pay, gas to put into my car, etc., that would be a fine wage. But the fact remains, I have to have enough money to sustain myself and that wage simply would not cut it. I could make it work for a little while, I suppose. If I knew I was working for a company in which I could grow, take on more responsibilities, and get paid more money.

The thing is, I believe that I am worth more than fifteen dollars an hour. My entire adult life (up until landing the job in aerospace), I have accepted crumbs as wages mainly because I had to! I didn't have work experience or I didn't have the right kind of education so I felt trapped into settling for crap wages.

At 30 years old, I'm not willing to do that anymore. I'm not expecting to make 70K in my next position. But I do refuse to settle for 31K.