Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vertex-four 1934 days ago
If you have multiple jobs and must take every hour they ask of you, you clearly do not have time to find another job; you are very likely working more than a full-time job without adequate protections.

Look, here’s how it goes:

1) you have no job

2) you take the first job that comes your way, even if it doesn’t actually pay enough to survive - a little money is better than no money

3) you take the second job that comes your way so that you can survive

4) you have no time to actually do anything towards getting a better job

Understand?

This is why jobs that pay less than what is needed to survive are bad for individuals and bad for society; people have to take them. Nobody is going to help you survive otherwise.

1 comments

if you have multiple jobs, you already have another job, so it was clearly possible.
The difference here is that the second job you have is likely going to be just as terrible as your first, where the improvement comes not from having a better job but simply having access to more hours and therefore more hourly pay.

Searching for a job that is _mechanically better_ (think office job versus min-wage retail) is significantly more challenging than finding a min-wage job. For example, most salaried or otherwise higher paying jobs require multiple rounds of interviews while many min-wage jobs will hire you on the spot to fill a staff position.

No. It means it’s possible to find a second job when you only have one. It doesn’t mean that once you’ve found a second job you still have time to search for an improved job.
You’re intentionally not getting it. I don’t know how to make this clearer than what I wrote, especially as you haven’t actually responded to what i wrote.
I'd would say that you are intentionally not getting it. I wasn't responding to you, I was clarifying for your benefit. As someone who's worked minimum wage jobs, I know exactly how it is, so I really don't need to be told. I'm also my union rep at work, so this isn't coming from a anti-union stance in the slightest, I absolutely see the value.
So when you were working multiple minimum wage jobs because one didn’t cover your living costs, did you have time to find something better? Could you quit them to find something better? My friends sure don’t and can’t.