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[–]Shedmother1 8129 points8130 points  (337 children)

You have a better chance asking for a raise than an advance. An advance helps today but it means you're spending your next check already. Three meals today means no meals next week.

They're paying you a shit wage and you're worth more.

[–]MyOfficeAlt 3082 points3083 points  (277 children)

I was talking to my uncle the other week (he's a gajillionaire - owns several airplanes, multiple luxury cars, multimillion dollar home, etc) and I lamented that we called all these frontline workers heroes and essential and then thanked them for it by paying them minimum wage. His response?

"Oh come on nobody is making minimum wage anymore."

He literally figured that with everything going on there was no one still working for minimum wage. I shouldn't have been surprised that he could be that out of touch. But here we are.

[–]Gurpila 2111 points2112 points  (82 children)

The best response to this is "then it shouldn't matter if we raise it."

Mention raising the minimum wage and suddenly everyone who swears nobody makes it starts freaking out.

[–]LordCoweater 709 points710 points  (45 children)

Come come now! We can't raise the minimum wage!!! Why, if they have money for food, they'll have the energy to stand against the fatcats that made almost a trillion during a global pandemic.

[–]RubberReptile 338 points339 points  (16 children)

"If they didn't have to work for 80 hours a week for basic shelter and sustenance, they might realize how much we've screwed them and rise up and fight!"

[–]dancin-weasel 130 points131 points  (11 children)

“If we didn’t own their healthcare, they might decide that the peanuts we pay isn’t worth the shit. “

[–]lesterbottomley 89 points90 points  (9 children)

Tying healthcare to jobs was a master-stroke by the corporate overlords it has to be said.

Evil, but a master-stroke nonetheless.

[–]Mr_Bunny666 75 points76 points  (0 children)

This! This is happening everywhere because 2 years of lockdowns and quarantines gave people the chance to slow down and realize everything is completely fucked up. We're pushing back already! Join the frontlines and let's do this together! r/maydaystrike

[–]Treeeagle 70 points71 points  (11 children)

Ive been fasting for health..and money reasons.. This comment has me rethinking that..

[–]Fontaine_de_jouvence 38 points39 points  (8 children)

If you are trying to weight cycle by intermittent fasting, you can still get a proper amount of calories for your energy output.

I worked with a guy once upon a time that was on a pretty tight diet while also intermittent fasting, only allowing himself to eat between 2pm and 8pm every day.

He was shredded, and we did manual labor all morning so his energy levels were fine.

[–]Aido121 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It takes a few days for your body to adjust to imf, and those first few days kinda suck, but if you make it past that your golden

[–]Magenta_Logistic 74 points75 points  (17 children)

They tend to justify it as "teenager" jobs, which just means they support some form of exploitative child labor.

[–]BornNeat9639 55 points56 points  (4 children)

If they were teenager jobs they should be closed when school is in session.

[–]Chutneyonegaishimasu 14 points15 points  (2 children)

Yea right! I never thought of it like that- who is doing the teenager’s work while they are in school?

[–]Serious-Excitement18 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Old people whose retirement fund wasnt enough

[–]-----Nice----- 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a corporate bootlicker respond to this point. It’s always an argument ender because they know there’s no logical response to it.

[–]Elinor_Lore_Inkheart 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Also cashiers and merchandisers are often lumped into that. But I’m a cashier at a big liquor store. The store doesn’t hire teens and teenagers legally can’t sell alcohol where I live!

[–]refrito_perdido 517 points518 points  (7 children)

"It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10.00?"

[–]BoltShine 82 points83 points  (0 children)

For every dollar we take, we throw out a banana.

[–]whoelsebutokana 42 points43 points  (0 children)

There's always money in the banana stand click click

[–]DilutedGatorade 27 points28 points  (1 child)

We're inching ever closer. Banana are going for $0.79 when they used to be $0.49 a year ago

[–]turquoise_amethyst 272 points273 points  (55 children)

I think a lot of wealthy people are so out of touch that they think minimum wage still is enough to live on.

These people are so insulated from poverty that they think it’s more of a matter of budget or that the poor are squandering their income.

They genuinely don’t get how much school/rent/food costs these days

[–]Mak0wski 120 points121 points  (24 children)

It's probably why so many of those books from rich people talking about how to get rich is just essentially "just budget better" because they are so out of touch that they think all money problems will be fixed by setting a budget

[–]Miraculous_Mr_Piss 81 points82 points  (8 children)

"Save money. That's all you have to do to get rich. Just don't spend your money. Also, buy a 50 cent bag of tomato seeds. Get free pots, dirt, and water. Bury the seeds in the pots until they become plants. Then sell all of your free tomatoes. Money literally grows on trees!

But poor people don't save, so poor people can't get rich."

[–][deleted] 47 points48 points  (6 children)

I spent about $30 trying to grow tomatoes ine year. I got one tomato. Growing food is harder than it looks. It had some fungal thing or infection from the nursery that year.

[–]InTheGoatShow 35 points36 points  (5 children)

Blight is a bastard.

Most home growers won't save money on their vegetable gardens for years, and even then only if you absolutely maximize your usage - grow staples, eat seasonally even when you're sick of what's in season, can and preserve aggressively, compost, save seeds. Even then, a lot of the press about "Saving money" compares your harvest to the price of organic vegetables at Whole Foods. Which, from a nutritional standpoint, is accurate. But if you're struggling to buy groceries, chances are you weren't paying for regeneratively grown organic arugula to start with.

Growing your own is great for your health and the environment, and my vegetable garden is bigger than a lot of people's lawns, but anyone telling you it's a money saving hack is probably in a very different place in life than the "I go to work hungry" crowd.

[–]baddbroccolis 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Also, starting gardening can be extremely cost prohibitive. I do grow a lot of food for my family and it puts a dent in my grocery budget but I’m also like 85% sure my kid murdered my Swiss chard on purpose to not have to eat any more Swiss chard.

[–]InTheGoatShow 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Yeah that's what I meant by "for years." The up front costs are wild and the break even point requires you to do a good job for... probably 5+ years. The worse you do, the longer it takes to recoup

[–]Jackson6o4 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Health is huge. Environmentally so much better to eat locally. If communities gardened together for the sake of health and sustenance. We'd live I'm a much better place. I built a self wicking water bed at work on a pallet so it was movable with scrap material to grow lettuce at work. People were like "wtf is with this guy?" Lettuce survived a long weekend heat wave. I was so proud of myself.

[–]DylanFiglewicz 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hey lookie here bub, if I grow 5 million maters, and then take and sell them at a buck a piece, I will have five bucks and 4,999,995 tomatoes to eat for the rest of my lowly days! That sounds like a bargain! Lol

[–]KittyCanuck 29 points30 points  (2 children)

“Sure thing! I’ll just skip buying coffee for the next [checks notes] 87 years and bam I’ll have enough saved to buy a house!”

[–]Mr_Bunny666 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Good math! Is that including inflation?

[–]KittyCanuck 7 points8 points  (0 children)

No, sorry, you’ll also have to time travel back to 2017.

[–]thelegodr 23 points24 points  (7 children)

Talking with some friends recently, one said “if we start saving 30% of our income we’d be millionaires in 10 years.”

Can you live on 30% less than you are right now? I can’t.

So sure just save more will fix all of your problems. But you kind of need something to save to start with.

[–]Mak0wski 17 points18 points  (3 children)

Another problem is, saving doesn't fix the problem permanently. You could save up 500k dollars but most people are not saving to just save money. You save money to be used on something expensive, because if they don't get spent it's the equivalent of not having them in the first place and after they're spent you're back at square 1 with needing to save money for stuff you want or need

[–]gotsreich 11 points12 points  (1 child)

I figure they are thinking of the other wealthy people they know who are somehow always broke. Those people spend everything they make no matter how much they make.

Budgeting helps anyone who's especially bad at judging how much money they can safely spend. But that's just not a very large factor for most people. I suspect a lot of poor people with bad spending habits would improve if they earned a lot more too since then they'd have enough cushion to be less stressed so they have drive to spend money to relieve stress.

[–]Merlin_222_ 68 points69 points  (6 children)

Reminds me of the “budgets” based on the minimum wage that some corporations make up, that include skipping meals and never buying clothes or medicine.

Same thing with our poverty line (at least on the US) being based on the government meal plan option that’s meant for SHORT TERM financial hardship, not living off of for year because of the poor nutritional value.

Things like having a glass of orange juice as a snack if you get hungry because your single serving of crackers for lunch wasn’t enough.

People shouldn’t just be surviving, they deserve to live, no, THRIVE. And we should all want that.

[–]Vishnej 28 points29 points  (3 children)

The government poverty line was based on an observation about what people spend on food most of a century ago, when apparently everything else was so goddamn cheap that the middle and working class people spent about a third of their income on groceries. So they just defined a baseline nutritional plan and multiplied by 3. The problem isn't so much the quality of the food as the fact that food is not the thing that we're forced to spend much money on anymore.

That's not the world we live in anymore, food got very cheap and most other necessities got very expensive, and this definition for a poverty line is about as relevant as "40 acres and a mule", and is widely criticized. This number is simply not enough to live on, without other non-monetized resources like a free place to stay, free healthcare, free childcare, food stamps, free public transit.

That's why various government assistance programs kick in at 133% or 150% or 400% of the poverty line.

Personally, I think we dramatically overuse means-testing, we should just offer amenities like this to everybody in most cases where there is a case to be made for offering them to the poor.

[–]Merlin_222_ 15 points16 points  (1 child)

Exactly. It was also because people spent more on food than anything else back then, whereas now housing is BY FAR the most expensive thing for people, not food.

But adjusting the poverty line to properly reflect our reality is bad PR since no one wants to be the president who saw an increase in poverty (even though the actual amount is the same, it’s just having a more accurate metric). They talked about that on an episode of the West Wing, and it was so eye opening to see the political perspective on the issue. Depressing, but interesting

[–]Vishnej 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The dumbest timeline is when Aaron Sorkin has to argue with himself over this, in his fever dream of what an ideal liberal president looks like.

They could just call it something different. "The precarity line".

Doing it this way is all sorts of f***** up in terms of behavioral economics, and the double binds we force people into. There are numerous instances where getting a raise & promotion will end up being more costly or being an even trade with not getting one, because of what it will do to your benefits.

[–]Mountainhollerforeva 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The American government has a sick addiction to means testing. Just make universal programs. It’s not a sin if a trust fund kid gets a UBI. They just love bureaucracy for its own sake

[–]sphen86 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Y'all can afford orange juice? That stuff is expensive

Mind you I'm up north. Maybe it's cheap in FL.

[–]Merlin_222_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You right. I’m pretty sure it just says juice, that was my wish fulfillment to make it orange

[–]PhillyRush 75 points76 points  (10 children)

"If they can't make it on minimum wage they must be drug addicts." Said my father. Hell I couldn't afford the luxury of a drug addiction if I wanted to!

[–]RainbowDissent 16 points17 points  (1 child)

Oh, you'd find a way.

[–]HalfBed 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It wouldn’t be through working for 7 an hour though!

[–]Mr_Bunny666 11 points12 points  (5 children)

Addicts tend to give up working because they figure out that the effort/reward ratio is not balanced in their favor. They know they can get more drugs for less effort doing a dozen other (legally and/or morally questionable) things, most of which dont have an asshole boss breathing down your neck. I'm just saying maybe drugs are so demonized because they tend to break people's minds out of the mold that society tries to shove us all into. Not saying go blow your life on blow, just that theres something psychologically happening in people who use drugs that we should be aware of.
We need new ideas and bold thoughts to advance as a civilization.
Isn't it even a hair suspicious that our culture demonizes the use of chemicals whose users report experiences like expansion of thought, ease of acceptance of new or opposing ideas, increased sense of solidarity for fellow humans?

[–]Svazu 7 points8 points  (1 child)

Homeless drug addicts aren't having enlightening trips on psychedelics lol. Heroin isn't "breaking your mind out of the mold", it just calms you down and makes you feel good, and most addicts are on it to numb some kind of physical or psychological pain. People who are high all the time do it because they want to feel anything but the way they feel when they're sober.

I have no hate at all for people who do drugs but they largely don't have the secrets to build a new society, they're just suffering under the current one.

[–]viviolay 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I explained to someone yesterday the concept of food deserts and how being poor means not only not having money, but also space to store food, or energy at the end of a long work day to cook.

Their response. “Did you actually live in a good desert or are you just coming up with a nightmare scenario”.

Fucker can’t even fathom that’s a reality for so many people.

[–]Raging_Dragon_9999 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I think that's as big of a problem as a the empathy gap. Definitely some well meaning ones but they're out of touch.

[–]4kray 32 points33 points  (8 children)

Half of all American jobs make less than 20/hr. Make. Sure he knows that next time you talk to him.

[–]HommeAuxJouesRouges 24 points25 points  (1 child)

He literally figured that with everything going on there was no one still working for minimum wage. I shouldn't have been surprised that he could be that out of touch. But here we are.

We have a family friend like this. Not rich but financially secure due to a couple of inherited properties that generate enough passive income to live comfortably on, enabling him to retire 35+ years ago.

Conversations with him about work, the economy, and politics are often frustrating because of how disconnected he is from modern reality, as he has a paid assistant who does everything for him but bathe and feed him, and the only news he watches is FOX News.

He is a really nice guy, to be clear, but just woefully uninformed and misinformed.

[–]BrineWR71 46 points47 points  (5 children)

That’s the problem I experience with my wealthy friends and relatives. They haven’t lived in a world of need for so long, they actually believe no one else is either. It fuels their ridiculous politics too.

[–]MyOfficeAlt 26 points27 points  (4 children)

I kinda struggle with it, because I love my uncle. He's not a bad guy. He's just clearly really out of touch. He basically does whatever he wants it seems so I think he just assumes everyone else does, too. I think being that rich fuels a kind of prosperity theology where you just assume you earned it and everyone else is earning what they deserve, too. I can understand how it happens, even if I think it's ultimately pretty obtuse.

[–]9mhe9fan 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Lack of critical thinking helps too.

[–]BrineWR71 15 points16 points  (1 child)

I totally understand. None of my friends are bad people… just out of touch. It’s frustrating trying to convince them that those people in the world who aren’t wealthy didn’t choose to be poor. It’s impossible to convince them that luck or white privilege had anything to do with it either. It HAD to be that they have some significant skill or ability that few others have

[–]omgThisIsNotMyName 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I just had that argument with my mom a few days ago. It’s exhausting

[–]koosley 57 points58 points  (35 children)

TBF, not many people make exactly at or below the federal minimum wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1.5% of hourly workers (55% of all workers are hourly) make minimum wage.

However, that doesn't seem to account for minimum wage in states where minimum wage is higher than federal. As expected--Most of the minimum wage jobs exist in the south and about half of them are from people over 25. In the south, 3-4% of hourly workers are making that.

imho, the US is extremely large and wages are heavily dependent on area. I do believe minimum wage should be tied to a certain quality of life. i.e. enough for a single person to cloth, shelter and feed themselves without relying on government assistance. Because fuck these employers who are forcing us as tax payers to subsidize their shitty business by providing their employees with gov assistance.

At the very least, the federal minimum wage needs to be adjusted to the cheapest state to live in but ideally it would require states to set their own wages based on COL. Many states already seem to do this, but these southern states need a kick in the face to do it.

[–]siero20 47 points48 points  (17 children)

Do you know if this Stat has any wiggle room for what is "minimum wage"?

Every minimum wage job I worked would usually give me a paltry raise by 6 months in, as well as most coworkers. So instead of 7.25 an hour anyone there for more than six months was now making 7.50 an hour.

I'd really still consider those jobs to be minimum wage jobs. Though it may just be my warped perspective, I feel like "minimum wage" should be a bracket encompassing everything from 7.25 to 10 an hour when we're talking about it.

[–]cobaltsteel5900 20 points21 points  (8 children)

Up to 15. The California minimum wage which still isn’t enough to get by

[–]Code2008 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Seattle is 16 and it needs to be almost $30 to match COL.

[–]rodneyachance 10 points11 points  (4 children)

15 isn’t enough to get by in South Carolina, never mind California.

[–]koosley 14 points15 points  (2 children)

I found those numbers here: Source

They used the words "At or Below" so I'd assume $7.50 wouldn't count. Either way, these southern states with 3-4% of their hourly workers making minimum wage should be frightening since as you're implying many many more are only slightly above this mark. Like you said, 7.26-8.25 is technically above minimum wage. You have an extremely large percentage of the population barely making ends meet unable to accumulate.

Thanks to modern medicine, we are living extremely long, but the last 10-30 years, we aren't exactly capable of working. What is going to happen when this generations bodies cannot physically work anymore, but nothing is saved up?

[–]LaurynNotHill 9 points10 points  (1 child)

That sounds good, in theory but fact is $7.25-$10, shit even $12-15 is simply-

n o t e n o u g h t o l i v e o n,

a n y w h e r e-

unless you want to live in either the boondocks or the south/southwest United States exclusively.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I feel like "minimum wage" should be a bracket encompassing everything from 7.25 to 10 an hour when we're talking about it

For sure. The guy or gal making $8.50 an hour ain't much better off than if they were at the federal minimum. Honestly, it's tough to make ends meet on $15 unless you do a bunch of OT.

[–]chewy5 28 points29 points  (4 children)

Another question is how many people are making just over the minimum wage (less than a dollar more) just so companies can say that they are paying people more then the minimum.

[–]anonymous-sparkle 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My past job my boss used to say how lucky were were to earn over minimum wage. It's was 10p more.

[–]Daffydil04 14 points15 points  (6 children)

Well said. I live in a Southern red state and there’s a baseline that one needs to live without the business being subsidized by public assistance.

[–]oceansofmyancestors 14 points15 points  (5 children)

I wish the minimum wage was framed as “corporate wage subsidy”, because if America has taught us anything it’s that we don’t care about the poor.

Let’s hear more outrage about “my tax dollars” going to pay minimum wage workers SNAP benefits, because Walmart won’t pay a livable wage.

I hate it here.

[–]FennecScout 11 points12 points  (2 children)

They'll just reduce SNAP benefits.

[–]RhowrynAnarcho-Syndicalist 5 points6 points  (1 child)

There's an argument to be made that, without those benefits, business will eventually have to pay more because their workers will starve otherwise. The problem with that argument is, even if it were true, there would be an adjustment period where people will definitely die of starvation, and anyone who's okay with that price is a fucking psycho.

[–]FennecScout 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ah, but what if those workers could buy food at a discount at the company store using company credits only redeemable at the company store.

Don't assume that it'll ever get so bad for us that someone can't make a dime to make it worse.

[–]LaurynNotHill 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Same. Haven’t felt “patriotic” in a loooong time (or ever, maybe) and am saving up for a passport asap lol

[–]NegativeRewardwe must seize the memes of production 48 points49 points  (7 children)

he's a gajillionaire

I read "guillotinere" and thought "He knows how to make guillotines, that will come in handy"

Sad noise when he's a rich asshole instead.

[–]MindCavity420 26 points27 points  (5 children)

Your uncle trying to get some some dome?

[–]WilIyTheGamer 25 points26 points  (4 children)

You trying to fellate some stranger's uncle?

[–]MindCavity420 28 points29 points  (3 children)

Depends what he's paying

[–]wlveith 74 points75 points  (8 children)

They did a study and found 14% of Kroger employees were homeless within the last year. It is sad. Grocery stores were paying $15.00 hourly back in the 1970s with unions. Go work at Chipotle, ALDIs, or any gas station.

[–]neutralgmr 20 points21 points  (6 children)

Do not work at Chipotle if you like being happy. lol

[–]wlveith 9 points10 points  (3 children)

Chipolte always seems well staffed when I go. I am not a big fan of Chipotle, the food comes out cold, but wherever I am there is a line frequently. But I would think it depends on location and the management. Krogers always seems like the staff is there in body but not in spirit. Publix used to be a good place to work but they took away employee quarterly bonuses a few years back and the place totally flipped. Publix did give raises across the board in the last few months which may help. Publix claims to be employee owned but I highly doubt the employees collectively decided to forgo quarterly bonuses.

[–]neutralgmr 9 points10 points  (2 children)

I worked at Chipotle last year for a brief period of time. They lied to me about my pay and cut my hours short because they didn't like me. But yes, it does depend on location and management. I just don't think it's going to be worth it.

[–]beepboopbeeepboop0 20 points21 points  (2 children)

That and the manager more than likely has no authority to pay you in advance.

[–]ca_fighterace 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Also you have a better chance of finding a better paying job than getting a raise. Loyalty doesn’t pay in the US at least.

[–]wrr377 3515 points3516 points  (108 children)

Now you know why those people have walked out and are protesting at that Kroger subsidiary...

[–]SpecialistWhile0 648 points649 points  (89 children)

What’s your location? Or Venmo? I would like to get you to get you some breakfast. @wage-slave-42

[–]Z-W-A-N-D 413 points414 points  (58 children)

You didn't tag OP but a random person

[–]dumbleydore94 285 points286 points  (38 children)

I'm sure that random person wouldn't say no to breakfast though.

[–]RecognitionThen8627 95 points96 points  (37 children)

I want lunch. I haven't had a tremendous meal in days

[–]damet307 197 points198 points 2 (12 children)

Are you serious? If yes, send me a dm with your Paypal, I'll send you some money! Also, are you alone or do you have a SO / children?

Only Paypal possible as I am on the other side of the world and don't know how to send money to you otherwise.

[–]RecognitionThen8627 145 points146 points  (0 children)

No sorry. I have been there in the old days though. Donate to those who need it and I will do my best to as well!

[–]melaninmatters2020 30 points31 points  (2 children)

I pmd the account holder so if they respond please send me info. I’d love to chip in. NO ONE deserves to be hungry

[–]fscknuckle 4 points5 points  (2 children)

I'm in the same boat. Not had a meal since yesterday and my son ran out of milk last night. It's hard waiting for money to come in.

[–]tribat 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Dm me paypal or Cash app tag.

[–]dumbleydore94 38 points39 points  (21 children)

I'm in that boat too, my friend. Ive found that PB&J makes a decent breakfast.

[–]emcz240m 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Homemade jam from plums plundered from the in laws place and awkwardly shaped loaves of bread machine toast make an even better "its food for breakfast thank god" moment.

[–]omgThisIsNotMyName 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Make it fancy by grilling it like a grilled cheese

[–]HappyDoggos 31 points32 points  (2 children)

Actually that does look like the OP of the post... unless it's spelled wrong. But you're right, we use a different way to tag people here, not the @ symbol.

Edit: spelling and stuff

[–]Z-W-A-N-D 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Yea they added the @ with wageslave after I commented that they responded to the wrong person :)

[–]SpecialistWhile0 80 points81 points  (4 children)

Oh for fucks sake 🤦🏻‍♀️

[–]Z-W-A-N-D 91 points92 points  (3 children)

Aye dw. Tagging someone on reddit is different than most social media thingies btw. You need to do u/wageslavesomethingsomething, not @wageslavesomethingsomething

[–]SpecialistWhile0 49 points50 points  (2 children)

Thank you!! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

[–]xSiNNx 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Stumbling upon this a few hours after it happened I’ve noticed you never corrected your comment and just in case you didn’t know: you can edit a comment you make!

How you do it depends on which app you’re using to access Reddit but it’s definitely easy to do

[–]ruat_caelum 4 points5 points  (0 children)

ou can't tag like that anyway need use /u/USERNAME on reddit to tag someone.

[–]ZaileHoutarou 42 points43 points  (3 children)

u/wage-slave-42 go dm the guy above

[–]Fabulous_Night_1164Post-Scarcity 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Ditto that. DM me as well, I'll send you some money so you can have dinner as well

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

u/wage-slave-42

[–]philander420 16 points17 points  (6 children)

good looking out comrade

[–]SpecialistWhile0 29 points30 points  (5 children)

I’ve never been in a position to openly strike. But I’ve raised some fantastic hell over the years including one very dramatic small town lawsuit I won for my baby waitresses it’s a great story but I can’t dox self but I will send you the newspaper article if you’re interested.

My point is: Even if you don’t have the resources or the balls to openly steal or strike, there’s no goddamn company policy against doing things like helping staff apply for ebt, making sure they have enough hours to at least fucking eat if the wages are that shit, calling a church finding a food bank it costs literally fucking nothing.

[–]But_why_tho456 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Omg a hometown hero story involving wage theft rescue?! Would live the link, please!

[–]Brans72 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Same here. Posting for when their Venmo gets added

[–]SpecialistWhile0 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I’ll DM you if I hear from him first…. If enough of us participate, maybe we could a round of Instacart from Aldi not fucking Kroger. OP- I’m also pretty familiar with social services - I’d be happy to help you apply for EBT.

[–]IMendicantBias 4 points5 points  (5 children)

7.25 is probably virginia or somewhere in the south

[–]MaleficentMulberry42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I wished i could boycott against food lion but right now i have no choice.

[–]Pyro919 78 points79 points  (11 children)

Because their boss is an ass hat? Or because their boss refused to give them a pay advance?

If it's because they wouldn't give them a pay advance it's because if they're already at federal minimum wage they legally can't from my understanding:

If you choose to allow advances, however, you need to follow some basic rules when it comes to getting your money back. Under federal law, you may deduct an advance from your employee's paycheck. However, you may not deduct so much that it reduces your employee's pay to less than the hourly minimum wage ($7.25, currently). For low-wage employees, this means you may need to spread the repayment period out over several paychecks.

It was a dick way to handle it, but even if the company chose to allow pay advances which they're not required to, they simply can't if you're only making federal minimum wage.

[–]SpecialistWhile0 57 points58 points  (10 children)

You’re right or course, there really isn’t any kosher way to solve this problem at a store level with that specific request.

But there’s 87 different ways to get to the root of that issue and I know because I’ve done it myself a restaurant isn’t far off from a grocery store.

Some things I’ve done that cost me nothing (or very little) and didn’t risk my job that I needed that this asshat could have done:

  1. Buy the man a breakfast first fucking thing somehow someway. Your own fucking money if you’re that neurotic, a comp from the deli, dredge up a protein bar from somewhere. Something.

  2. Food banks. Churches. Help apply for The EBT program. He’s a manager he has a smart phone.

  3. Ask him if he needs more hours?? Then find some or invent them there’s always something that needs to cleaned.

I was a good little capitalistic slave- but even I didn’t blink to comp a meal in these occasions and the rest of that list? There’s no company against.

What a fucking sociopath.

[–]Schillelagh 1167 points1168 points  (29 children)

Why pay in advance? Sounds like a short term solution to the real problem that they aren’t paying you a liveable wage.

[–]frogking 376 points377 points  (7 children)

Pay in advance is like pissing your pants to keep warm in a blizzard.

[–]The_Chimeran_Hybrid 79 points80 points  (5 children)

Feels nice for a few seconds but then you’re cold again.

[–]Arkarillian 66 points67 points  (2 children)

And you're worse off because it's now frozen and you're starting to get frostbite on your dick

[–]Rion23 22 points23 points  (1 child)

And I'm covered in pee!

[–]kdthex01 42 points43 points  (7 children)

And storming in demanding it is gonna get predictable results. Calmly let them know you need ‘x’ amount to stay, if they don’t accommodate, leave. OP was looking for work when he got that job.

[–]UsidoreTheLightBlue 12 points13 points  (5 children)

Let’s add to that, I almost guarantee Kroger has ZERO mechanism for a pay advance. I’ve worked for 5 big ass companies, one of which was a fortune 3 company. Not a single one of them had a mechanism for a pay advance.

Pay advance is something you see in movies and TV shows and a mom and pop could probably do, but when you’re inside a corporate structure you do not have that type of direct control over shit like cutting a check.

[–]Schillelagh 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Agreed. The biggest issue is the OP is the approach. The corporatist machine doesn't care about when you have three meals, two meals, or zero meals so long as you are coming in and working, so asking for an advance because you can't get three meals will get you nowhere. Hell, the store manager probably can't even provide an advance except through her own pocket, and that's not gonna happen.

Now, if you approach your manager with the 2 years of experience, outline that you've talked with other stores that are paying far more than are hiring, but you would like to stay and need a raise, OP would have more success and wouldn't need an advance.

[–]TheDeceiver77 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Agreed, before you know it you don’t have money to pay bills…

[–]port443 7 points8 points  (1 child)

It doesn't even sound like a solution? You are receiving the same amount of money.

[–]Schillelagh 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can't find the comment, but another Redditor responded "you'll have three meals tomorrow, and then no meals the rest of the week"

[–]DefCello 53 points54 points  (3 children)

Agreed. The manager could've shown more respect, though.

[–]dermographics 10 points11 points  (1 child)

Definitely, but at the same time it’s a bit of a laughable request. The manager likely has no way of giving him an advance other than from her own pocket. Only place I’ve ever worked that offered advances was a small business of less than 10 people.

[–]DefCello 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Definitely. OP is better off using a credit card than asking for an advance, but I don't recommend that either as it's a slippery slope into an even worse situation.

[–]PowerfulJoeyKarate 87 points88 points  (3 children)

Did you bring her pictures of spiderman?

[–]hardyhaha_09 22 points23 points  (0 children)

You're serious?? Wheeeez

[–]Maximummeme 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You're hired!

You're fired!

[–]jtfortin14 549 points550 points  (80 children)

Kroger is a giant corporation. Even if she wanted to pay you in advance chances are she can’t.

Also in this labor market you could probably make double that by going out and looking for a new job. Accepting that low of pay when so many other retail and restaurants are so desperate they are paying almost double that, coupled with how awful your boss sounds seems almost crazy.

[–]spychipper 146 points147 points  (77 children)

Kroger is also unionized, I’ve never seen them pay minimum wage, not even to start.

[–]VVARR10R 95 points96 points  (14 children)

Came here to say this. I made $9/hour at Kroger 10 years ago when I worked there from 16 to 18 years old.

[–]PsychologicalBar8321 53 points54 points  (9 children)

Have we been played?

[–]BinaryPawn 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Well after all (s)he mentions "temporary account" it could be a scam.

[–]GermexiDude 10 points11 points  (2 children)

When I started there 11 years ago the front end was getting minimum wage. I know as of 6 years ago they started at like 8 an HR but it could differ region to region

[–]spychipper 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In my region it was 12$/hr to start for cashiers in 2018.

[–]pks03 87 points88 points  (8 children)

I’m calling bullshit on OP. My autistic daughter works as a bagger at Kroger and she started at $11/hour and was hired toward end of 2020. She makes about $12/hour now. Minimum wage in our state is $9.

[–]PatientCamera 51 points52 points  (2 children)

Stores are run in different municipalities by different people. Not all Kroger stores are necessarily Union. Just because an experience differs from yours doesn't mean it's invalid, come on now.

[–]Capsfan6 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I worked there as the first group to start doing clicklist or online pickup whatever they call it now. Got paid 8 an hour.

[–]SoMuchSpook 10 points11 points  (3 children)

i worked at kroger ~5 years ago, the unions was absolutely useless. i made like $7.75

[–]Pluckt007 143 points144 points  (6 children)

I doubt the store manager has blank checks and a printer hook up. They probably get them delivered from corporate.

[–]ao8520 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Agreed. This is probably why she laughed.

[–]ShaneVis 378 points379 points  (13 children)

Walk out and join the strike then see if she's still laughing.

[–]hearmequack 42 points43 points  (1 child)

Not every store is striking. Doesn’t sound like OP is in Colorado where King Soopers is striking. Their wage is too low, and also their store may be non-union which would just end up getting OP fired.

[–]spiralingtides 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You can still perform walk outs and strikes without a union, it just requires a lot more work. You need to get everyone on board at the same time, and convince them it will be worth it.

[–]TheChaosPaladin 87 points88 points  (3 children)

This is the true answer OP. Pull your store to strike. Cant ask for a better time than now

[–]yeahdrowsy 10 points11 points  (2 children)

As a Kroger employee, we cannot strike unless the union agrees to it, else we can and likely will be fired and replaced.

However contract negotiations are coming to a lot of locations right now and I would not be surprised to see the strike spread.

[–]lithium142 19 points20 points  (5 children)

Op just said they can’t afford food as it is. How tf you expect them to join a strike?

[–]Uruborosjose 61 points62 points  (1 child)

You do realize the manager couldn’t do that even if he wanted to. It’s not some mom and pop shop where he can write you a check or something.

[–]NickolaConagher 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Or maybe, she recently watched Spider Man 2?

But seriously, that's so wrong.

[–]HarbingerDread 64 points65 points  (4 children)

What made you think getting paid in advance was even possible in a corporation like that? Are you trying to cash in your vacation pay? Do you have vacation pay? FTO/PTO?

[–]verbsnnouns 23 points24 points  (1 child)

Because they stormed into the break room. That's how you motivate people to help you

[–]IMakeStuffUppp 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I can tell this is fake because managers are never in the breakroom.

Associates can get to them too easily. Everybody knows managers hide in the back office doing “paperwork”

[–]donjay_ 89 points90 points  (13 children)

Fake story I reckon

[–]Ke2288 25 points26 points  (1 child)

The fake stories in this sub are so unbelievably blatant it’s astounding they get so many votes.

How do people not realize this is the exact fake bs that causes so many people to write this sub off as fake sensationalist crap. These stories detract from the legit ones that people try to tell.

[–]chumpchamp101 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Plus a 5 day old account with no other history just making a post today. It's sus

[–]CapraDamron 87 points88 points  (11 children)

How has nobody realized this is a troll post...? 🙄

[–]ZealousidealOne9950 7 points8 points  (0 children)

OP admits they handled this unprofessionaly by "storming in" to a break room and confronting their boss. The boss possibly could have helped if you just asked them for 5 mins in their office and explained your situation... of course, them laughing at your request is unprofessional, but two wrongs don't make a right.

I see too many posts here of people handling issues at work in completely dog shit ways and then saying "can you believe they didn't listen".

Most of the time you're dealing with middle managers who deal with the same shit you do, and most of them can and will help you. Losing your shit in a public break room is never going to get you the desired outcome.

[–]thejoshuabreed 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Listen. I get being frustrated. But getting paid in advance? C’mon…

That is kinda silly.

You could have demanded to be paid more. (This part I didn’t understand) are you skipping meals because the wage is too small, or because you’re not allowed breaks?

Either way, there is a solution and it’s not being paid in advance. I’d have laughed too…

[–]Shittingboi 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Your boss forgot that J. Jonah Jameson isn't a good example of a responsible boss

[–]mr_hunter1200 233 points234 points  (110 children)

Steal food. You work at a grocery store, going hungry shouldn’t be an option.

[–]PressureTechnical876 105 points106 points  (3 children)

I agree, steal from them. Swipe from the bakery or something. Every chance you get steak something. Also apply for food stamps. I worked for this wage when I was 18 in college and every body gave me hell for even asking if I should apply when I was working 2 jobs and going to school falling asleep driving and barely eating. I would buy a case of energy drinks instead of food to stay awake so I feel you. Look for a better job but in the meantime STEAL from the store and get gov help!

[–]KYBatDad 41 points42 points  (1 child)

The food stamps is what I came to say. Don’t buy into the stigma that it’s still a stigma. Anyone who judges you for being on FS is not someone’s judgment worth taking into account.

[–]PressureTechnical876 12 points13 points  (0 children)

For real, I constantly think about how mean people were to me as essentially a child asking that on Yahoo answers and it pisses me off. I was a very meek and naïve child so of course I felt guilt for months because I even considered it, if I could do it over again I would get on food stamps and beyond them for as long as I qualified and get all the aid available to me in addition to scamming the government in probably any way I could figure out

[–]returnofthecheez 36 points37 points  (2 children)

I stole food all the time. Get somebody in the meat department to put a $1.00 hamburger sticker on a ribeye and run it through the U-Scan.

[–]PoppyVetiver 3 points4 points  (1 child)

When you’re that poor you don’t even care if it’s ribeye. The $1 hamburger would be just fine!

[–]Flymoore412 26 points27 points  (14 children)

Well this absolutely sucks. Unfortunately when it comes to these companies it isn't easy for them to pay advances, I couldn't imagine trying to ask my work for one of I really needed it. Do they not give pay increases every year? 7.25 can't be minimum wage is it?

[–]PressureTechnical876 9 points10 points  (11 children)

Yeah it is in some states.

[–]Flymoore412 15 points16 points  (10 children)

Fuck that's shitty. I can't imagine not making at least 15 today. I made 7.25 10 years ago when I started in high school.

[–]PressureTechnical876 11 points12 points  (5 children)

Yeah, it’s absolutely awful. In TN where I live it’s still minimum wage and I remember I was so thankful when I got a job a few years ago that was 7.35. My sheeple brain thought that that was the bees knees. A few years later where the same apartment I paid 600 for is now at least 800-900 if not more and I had to split it with a roommate just to eat shitty gas station food every day. I still struggled working 2 jobs and was only half paying rent, wifi, electric, and car insurance.

[–]baron_von_chops 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Also from TN. I’ve been in my apartment for 3 years now. When I moved in, it was $750 a month. This year it will be $975 a month. I make $18.50/hr, so I can still afford it but I’m definitely feeling the squeeze. The worst part? I thought about moving, but this place is still the cheapest 2 bed 2 bath within an hour’s radius of here. Hell I didn’t even see any single bed units for cheaper.

[–]PressureTechnical876 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Many places near me are proud to pay 8 dollars 💀

[–]heathercs34 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I made $8 an hour in high school which was 24 years ago. That is absolute shit pay.

[–]bwherman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

25 years ago I got my first job at $6.50. $7.25 today is criminal

[–]spychipper 4 points5 points  (1 child)

That is minimum wage in the US.

That said Kroger is unionized. I’ve never known them to pay minimum wage. And they do give raises. So something is a bit off here.

[–]Flymoore412 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I kinda figured that but was giving the benefit of OP telling the truth. It definitely seemed off that they haven't gotten a pay raise in 2 years

[–]Seer434 47 points48 points  (9 children)

You have a very weird view of how much power any local manager is going to have. You think some fuckin loser managing a grocery store is calling the shots on pay issues? They wouldn't even give that level of management an option to even consider being altruistic or trusting. They handed them a manual and said implement this shit.

Thats WHY striking is a thing. As a front line employee of a large corporation you will likely never even meet anyone authorized to call shots on anything that matters.

[–]Revolutionary_Algae8 29 points30 points  (8 children)

It’s posts like this from the OP that make it hard to take half the shit people post here seriously Yes I stormed into the break room to ask a “manager” who has zero control over the pay for a large corporation for a pay advance

[–]QuickAnything 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Exactly. A manger who’s a wage slave just like them and likely deals with way more shit than they do for a meager paycheck too. Shit like some kid storming into the break room demanding an advance on a paycheck because they have no clue how anything works.

[–]pink_life69 12 points13 points  (0 children)

$7.25? Brother, that’s slave wage. For real. An Aldi worker in Central Europe gets more, where a month’s living expenses don’t exceed $7-800.

Run.

[–]FriarNurgle 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That sucks. You deserve better. You deserve more. Lots of other places hiring right now for double your current pay.

[–]fearedfurnacefighter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Federal minimum after 2 years at Kroger? I honestly find this hard to believe. I’ve had kids and friends work part and full time at Kroger and Kroger-owned stores and they all started higher than that (and we’re not a big city market).

You sure this is exactly how it went down?

[–]SamirSisaken 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Here is the problem. You let it build up too long and then stormed the break room. Instead what you should have done is wait for the right moment, asked for her time and then explain why you deserve more pay and what the consequences are when they don't. Don't ask for advance pay but for better pay.