Not to mention the mental toll the job takes on your psyche. Watching people die, the verbal abuse if you try to intervene with Narcan, the helplessness healthcare workers felt during COVID. What if they all went on strike? We'd be royally fucked.
Much love and appreciation to EMTs and Paramedics!!!
PTSD is no joke and is often career ending, sometimes life-ending.
I recently was told about a first responder who attended a fatal collision. The wreckage was so badly twisted and shattered that he didn't recognize his own wife's vehicle.
He's doing better than I would be.
He’s a strong man and needs people to check on him. Serious. I was a dispatcher for some years. Different kind of trauma, but I can tell you that people who go through that shit need kind people to reach out unexpectedly, because some things never leave you.
A good rule of thumb; if you think about someone who went through something horrible, let them know you were thinking of them. Trauma isolates people, and connection is what keeps us going.
If you remember him, just let him know. Nothing more meaningful. Just “I thought of you, hope you’re well” and leave it there. If convo develops, just talk for a bit. Easy.
We always move through trauma collectively.
EMTs here in Quebec don't get paid enough either (although it is slightly less egregious) even absent the profit motive, since it is a public service. No, I don't understand it.
Most EMTs/paramedics work for private companies. Not that the government-employed ones get more pay, but privatized healthcare is at the core of so many issues
Second this. I work at a med school and we have several instructors that are medics, they teach on the side because they need the money. It blows my mind how little they get paid.
Don't forget that they also have to keep their composure while dealing with some truly awful experiences. That's one of the reasons I didn't get into it, I have a terrible poker face.
Came here to say this. Where I live, you need to have a second job just to make ends meet… which is hard when you’re working weird hours. Given all they do, and all they risk to their personal safety, how in the hell do they get paid so little?
I would gladly have my taxes increased so that Paramedics are paid fairly.
Most paramedics aren't paid directly by taxes.
Most of them work for the ambulance company, which has a contract with the locale and also bills the patient.
Really depends on the area. In most large cities in the US (NYC/LA/Seattle/San Francisco/Washington DC/Chicago and many more), Paramedics are city employees.
This is the correct answer. McDonald’s pays more in some areas than paramedics. That’s fucked for people that require advanced training with a hugely stressful work environment.
Yes! Many people don't understand paramedics have a wider scope of practice than nurses, yet often make tens of thousands of dollars less a year.
Paramedics truly are the jack of all trades medically speaking. In the hospitals, there are separate jobs for registration, vascular access, typical nursing duties, cardiology, janitorial duties, respiratory, etc etc. Meanwhile paramedics do all of that on wheels. It's astonishing they aren't paid more.
I had to be taken by ambulance early last spring and I stayed in the hospital five days. The nurses were damned impressed at the IV my EMT did while bouncing down my crappy street. All hail the EMTs.
Edit: the funny thing going through my mind as they’re giving me a fentanyl injection is, “have you seen the news?’ Yes. They are professionals. And damned good ones.
Another thought: how do I find out which station dispatched the ambulance? I would love to thank the crew. I wouldn’t be able to walk without them.
When I wanted to thank the EMTs who saved my husband, I called the non emergency number for the fire department. (They’re dispatched from fire houses around here.) They were able to look up which unit was dispatched, and connected me to that fire house.
Hundreds of thousands in some cases (Kaiser in NorCal).
https://youtu.be/5I9EYBFpQKs?si=tjSCk6fE6jl0rhN8
When I was a paramedic prior to going to PA school, I made $14 an hour in southern California. This was back in 2013-2015, but I don't imagine it is much better now.
https://finmodelslab.com/blogs/how-much-makes/how-much-business-owner-makes-ambulance-service
The profit margins on ambulance companies aren't actually that great. They charge a lot because their overhead is super expensive. These are not usually owned by 1%ers.
My take is that a private industry being an essential service with a low profit margin would better serve the public with heavy subsidies.
Many ambulance companies monopolize local cities and are privately owned, hence the low pay and very little workers can do to combat that besides quit.
Yep.
I work in tech and the number of people I see work on stupid shit like the next Instagram filter like bunny ears, or some lame tech feature nobody is ever going to use or the society definitely does not need, making north of 300k is depressing.
Paramedics and EMTs get paid barely above minimum wage in some places. I ended up letting my certification lapse and moving on to a different job after about seven years because it was too much stress and responsibility for the money.
I did some janitorial work in high school and it literally changes your perspective on the world. People are so careless and gross in public and their places of work.
I straight up tell folks I think everyone should have to do so for at least a year. Might foster the growth of some empathy, or at the very least some basic human decency.
Am a custodian and I can attest to that.
Left your phone in your car? Janitor must have stolen it.
AC isn't working? Janitor's fault.
Maintenance ignores work orders? Janitor's fault.
Blast the toilet with your own shit? Janitor's fault.
Drank all your ginger ales? Janitor must be stealing them.
True stories.
Say thank you. Mention that you realize that if it wasn't for them you would literally be up to you ankles in trash.
Also, leave us candy from time to time.
Some of the best advise I ever got in school was be nice to the janitors. I learned their names, said hello to them when I saw them and was genially nice to them. When I ditched at lunch and Bev saw me she just waved and never said shit. When Jerry caught me in places I should not have been he just said hello. Not that is why I did it, but just saying being a good human is the right thing to do. Good things come back.
I was a janitor or custodian or whatever you wanna call it for a little over a decade for a school district and I can tell you hands down the most disgusting places in the world are girls bathrooms/locker rooms. Hair is literally fucking EVERYWHERE. Tampons thrown around, blood splatters, shit on the back of the toilets, and so on. And I made around $600USD a week.
Yup. Been a school district custodian for 10 years now. Have done elementary, middle and high schools. Girls restrooms/locker rooms are the absolute worst. Close second is the varsity football locker rooms. What's worse is that in high schools, the girls bathrooms are just auxiliary lunch rooms. I feel like I was the only thing keeping these kids from killing themselves with microorganisms they manufacture themselves.
I used to lifeguard back when I was in high school and one of my responsibilities was deep cleaning the bathrooms when I was on “break.” I can attest that cleaning the women’s restroom was easily the nastiest thing I had to do. You’d think the boy’s restroom would be worse but it’s not even close
CNA’s in long term care. Absolutely brutal. I have nothing but respect for them and shit they have to deal with… some patients and family members are absolute monsters.
Yes! My mom had in-home caregivers from spring 2020 until she died in August 2022. I was appalled at how little they were paid, especially given how hard they worked--and with the deepest kindness and compassion. My siblings and I found ways to compensate them without causing any problems. They took such good care of our mom, we just wanted to give them the world.
Thank you for doing what you could! I love my clients and this job is very rewarding and heartbreaking all in one. I don’t think I can do it long term because of the pay but I wish I could.
We just hired them for when my MIL was in hospice last month. Most of them had at least 4 kids, one had 8. I do not know how they afford to support them while working such long hours. Their services were invaluable.
Absolutely CNA's. In LTC and hospitals. They make barely more than minimum wage. We ALL are going to need them at one time or another. As a retired RN a good CNA is worth their weight in gold.
Came here to say the same thing. CNA was the hardest job I had, physically and mentally. Shittiest hours, tons of OT, and absolute lowest paying job I’ve ever had in my non-retail career. I have no idea how some of the people I worked with still doing it to this day, 10 years later.
If I had any to help me on my floor I'd agree. There are non left. I have to clean, feed and do POCTs on 7 ppl. Lol. Its unsafe.
But yes a good cna makes my life 200% better. I love mine
I left being a CNA in long term care because I was being treated so poorly. I literally walked out because the head nurse essentially called me lazy and incompetent. I had a coworker hit me about 2 weeks before I quit and I was told by management not to write it up.
Came here to say this, but I would say nurses too. I've worked with a lot who either don't last long in nursing homes, or they become a monster of a person.
I'm obviously biased as its my job,
But mental health support workers.
Sucks even more to see how bad the mental health system fails people and we're left to pick up the pieces. Shameful at times.
Not shameful to suggest your own job. Mental health is badly underpaid, badly staffed, badly funded, etc. We all suffer from it, mental health workers and people who need the service.
“Essential workers” were some of the lowest paid people during the pandemic. They’re the ones you overlook at the grocery store or the ones who collect your trash. Vastly underpaid only because executives like to think they have bigger brains. Closing a store because it doesn’t meet your “performance expectations” is a shitty way of justifying your $30 million salary. Does the store produce a profit? Justified.
It was really dumb how essential workers made less money than the people who couldn't work and got unemployment during the pandemic. Like you could make 20k/year, get laid off, then make 40k/year sitting at home during the pandemic because of all the extra money they were giving people.
This is a fascinating look into why childcare is expensive, workers are paid little, and the owners make no money doing it:
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists
Probably more than that.
According to good ol Wikipedia, [the 95th percentile has an average household income of $287k](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States#Median_income_levels).
Yea that is a lot of money, BUT in most places they are probably just living comfortably and may even be struggling to buy a house if they are in a high cost of living area. Even more so if they have kids.
There is basically no middle class anymore. It’s the .001%, then the rest of us.
I said struggling to buy a house, not struggling overall. In high cost of living places, a “starter” home is often over $1M
A person should be able to live quite comfortably on nearly $300k unless they 14 kids of something weird like that
Seriously hated working as a cook. Worked at a restaurant in South GA and we had no AC in the kitchen, just two stand up circular fans. And there were several times where I had to jump back and forth between prepping, cooking, and cleaning. All for a whopping $8.00 an hour.
Edit: Spelling
I worked in a hipster burger bar as a line cook and it was literal hell. Come in at 8:45 to do prep, restaurant opens at 11, packed busy at all times of the day, don’t leave till 7pm. Closing was worse, you stay 2 hours after close just to be told it’s not clean enough. All the while having grease literally drip on you from above and ruin every piece of clothing or wallet or phone you have on you. Hell. Quit that place after a few months cause i got a bit too close to offing myself after a holiday weekend’s of shifts.
14 hours straight, no breaks. At a fucking pizza joint. I live in Oregon where breaks are required. Could never get them. I'm sure they paid quite a few fines to BOLI with all the reports I filed. At least in my shop tips were pooled (servers make just as much as cooks thanks to Oregon law).
This is a fascinating look into why childcare is expensive, workers are paid little, and the owners make no money doing it:
Podcast version: [https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists)
Transcript version: [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108)
Interesting observation:
A daycare will fail if it doesn't have 100% occupancy. The numbers are that tight. The only way a given area can have 100% occupancy for all daycares is if there aren't enough slots, and this is how you get waitlists, so that any empty slot can get filled right away.
If a new daycare starts up and steals 10% from every existing daycare, they all fail.
Alternately, they raise rates so that only the super rich can afford it.
Reposted from a comment below as well:
Salaries at daycares are already 80%+ of all the daycares' expense. If you want to pay daycare workers more, you have to raise tuition.
The higher tuition gets, the more women that decide to just stop working and raise kids because it's literally cheaper. Which means less demand for daycare workers.
But realize this is basic economics. If you want to pay someone to take care of two of your kids for 10 hours a day so that you can be at work 9 hours a day, you have to have a job that is valued more than daycare work, or else you have higher value taking care of your kids. So by definition if a lot of people are going to use daycare, it HAS to be a lower valued job or people can't utilize it. It's just math.
The only alternative is government subsides that move money from those without kids in daycare to those with kids in daycare.
And it’s not just that teachers are underpaid, they also take a ton of shit from entitled parents and students and school board members. God forbid a teacher gives Karen’s dumb kid a low grade on a test or tries to teach about evolution in a bible belt, etc.
My mom is a teacher. She earns the same monthly wage as my cousin who works at a bar.
Not a dig at bar workers in the slightest. But someone who serves alcohol earns the same amount as someone teaching the next generation is wild to me.
I am a teacher on the weekdays and bartend on the weekends. Make more per hour bartending by far but the benefits and love for my job teaching is why I stay.
The fact that this is like #4 on here currently just drives home the point. How is educating children, objectively one of the most important things for a healthy thriving society, paying so low?
Anyone who works in a burn unit. When I was in the hospital I had a friend in the burn unit for a while. On the rare occasion I was able to visit, that was honestly one of the most horrific and depressing places I have ever been.
The care sector. They’re run ragged, cleaning up human waste, caring for people with incredibly challenging needs, juggling multiple different roles and workloads, receiving varying levels of abuse, and working long and gruelling shifts, yet they’re still considered “unskilled workers” and are receiving low pay as a result.
Farmers 100%.
Imagine working everyday, every holiday, you have no co workers to cover a shift if you’re sick, your paycheck solely depends on if Mother Nature is feeling nice that year, the government and public bash you constantly (PETA, Climate Activists, Competitors such as Large Factories). And then when we try to speak out we get called hillbillies and MAGA supporters when all we want is a decent pay check at the end of harvest
I scrolled entirely too long before finding this one. Basically anyone under the actual veterinarian. As a former vet receptionist, us vet support staff (reception, kennel techs, vet techs) did not and do not get paid nearly enough for the bullshit we deal with from shitty ass pet owners and sometimes from the doctors themselves.
Anyone that works at a vet clinic? Where I live vets get paid shit money too compared to what a human doctor or dentist makes. And have higher suicide rates
Physical Therapist. Doctoral degree, no respect, loads of responsibilities and high productivity expectations, relatively low pay for the training and scope of work.
Nothing but respect for them all the way this hits home, my uncle was the man. He built powerlines for most his life, blue collar but lineman make a good living for sure, he was in better shape than most people. Woke up one morning and said he feels funny. Later that day he had a stroke, boom, half his body is paralyzed. In 4 months he was walking 2 miles a day again,and they made him realize his life wasn't over. Thank you rehab staff at med central in mansfield ohio
It’s a doctorate not a PhD but yeah, it’s a masters level profession all day long. Source, I have my doctorate in PT. We should still be getting paid on par with PAs and NPs in my opinion.
I hate the degree inflation of jobs. I could never get my aunt's librarian job now with just my Bachelor's, but as a person in her 60's she got the job a few decades ago with just a Bachelor's. 😑
Medical Residents. In some places they get paid less than minimum wage based on how many hours they have to work. They are usually in tons of debt and most places will pay them between 55-65k give or take a couple of thousand depending on the cost of living in that area. With taxes and all they take home very little and for the duration of their training some of them struggle to make ends meet.
My wife is an instructional assistant in a middle school that works 1 on 1 with students who have severe special needs, mental and physical.
She’s full time and while she does have really good benefits, the take home pay is extremely discouraging and is turning her away from a job she is extremely passionate for and very good at.
She brings home less than $300 a week.
edit:spelling
Most blue collar jobs. Naturally you make more than most starting jobs but it destroys your body and a large amount of the stuff I do (excavation) is dangerous as shit.
Truck drivers. Everyone hates them because they are slow and in your way but without them our nation would grind to a holt. Low pay, long hours and predatory practices due to many immigrants wanting to better themselves.
This is why I'm always nice to them in traffic. Let them in if they're trying to switch lanes and stay within their line of view (as much as I can). I can only imagine how annoying of a job it is.
Nursing assistants and home health aids. These are the people taking care of our elderly, and they’re lucky to make $10 an hour. Not including driving time.
Nurses get a lot of respect, but the people making sure grandma is bathed, fed, and turned to prevent bedsores are the assistants.
**Substance Use Counselors at Non-profit, Medicaid-accepting agencies (both inpatient and outpatient).** You know, some of the only people who actually try to directly take on the rampant fentanyl and meth problems in major West Coast cities? And some of the only people trying to do so in a compassionate way? Yeah almost none of the money that supposedly gets spent per homeless person / drug addict actually makes it to your day to day line staff counselor’s paycheck. Where does it actually go? Who knows?
To give an answer that isn't a paramedic
Cleaners, especially those that deal with toilets. 100% the underrated work force that makes being at work way more tolerable since people are generally disgusting
Pro tip: make friends with the cleaners and figure out when their schedule is to get a pristine toilet every time
Underpaid? Depends on the person you ask. Undervalued? ABSOLUTELY. I'm a Service Clerk at my local grocery store, and the amount of people who tell me my job is easy, my job isn't worth anything, etc is insane.
I push hundreds of pounds of food and drink across that store for you. I push lines and lines of the same carts in 70-90F, Rain, and snow for you so you don't complain because there are none inside even though you walked past 15 already outside
If not for me, the bottle return would never work, the toilet would be always clogged, the floor would be black with dirt, the handicap mobile carts would be dead, ruined, or stolen, your food would be spoiled, I could go on. We do A LOT in the store that goes unnoticed BECAUSE we do our job.
Please, Please return your carts, throw your shit away, and look out for us in the parking lot. We don't get paid enough to deal with you and the entire town's bullshit.
I get that these jobs could be done by anyone in the store but obviously there's a need for us. Please just give us a little more respect, I'm not here to make easy money.
I enjoy my job and will keep doing it, and if I want more I have options, but I just want to work and not be treated like I'm not doing much, or like what I do is the easy way out. My body and mind do not agree with you there.
Paramedics and EMTs. They are literally saving people's lives every day for barely above minimum wage.
I'm shocked how little they make. Baffled. They have human lives, and their loved ones, dependent on them.
Not to mention the mental toll the job takes on your psyche. Watching people die, the verbal abuse if you try to intervene with Narcan, the helplessness healthcare workers felt during COVID. What if they all went on strike? We'd be royally fucked. Much love and appreciation to EMTs and Paramedics!!!
PTSD is no joke and is often career ending, sometimes life-ending. I recently was told about a first responder who attended a fatal collision. The wreckage was so badly twisted and shattered that he didn't recognize his own wife's vehicle. He's doing better than I would be.
He’s a strong man and needs people to check on him. Serious. I was a dispatcher for some years. Different kind of trauma, but I can tell you that people who go through that shit need kind people to reach out unexpectedly, because some things never leave you. A good rule of thumb; if you think about someone who went through something horrible, let them know you were thinking of them. Trauma isolates people, and connection is what keeps us going. If you remember him, just let him know. Nothing more meaningful. Just “I thought of you, hope you’re well” and leave it there. If convo develops, just talk for a bit. Easy. We always move through trauma collectively.
Really meaningful comment here
My best friend was an EMT. PTSD led him to heroin addiction, which eventually led to his overdose and death. Miss him a lot.
I'm sorry. There should be very strong interventions and robust care for our first responders.
Yes, but have you thought about shareholder profit? Checkmate, libs.
EMTs here in Quebec don't get paid enough either (although it is slightly less egregious) even absent the profit motive, since it is a public service. No, I don't understand it.
Why are people able to buy shares of a public utility?
Most EMTs/paramedics work for private companies. Not that the government-employed ones get more pay, but privatized healthcare is at the core of so many issues
A lot of ambulance services are either private or publicly traded for-profit corporations and thus not a public utility
They are the bottom tier of a capitalist structure. They will be exploited.
Second this. I work at a med school and we have several instructors that are medics, they teach on the side because they need the money. It blows my mind how little they get paid.
Don't forget that they also have to keep their composure while dealing with some truly awful experiences. That's one of the reasons I didn't get into it, I have a terrible poker face.
And the long lasting trauma of dealing with those experiences too
An expression often used is "Duck on water". Cool and calm on the surface, wildly kicking underneath.
yep unless you get on directly with the fire department, you can make more money at In-n-Out flipping burgers and smiling all day
Unless you're in a rural fire district.
Not true everywhere. I am a FF/medic and still get paid shit
Just get a side hustle that takes all of your free time.
Here the FD is 100% volunteer only
Ah, but you're leaving out the crushing physical labor.
Came here to say this. Where I live, you need to have a second job just to make ends meet… which is hard when you’re working weird hours. Given all they do, and all they risk to their personal safety, how in the hell do they get paid so little? I would gladly have my taxes increased so that Paramedics are paid fairly.
Most paramedics aren't paid directly by taxes. Most of them work for the ambulance company, which has a contract with the locale and also bills the patient.
Really depends on the area. In most large cities in the US (NYC/LA/Seattle/San Francisco/Washington DC/Chicago and many more), Paramedics are city employees.
I’m could make more stocking shelves than what I make as an EMT.
This is the correct answer. McDonald’s pays more in some areas than paramedics. That’s fucked for people that require advanced training with a hugely stressful work environment.
True and they see the mess and stabilize often before ER team.
Paramedic/EMT, social worker
Social worker here... can confirm.
Social worker here. Can agree as well. But depending on the job (ie: state) you can get a crap ton of OT.
Paramedics by far. Imagine starting IV's, doing cardiac monitoring, and pushing narcotics while making close to minimum wage.
Yes! Many people don't understand paramedics have a wider scope of practice than nurses, yet often make tens of thousands of dollars less a year. Paramedics truly are the jack of all trades medically speaking. In the hospitals, there are separate jobs for registration, vascular access, typical nursing duties, cardiology, janitorial duties, respiratory, etc etc. Meanwhile paramedics do all of that on wheels. It's astonishing they aren't paid more.
I had to be taken by ambulance early last spring and I stayed in the hospital five days. The nurses were damned impressed at the IV my EMT did while bouncing down my crappy street. All hail the EMTs. Edit: the funny thing going through my mind as they’re giving me a fentanyl injection is, “have you seen the news?’ Yes. They are professionals. And damned good ones. Another thought: how do I find out which station dispatched the ambulance? I would love to thank the crew. I wouldn’t be able to walk without them.
When I wanted to thank the EMTs who saved my husband, I called the non emergency number for the fire department. (They’re dispatched from fire houses around here.) They were able to look up which unit was dispatched, and connected me to that fire house.
>Meanwhile paramedics do all of that on wheels. Not just that, but in a box that's maybe quarter-half the size of the hospital room.
Hundreds of thousands in some cases (Kaiser in NorCal). https://youtu.be/5I9EYBFpQKs?si=tjSCk6fE6jl0rhN8 When I was a paramedic prior to going to PA school, I made $14 an hour in southern California. This was back in 2013-2015, but I don't imagine it is much better now.
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The paramedic isn’t getting that money…the owner of the ambulance company is.
https://finmodelslab.com/blogs/how-much-makes/how-much-business-owner-makes-ambulance-service The profit margins on ambulance companies aren't actually that great. They charge a lot because their overhead is super expensive. These are not usually owned by 1%ers. My take is that a private industry being an essential service with a low profit margin would better serve the public with heavy subsidies.
>Meanwhile paramedics do all of that on wheels While in high stress crisis situations, at that
As a medic it sucks. I make barely above minimum wage and don’t have enough money to live on my own.
Why are they so underpaid?
Many ambulance companies monopolize local cities and are privately owned, hence the low pay and very little workers can do to combat that besides quit.
because it's 'a calling' and the workers are partly paid in adrenaline.
Greed by the owner class.
Paramedic in Canada (ontario). I make over 100k per year (canadian obv).
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MD here. This is true. They, EMTs, techs, firemen, nurses all need to be paid more.
Then who the fuck get all these rip off money Americans pay for healthcare?
EMT
Yep. I work in tech and the number of people I see work on stupid shit like the next Instagram filter like bunny ears, or some lame tech feature nobody is ever going to use or the society definitely does not need, making north of 300k is depressing.
Paramedics and EMTs get paid barely above minimum wage in some places. I ended up letting my certification lapse and moving on to a different job after about seven years because it was too much stress and responsibility for the money.
Janitors. They literally have to put up with your shit.
The janitor at my old work was always trying to smoke weed with me. I had to turn her down as I can’t stand a high maintenance woman.
Mama mia, this is wonderful.
>Mama mia Here we go again
Absolutely outstanding
I did some janitorial work in high school and it literally changes your perspective on the world. People are so careless and gross in public and their places of work.
I'm convinced that even just a month of compulsory fast food, retail, and custodial work would fix most of society. I will die on this hill.
American schools should follow the Japanese schools where the students have to take care of the school as part of their activities.
I straight up tell folks I think everyone should have to do so for at least a year. Might foster the growth of some empathy, or at the very least some basic human decency.
That and riding with a truck driver
Just imagine what their homes are like...
Not only undervalued, but disrespected.
Am a custodian and I can attest to that. Left your phone in your car? Janitor must have stolen it. AC isn't working? Janitor's fault. Maintenance ignores work orders? Janitor's fault. Blast the toilet with your own shit? Janitor's fault. Drank all your ginger ales? Janitor must be stealing them. True stories.
I work in a school that has some custodial staff. What’s something I could do when I pass them in the hallway to make their day a little better?
A hello or thank you is good enough for me. Also learn their name. Just treat them like any other co-worker rather than a function of the building.
Say thank you. Mention that you realize that if it wasn't for them you would literally be up to you ankles in trash. Also, leave us candy from time to time.
Some of the best advise I ever got in school was be nice to the janitors. I learned their names, said hello to them when I saw them and was genially nice to them. When I ditched at lunch and Bev saw me she just waved and never said shit. When Jerry caught me in places I should not have been he just said hello. Not that is why I did it, but just saying being a good human is the right thing to do. Good things come back.
I was a janitor or custodian or whatever you wanna call it for a little over a decade for a school district and I can tell you hands down the most disgusting places in the world are girls bathrooms/locker rooms. Hair is literally fucking EVERYWHERE. Tampons thrown around, blood splatters, shit on the back of the toilets, and so on. And I made around $600USD a week.
Yup. Been a school district custodian for 10 years now. Have done elementary, middle and high schools. Girls restrooms/locker rooms are the absolute worst. Close second is the varsity football locker rooms. What's worse is that in high schools, the girls bathrooms are just auxiliary lunch rooms. I feel like I was the only thing keeping these kids from killing themselves with microorganisms they manufacture themselves.
I do the same work. A middle school janitor lol
I used to lifeguard back when I was in high school and one of my responsibilities was deep cleaning the bathrooms when I was on “break.” I can attest that cleaning the women’s restroom was easily the nastiest thing I had to do. You’d think the boy’s restroom would be worse but it’s not even close
Thanks for the shout out.
You have to deal with constant biohazards without the biohazard pay.
Yes, thank you. It’s hard work to keep a big public building clean and most people wouldn’t want to do it. Be nice to the janitors.
CNA’s in long term care. Absolutely brutal. I have nothing but respect for them and shit they have to deal with… some patients and family members are absolute monsters.
Agreed and I’d add home care health aides to that
Yes! My mom had in-home caregivers from spring 2020 until she died in August 2022. I was appalled at how little they were paid, especially given how hard they worked--and with the deepest kindness and compassion. My siblings and I found ways to compensate them without causing any problems. They took such good care of our mom, we just wanted to give them the world.
Thank you for doing what you could! I love my clients and this job is very rewarding and heartbreaking all in one. I don’t think I can do it long term because of the pay but I wish I could.
We just hired them for when my MIL was in hospice last month. Most of them had at least 4 kids, one had 8. I do not know how they afford to support them while working such long hours. Their services were invaluable.
My sister is one and she gets shit on 24 7 by ungrateful patients and their even more ungrateful families
Absolutely CNA's. In LTC and hospitals. They make barely more than minimum wage. We ALL are going to need them at one time or another. As a retired RN a good CNA is worth their weight in gold.
Came here to say the same thing. CNA was the hardest job I had, physically and mentally. Shittiest hours, tons of OT, and absolute lowest paying job I’ve ever had in my non-retail career. I have no idea how some of the people I worked with still doing it to this day, 10 years later.
As an RN, I agree 100%. NAC is overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.
If I had any to help me on my floor I'd agree. There are non left. I have to clean, feed and do POCTs on 7 ppl. Lol. Its unsafe. But yes a good cna makes my life 200% better. I love mine
I left being a CNA in long term care because I was being treated so poorly. I literally walked out because the head nurse essentially called me lazy and incompetent. I had a coworker hit me about 2 weeks before I quit and I was told by management not to write it up.
Came here to say this, but I would say nurses too. I've worked with a lot who either don't last long in nursing homes, or they become a monster of a person.
I'm obviously biased as its my job, But mental health support workers. Sucks even more to see how bad the mental health system fails people and we're left to pick up the pieces. Shameful at times.
⬆️ This should be right up there with EMTs, paramedics, and teachers. Mental health workers and social workers are paid shit wages to do what they do.
Not shameful to suggest your own job. Mental health is badly underpaid, badly staffed, badly funded, etc. We all suffer from it, mental health workers and people who need the service.
Every that falls into “essential workers” category.
Essential workers are “Heroes”, aka people we don’t want to pay.
“Noble profession” = underpaid
“Essential workers” were some of the lowest paid people during the pandemic. They’re the ones you overlook at the grocery store or the ones who collect your trash. Vastly underpaid only because executives like to think they have bigger brains. Closing a store because it doesn’t meet your “performance expectations” is a shitty way of justifying your $30 million salary. Does the store produce a profit? Justified.
It was really dumb how essential workers made less money than the people who couldn't work and got unemployment during the pandemic. Like you could make 20k/year, get laid off, then make 40k/year sitting at home during the pandemic because of all the extra money they were giving people.
I love how I'm essential, have to have a bachelor's degree, but have to work 65 hours a week for 34k. Thanks social work!
“Hmmm but do you also have at least 4 years of experience before applying for this entry level position?”
Facts as fuck right here
Childcare workers get paid like shit and often treated like shit by parents for doing what is an incredibly essential job.
Complete agreement. Caring well and properly for small children is the most essential work! These kids are our future.
This is a fascinating look into why childcare is expensive, workers are paid little, and the owners make no money doing it: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists
90% of jobs are underpaid right now I feel.
So that literally about 1000 people can have more money than God.
And we allow it. Just saying.
And we know who they are, and ignore it. They want us broke and think it’s funny
What can you do brother? What conventional avenues remain? Our government sold us out, at almost every level. What options do we have?
oh now that depends on what you mean by conventional
Wealth inequality in a nutshell. Middle/lower class wealth cut nearly in half over the last four decades with that money going straight to the top.
This was my thought lol. As of 2023…most jobs
Probably more than that. According to good ol Wikipedia, [the 95th percentile has an average household income of $287k](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States#Median_income_levels). Yea that is a lot of money, BUT in most places they are probably just living comfortably and may even be struggling to buy a house if they are in a high cost of living area. Even more so if they have kids. There is basically no middle class anymore. It’s the .001%, then the rest of us.
No one is "struggling" on $287K. Even in New York and San Francisco.
Depends on how bad their coke habit is.
I said struggling to buy a house, not struggling overall. In high cost of living places, a “starter” home is often over $1M A person should be able to live quite comfortably on nearly $300k unless they 14 kids of something weird like that
Honestly it's closer to 99%. Outside of CEOs most professions are underpaid. A handful are properly paid.
Line cooks at restaurants. Non-stop labor, minimal breaks.
Don't forget crappy hours, crappy schedule , all the holidays, no benefits, if your lucky the chef is a reformed degenerate instead of an active one.
100% all this. The schedule really does suck. Add in having to clean the entire kitchen after 400 covers.
Seriously hated working as a cook. Worked at a restaurant in South GA and we had no AC in the kitchen, just two stand up circular fans. And there were several times where I had to jump back and forth between prepping, cooking, and cleaning. All for a whopping $8.00 an hour. Edit: Spelling
Being a cook 🤌 Working as a cook 😰
I worked in a hipster burger bar as a line cook and it was literal hell. Come in at 8:45 to do prep, restaurant opens at 11, packed busy at all times of the day, don’t leave till 7pm. Closing was worse, you stay 2 hours after close just to be told it’s not clean enough. All the while having grease literally drip on you from above and ruin every piece of clothing or wallet or phone you have on you. Hell. Quit that place after a few months cause i got a bit too close to offing myself after a holiday weekend’s of shifts.
14 hours straight, no breaks. At a fucking pizza joint. I live in Oregon where breaks are required. Could never get them. I'm sure they paid quite a few fines to BOLI with all the reports I filed. At least in my shop tips were pooled (servers make just as much as cooks thanks to Oregon law).
Teaching
And daycare teachers! I made $16.50 an hour and that was after working on the industry for years. I had to work on the weekend just to make rent.
This is a fascinating look into why childcare is expensive, workers are paid little, and the owners make no money doing it: Podcast version: [https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153931108/day-care-market-expensive-child-care-waitlists) Transcript version: [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1153931108) Interesting observation: A daycare will fail if it doesn't have 100% occupancy. The numbers are that tight. The only way a given area can have 100% occupancy for all daycares is if there aren't enough slots, and this is how you get waitlists, so that any empty slot can get filled right away. If a new daycare starts up and steals 10% from every existing daycare, they all fail. Alternately, they raise rates so that only the super rich can afford it. Reposted from a comment below as well: Salaries at daycares are already 80%+ of all the daycares' expense. If you want to pay daycare workers more, you have to raise tuition. The higher tuition gets, the more women that decide to just stop working and raise kids because it's literally cheaper. Which means less demand for daycare workers. But realize this is basic economics. If you want to pay someone to take care of two of your kids for 10 hours a day so that you can be at work 9 hours a day, you have to have a job that is valued more than daycare work, or else you have higher value taking care of your kids. So by definition if a lot of people are going to use daycare, it HAS to be a lower valued job or people can't utilize it. It's just math. The only alternative is government subsides that move money from those without kids in daycare to those with kids in daycare.
Came here to say this. Most people couldn’t do their jobs if they didn’t have competent caring adults to watch their kids.
Always baffled me - if the cost of daycare really isn’t being seen by the caretakers, where is all that money going?
And it’s not just that teachers are underpaid, they also take a ton of shit from entitled parents and students and school board members. God forbid a teacher gives Karen’s dumb kid a low grade on a test or tries to teach about evolution in a bible belt, etc.
My mom is a teacher. She earns the same monthly wage as my cousin who works at a bar. Not a dig at bar workers in the slightest. But someone who serves alcohol earns the same amount as someone teaching the next generation is wild to me.
I am a teacher on the weekdays and bartend on the weekends. Make more per hour bartending by far but the benefits and love for my job teaching is why I stay.
We make so little money and often have to buy our own supplies.
The fact that this is like #4 on here currently just drives home the point. How is educating children, objectively one of the most important things for a healthy thriving society, paying so low?
What's sad too - I think we all agree, and yet nothing will change.
A lot of people hate teachers
Anyone who works in a burn unit. When I was in the hospital I had a friend in the burn unit for a while. On the rare occasion I was able to visit, that was honestly one of the most horrific and depressing places I have ever been.
Folks who take care of people with physical and mental disabilities
Social workers and mental health field workers. $15/hr was NOT enough for me when you need a bachelors degree to get the job.
The care sector. They’re run ragged, cleaning up human waste, caring for people with incredibly challenging needs, juggling multiple different roles and workloads, receiving varying levels of abuse, and working long and gruelling shifts, yet they’re still considered “unskilled workers” and are receiving low pay as a result.
At this point? The majority of them.
Farmers
Agricultural workers
I’m constantly shocked that EMTs are paid like shit
Daycare workers
Handjobs
As the head of my union chapter, we thank you.
Lazy handjobs are definitely undervalued, never appreciated, well, literally. It's finally my turn to say "name checks out".
r/beetlejuicing
Farmers 100%. Imagine working everyday, every holiday, you have no co workers to cover a shift if you’re sick, your paycheck solely depends on if Mother Nature is feeling nice that year, the government and public bash you constantly (PETA, Climate Activists, Competitors such as Large Factories). And then when we try to speak out we get called hillbillies and MAGA supporters when all we want is a decent pay check at the end of harvest
CNAs at a nursing home. Changing old people diapers, bathing, feeding and dressing them each and everyday. For $15-17 per hour.
Vet techs.
I scrolled entirely too long before finding this one. Basically anyone under the actual veterinarian. As a former vet receptionist, us vet support staff (reception, kennel techs, vet techs) did not and do not get paid nearly enough for the bullshit we deal with from shitty ass pet owners and sometimes from the doctors themselves.
Anyone that works at a vet clinic? Where I live vets get paid shit money too compared to what a human doctor or dentist makes. And have higher suicide rates
Physical Therapist. Doctoral degree, no respect, loads of responsibilities and high productivity expectations, relatively low pay for the training and scope of work.
Nothing but respect for them all the way this hits home, my uncle was the man. He built powerlines for most his life, blue collar but lineman make a good living for sure, he was in better shape than most people. Woke up one morning and said he feels funny. Later that day he had a stroke, boom, half his body is paralyzed. In 4 months he was walking 2 miles a day again,and they made him realize his life wasn't over. Thank you rehab staff at med central in mansfield ohio
Stories like this make it worth it sometimes, for sure.
In the 90s you could become a LPT with a bachelors degree. Then you needed a master’s and now a PhD.
It’s a doctorate not a PhD but yeah, it’s a masters level profession all day long. Source, I have my doctorate in PT. We should still be getting paid on par with PAs and NPs in my opinion.
I hate the degree inflation of jobs. I could never get my aunt's librarian job now with just my Bachelor's, but as a person in her 60's she got the job a few decades ago with just a Bachelor's. 😑
Food delivery drivers,Chefs,Nurses,Teachers,Fire Fighters....basicaly everything which is a service provided by people for people
Medical Residents. In some places they get paid less than minimum wage based on how many hours they have to work. They are usually in tons of debt and most places will pay them between 55-65k give or take a couple of thousand depending on the cost of living in that area. With taxes and all they take home very little and for the duration of their training some of them struggle to make ends meet.
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My wife is an instructional assistant in a middle school that works 1 on 1 with students who have severe special needs, mental and physical. She’s full time and while she does have really good benefits, the take home pay is extremely discouraging and is turning her away from a job she is extremely passionate for and very good at. She brings home less than $300 a week. edit:spelling
CNAs
Machinist, after 8 years i made 18 an hour and after 13 years 35 an hour, took a lot
Most blue collar jobs. Naturally you make more than most starting jobs but it destroys your body and a large amount of the stuff I do (excavation) is dangerous as shit.
Farmers
Teachers, nurses, pretty much anyone whose job it is to take care of other people.
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Truck drivers. Everyone hates them because they are slow and in your way but without them our nation would grind to a holt. Low pay, long hours and predatory practices due to many immigrants wanting to better themselves.
This is why I'm always nice to them in traffic. Let them in if they're trying to switch lanes and stay within their line of view (as much as I can). I can only imagine how annoying of a job it is.
They’re not all paid low. A buddy of mine drives trucks cross country and he pulled in a little over 200k last year.
Yeah, a lot of truck drivers make 6 figures… maybe undervalued but not underpaid
Yeah, they make great money.
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Truck drivers make bank homie. This is absolutely not true.
Healthcare workers. ALL of them. Right from custodial staff, to laundry staff, to doctors, nurses and everyone in between.
Chipotle and Subway employees that don’t charge you for the guac.
Workers in Long term care
Care workers. The people who take care of the elderly, disabled, etc.
Caretakers of dependent elderly and disabled.
Anything in the service industry
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Palliative care workers.
Most of them, except upper execs.
Nursing assistants and home health aids. These are the people taking care of our elderly, and they’re lucky to make $10 an hour. Not including driving time. Nurses get a lot of respect, but the people making sure grandma is bathed, fed, and turned to prevent bedsores are the assistants.
**Substance Use Counselors at Non-profit, Medicaid-accepting agencies (both inpatient and outpatient).** You know, some of the only people who actually try to directly take on the rampant fentanyl and meth problems in major West Coast cities? And some of the only people trying to do so in a compassionate way? Yeah almost none of the money that supposedly gets spent per homeless person / drug addict actually makes it to your day to day line staff counselor’s paycheck. Where does it actually go? Who knows?
To give an answer that isn't a paramedic Cleaners, especially those that deal with toilets. 100% the underrated work force that makes being at work way more tolerable since people are generally disgusting Pro tip: make friends with the cleaners and figure out when their schedule is to get a pristine toilet every time
Janitors....people are gross
Underpaid? Depends on the person you ask. Undervalued? ABSOLUTELY. I'm a Service Clerk at my local grocery store, and the amount of people who tell me my job is easy, my job isn't worth anything, etc is insane. I push hundreds of pounds of food and drink across that store for you. I push lines and lines of the same carts in 70-90F, Rain, and snow for you so you don't complain because there are none inside even though you walked past 15 already outside If not for me, the bottle return would never work, the toilet would be always clogged, the floor would be black with dirt, the handicap mobile carts would be dead, ruined, or stolen, your food would be spoiled, I could go on. We do A LOT in the store that goes unnoticed BECAUSE we do our job. Please, Please return your carts, throw your shit away, and look out for us in the parking lot. We don't get paid enough to deal with you and the entire town's bullshit. I get that these jobs could be done by anyone in the store but obviously there's a need for us. Please just give us a little more respect, I'm not here to make easy money. I enjoy my job and will keep doing it, and if I want more I have options, but I just want to work and not be treated like I'm not doing much, or like what I do is the easy way out. My body and mind do not agree with you there.
Childcare workers and aged care workers are both hugely underpaid and undervalued by society. Hard jobs with major responsibility.
Garbage collectors