Worker Gets Laughed At In Job Interview For Asking For $17 An Hour
"I have a Bachelor's degree!!"
Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock It's pretty much expected that companies will low-ball workers to try to get away with paying them less. They may leave some room for negotiation, but many workers are offered far less than their skills are worth.
A job seeker was caught off guard when she went to an interview, but was laughed at by the hiring manager when she requested a certain salary.
A woman was laughed at during a job interview after asking for a salary of $17 per hour.
In a recent Reddit post, a woman in her 20s shared that she went to a job interview, and the hiring manager laughed at her when she asked for $17 an hour. In response, the hiring manager said, "I was thinking more like $9 [per hour]."
fizkes | Shutterstock
Though it's not clear what position the job interview was for, the woman clarified that she has a Bachelor's degree in a creative field, joking, "I guess the starving trope is real." She also said the job was unrelated to her degree, but she still had multiple years of experience in the field she applied for.
She also claimed that she lives in a major city, so $17 an hour is not an unrealistic salary, unlike in a smaller city or town, where it might be reasonable for pay to be lower.
Commenters were shocked, saying that the hiring manager is stuck in the past.
Many users argued that $9 per hour is far too low to support anyone in the current economy, and that even $17 an hour might not be sufficient. One commenter said, "$9!? Last time I made that was in 2010-2011. My state’s minimum wage is like over $15/hr now I think. That’s wild."
Others reminisced about making that amount years ago, with another user writing, "I got $9 an hour working at a theme park part-time back in 2016. $9 now for anything is slavery." A third user also joked, "1977 called. They want their starting salary of $9 per hour back."
Some said that the hiring manager's behavior alone should be enough to convince her to steer clear of that job. A commenter questioned, "Would you really want to work any place that laughs at you and is so rude?"
$9 is far from a livable wage, especially for a worker with a college degree.
Though the federal minimum wage is only $7.25 an hour, many states have minimum wage laws that require businesses to pay a higher rate. Still, this often doesn't even match livable wages for most areas.
voronaman | Shutterstock
A livable wage is considered the minimum amount a worker can make to meet their basic needs and afford them a decent standard of living. According to Investopedia, the living wage in the United States was $25.02 per hour in 2022, significantly higher than what this new grad was even asking for. Minimum wage is significantly lower than this amount, forcing workers to find alternative forms of income elsewhere, hence why people tend to have multiple jobs.
Even with a college degree, many new graduates are struggling to find jobs. Not only can they not get entry-level positions in their field, but they also have a hard time landing minimum wage jobs. Unless this hiring manager changes to keep up with the times, they'll struggle to find and keep any employees.
Kayla Asbach is a writer currently working on her bachelor's degree at the University of Central Florida. She covers relationships, psychology, self-help, pop culture, and human interest topics.
