Got offered a job yesterday, $20/hour.

[Robb]

So my neighbor wandered over yesterday while I was working in the front yard. I spent most of the Independence Day weekend slogging about with a shovel and wheelbarrow in record heat.

We have an arrangement these days, I've told him not to come over when I'm working unless he's carrying a shovel or a beer. In his brilliant style, he tries to catch me working and come over with one beer, in his hand, drinking it himself. :D

I've given him good-natured ribbing about the trucks in his driveway, two trucks made from three trucks, if you understand. His brother runs a reasonably successful auto wrecking operation. He himself runs a quite successful landscaping company. They're the only Hispanic family on our block, a working-class post-war rambler sort of neighborhood, and I believe I'm the only one he talks to. In addition, we probably are the youngest on the block by a few decades, which is not unremarkable as we ain't young. I tell people, when asked to describe the neighborhood, that's it's a bunch of small houses with well-attended flagpoles and fucking awesome lawns, except mine.

I apologize, I'm usually guilty of telling the part of the story that interests me most, readers be damned. I'll get to it here.

Anyhow, he's noticed that for my not-so-spry age, I'm doing quite well moving 13 yards of mulch around the house with a wheelbarrow. Good repetitive physical labor, I say, makes you feel old but keeps you young -- chop-wood-carry-water sort of thing. There was also nothing else for it, sadly, other than pulling the old fence apart to get the delivery dumptruck in closer -- and that fence is more screws and nails than wood at this point, I doubt it'd survive the operation. I clipped a piece of it with a Kubota the other day and it exploded like glass. :D

Doing it again. Sorry.

Anyhow, he tells me he'd hire me to do just what I'm doing, even at my pace, for $20 an hour. And I'd work all summer. And he needs about ten guys who will keep showing up and shoveling bark and gravel into wheelbarrows, carry rolled-up sod, move big stones around, and hammer stakes and what-not.

He just can't keep people, he said, especially people under 30. The "kids" don't want to do the physical labor; last year he offered a $5 an hour bonus to anyone who worked three months solid with him. He handed it out, too, he said, three times. He employs about 40 people, generally.

I have to admit it was tempting.

Anyhow, this struck me as food for thought, after the thread the other day about the young woman who didn't want the job of writing down license plates to check cars for repo status. I would've been all over a summer job that paid $20/hour when I was younger and less beat-up -- even in 1877 dollars. :D

[lunatica]

1. Did you take it?

Because the young woman who refused the repossession job did it because she felt it was a job that hurt people.

[Horse with no Name]

47. It absolutely was.

(since it was my post)--the job isn't about a kid NOT wanting to work...it was the TYPE of work she didn't want to do.
By the way, she now works 2 jobs but she is sleeping fine at night.

[enough]

2. Great story. (nt)

[Fumesucker]

3. I had a contractor once tell me that he didn't care if his employees only wanted to work..

Three days a week.

As long as they would tell him which three days it was.

[Statistical]

7. +1. LOL.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Details, son!

Everything is just boy meets girl meets boy meets boy meets girl meets girl without details!

At the risk of sounding like I'm about to tell all the young'uns to GET OFF MY LAWN waiving a rolled up newspaper and marching down the sidewalk in nothing but a pair of slippers and a bathrobe half eaten by moths, this is definitely a problem, especially among the younger generations. I hauled hay during the summers. Got ten cents a bale. Once made 15 cents during one of those "I can't get anyone to do this because it's a thousand degrees in the shade" periods. Made good money at that. Was in great shape too. I'm still in good shape. Round is a shape.

Used to be able to post notices where high school kids gathered and get more than enough labor. Problem now is that there's no way to post notices on the X-Box screen.

[MineralMan]

5. Interesting story.

Few people are interested in jobs that involve using major muscle groups steadily throughout the workday. At age 64, I'm certainly not. Those people who are willing to do grunt labor, though, aren't having too much trouble finding work. As you said, landscapers, roofers, trash haulers, and others are always looking for workers.

That said, working as a laborer is a tough job...one that wears out the body in not too many years.

When I was a kid of about 10, the small CA town I lived in built its first sewer system. That was around 1955. Modern excavation techniques were not used. The ditches in the street were dug by hand, once the asphalt was removed with jackhammers. No backhoes anywhere in sight.

There were plenty of laborers on the job. Digging trenches and throwing the dirt up on the street. Once the pipes were laid, the laborers were back on the job, backfilling.

I remember this, since my mother suggested that I sell lemonade to the men working on this project. So, I did. I made gallons and gallons of lemonade, using lemons from the huge lemon tree in our yard, sugar from the store (bought with a loan from my mother), and ice from our refrigerator, that had to be made on a constant basis.

10 cents per 16 oz. glass. There were no disposable glasses, so I'd take a few dozen glasses from the house with me, along with my 5 gallons of lemonade. Each day, I'd make five trips, taking just enough time to wash all the glasses and make another 5 gallons of lemonade.

It was summertime, hot, and I could have sold three times as much as I was able to make.

That sewer job lasted all through the spring, summer, and fall, employing hundreds of workers. It sort of revitalized the economy of that small citrus-farming town, giving lots of people work. The pay rate for that labor was $1.25/hr. I made more than that with my Radio Flyer wagon and my lemonade.

The point was that it was no problem getting laborers. Today, it's very difficult.

[NNN0LHI]

8. I have posted on here a few times some not so glamorous ways to make money

Like doing day care as my college educated daughter who can't find a real job does right now. Like I say nothing glamorous and not a fun job but it pays the bills. My wife used to do the same thing when I would get laid off.

Every time I posted the suggestion it was like I farted here or something. Instant thread killer.

I had one DUer respond to one of those posts and that was only to question me as to whether it was really "good money", as I had suggested. Like I had insinuated it was going to be enough to vacation in Europe every year or something?

I had to explain that no, its not that kind of "good money." Its the kind of "good money", that will keep the kids fed and a roof over their heads when there isn't anything else.

I never had a problem finding a job even when the unemployment rate was higher than it is now. And I didn't find them by sending out resumes or filling out applications either. I started driving around to construction sites and any other groups of laborers working and asked to speak to the boss to see if any work was available. There usually was. Wasn't the greatest jobs and the pay was nothing like I had been making at Ford. But I did it anyway. I wasn't about to burden my own parents with my problems. They had enough of their own problems to worry about.

I sure know what you mean MM.

Don

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. In your life, unemployment has never been as bad as it is now.

In the sense you are using it "unemployment rate" is meaningless.

These threads make me nuts. "There is plenty of work to be had, for hard workers." Just once, I'd like to hear an unemployed person make this argument.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Wife and kids to support and laid off just short of 2 years wasn't bad?

And the maximum number of weeks of UC Benefits at the time was 39 weeks? COBRA had not been invented yet.

You got to be kidding me?

Don

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. This reminds me of miss piggy. "it's all about Meeeee!"

I accept that you've experienced periods of worse personal unemployment. The point of this thread is that it is unprecedented for 22% of male workers to be unemployed.

[NNN0LHI]

28. The point of this thread is that it is unprecedented for 22% of male workers to be unemployed?

Where does it say that is the point of this thread?

Are you confusing this with another thread?

Don

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. Okay. "The point of the pushback you're getting". n/t

[nickinSTL]

31. right. My wife has been unemployed

for the most part for the last 10 years.

She isn't afraid to work hard - she has a job working with an electrician when he has work for her - which isn't often.

Currently, she's working with the census, but when that ends, it's back to trying to find something...and my pay's just been cut due to the state's budget disaster.

[MineralMan]

13. Well, I've been self-employed since 1974, but before that, I

worked at all sorts of "menial" jobs. I never minded them, and they kept me going. These days, I do work like that to save money by doing work on my own house and car and so forth. Those jobs I had in my late teens and 20s gave me some very useful skills, that I use to do jobs I can't afford to pay someone else to do.

The neighborhood I live in has at least a dozen teenagers, just on my block. Not a single time has any one of them asked me if they could do yardwork or snow removal. Not once. I would pay kids about $10/hr for that kind of work in a second. And it's not as though they're working at other jobs, either. They're simply not interested. So, I do it myself.

In my youth, I worked as a plasterer's hod-carrier, an apprentice roofer, citrus tree pruner, mowed countless lawns and hand-tilled countless flower beds. I've worked as a lube room guy, a tire installer, a warehouse worker, a handyman, and many other jobs. The average wage was between $1.25-2.50. That was a long time ago.

Then, I finished college, delayed by four years in the USAF, and began my writing career and started several small, one-person businesses. I never made a huge amount of money, but I was my own boss. I like that.

[knitter4democracy]

18. I have people come to my door looking for work at least twice a month.

I'm in Michigan. It's a bit different here. I've had students beg to shovel my driveway or work around the house, I've had grown men offer to work for hardly any money or even food, and I've had the lawn guys I use cut their price to keep me as a customer (though the owner is an amazing guy who's mad that my ex-husband left us).

[HillWilliam]

52. The toughest boss you'll ever have is when that SOB

is you. Been there, done that. I've been in IT thirty-mumble years, but when my current job went to a seat in India or wherever, I've flipped burgers, worked on a live-aboard dive boat, mowed lawns, carried papers, cleaned offices, and lately perform weddings and unions to supplement my income while building up a micro-farm. Guess it helps to be a bit hyperactive but I'm never at a want for chores.

That boss is still an SOB of a taskmaster sometimes :)

[Fumesucker]

15. I was in construction for a long time and know a lot of people in the business..

All of them are short on work and suffering.

I have a family member that went from making nearly 100k per year as a contractor to under 20k last year, he has innumerable contacts, thirty years experience and mad skillz in the construction trades, now he is desperately scratching for anything he can get, if he hadn't built his own home with his hands he would have already been out on the street.

[eilen]

44. My brother is a carpenter

The jobs he is getting now are half the size of the ones he did before and he says the worksites are 75% Mexican, likely on work visas as they are hired from the general contractor and are on government jobs. The one he is on currently even has imported Chinese cabinet installer with their Chinese imported cabinets. I think this is a stimulus job.

His son who is 15 went to work with him for a day and it was the hardest he had ever worked. I think he decided he would rather take care of chores around the house and help his father on the weekend projects after that.

[knitter4democracy]

17. It also depends on where you are.

Here in Michigan, even those babysitting jobs are getting hard to find.

[mrs_p]

33. hubby has a job out of state now

and we live apart most of the year. but for 12 months, he couldn't find anything. he has 2 college degrees and applied to EVERYTHING, including jobs outside his field (e.g., handyman, landscaping, dry cleaners, McD's, retail) and no one would even give him an interview. he didn't care about "good" money - we just needed money, and NO ONE wanted him. i know several educated and hard-working folks in the same boat. also, husband never even applied for unemployment, so was never counted in the percent of unemployed americans. there are so many more like him.

[pitohui]

42. day care is not worth ANY amt of money since one false accusation ends your life

i would not be willing to lose my entire life to a summer job

i remember reading the story of one of the falsely accused in mcmartin, she spent five years of her 20s in prison for something she didn't do, for something entirely invented -- her dad had encouraged her to take the job to pay for college, needless to say, he was quoted as having terrible regrets -- she would have been better off working in a titty bar or taking a loan or doing ANYTHING other than child care

if she was male, i believe there are still some cases from the 80s where the obviously falsely accused did many more years than that

a person has to be v. desperate to do day care, because you are gambling yr life, i don't think $20 an hr is worth most people's entire life and future

now i'll rake leaves myself for $20 an hr but i know that in the real world nobody is getting paid that, despite what my invisible friend on the internet claims...

[northernlights]

48. agreed

I'll never forget the Massachusetts witchhunt -- forget the people's names, but an entire family was jailed for life. I think back in the 80s. Many years later (decade or two), they showed video clips of the children's "interviews." The coaching was so blatant it was shocking that they ever released them, never mind that anybody fell for it. If I remember correctly, the elderly woman died in jail, her daughter managed to get out and her son was still locked up. The coaching probably wrecked the kids too -- at some level they know it didn't happen, that they just played along to get the lady therapist to stfu already and give them candy or whatever. So at some level, they're living with the guilt of having jailed 3 innocent caretakers for life.

Anything involving kids is just lawsuits and false accusations waiting for the right moment.

[notadmblnd]

49. Kinda makes you long for the good old days doesn't it?

I can't tell you how many places I've driven around to asking to speak to the boss. You want to know what I'm told? "You have to apply on line." And yes, I'm babysitting now to make some money. A whopping 1.65 an hour. No, it's not glamorous, it's a not fun and it's a hell of a liability to take on (making sure some one else kids are kept safe, fed and out of trouble). But hell, that 164.59 every two weeks that I wouldn't have. I'm currently scheduled to take classes to become certified (even though I've raised my own successfully) so I can get on a list that the State gives out to single mothers who need care givers.

I'm not afraid of hard work. Hell, I even applied to do gulf clean up work. But they see an application from a 50 year old woman and toss it in the circular file never to be seen again.

I'm afraid that too many people here are buying into the right wing talking point that people that don't have jobs are lazy. It's just not true! Not with me, not with the young people I know or my family members. So you just keep listening to what MSM tells you about us unemployed. Come here and smugly relay your stories of how -if you could do it, everyone can-. But I'm not going to listen to it anymore. I'm not going to buy into the lies that you have bought into and I'll never come here and smugly imply that if I can do it so can everyone else.

[Name removed]

54. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[notadmblnd]

58. How does anyone know what you previously implied?

Your post I responded to has been edited. I said you were buying into the lie that unemployed people are lazy. I responded to your post because you replied to post #5 who as much as did say it and it sure sounded to me like you were in agreement and posted your own example of how much of a better person you are because you made it through a hard time on your own. I did say your story smug. I still think it was.

So call me a liar if that's all you got. I have nothing I need to change in regards to my post. My statement to you stands.

[Name removed]

59. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[notadmblnd]

62. At least they'll know early that people like you exist.

[lunatica]

60. Do you know that it's illegal for prospective employers to ask you age?

Don't put your age on your application. They aren't allowed to ask you age, whether you're married or have children or your religion. There's probably more but these I know for sure, unless it's different outside of California

[notadmblnd]

61. Yes I do, but when your employment record shows 28 years

.... well I didn't start working when I was 10. I've shaved years of experience off of my resume and I still can't make it sound as if I'm young enough to perform physical labor. Even if I do get a nibble, when I show up for the interview, I'm screwed. I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I will survive. I will make my own job.

[tekisui]

6. I've been landscaping for about a decade.

It is the same story. It is hard to find reliable help. I worked for a company once where the boss was hesitant to hire me. All of his employees were Hispanic and had been there for years. The young white guys he would hire would peter out within a month or so.

Everybody wants a job, nobody wants to work.

Your story reminds me, I have a load of mulch on my truck that I have to spread today.

[asjr]

9. I babysat my way through high school. At

the time the rate was .25 an hr. If I sat 4 hrs a night I felt RICH. On Christmas eve I would get a five-dollar bill and would take it home and give it to Mom for her Christmas present. We were not really poor but I felt so good giving it to her. She was a single mom with a 14-yr old (me) and a one year-old daughter and she worked hard. She never got a penny child support until many years later after I turned 18.

[Trillo]

10. I've heard variations of that story for years.

Work. Work. Work. Work. Work.

"Kids today aren't worth a damn. They won't work"

Divide and conquer. Every kid by the time they're 18 has worked worked worked for 13 school years and not been paid one damn dime for their efforts.

The last thing they need is some smug asshole telling them they don't work hard enough.

[Oregone]

11. +1

[aquart]

14. I would believe that if I thought they could find Afghanistan or Iowa on a map.

Or could distinguish between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I really would. I've seen their Elizabethan spelling on the internet and I'm not wildly impressed.

[madmax]

20. Hear, hear

My grandaughter (19) works 2 jobs, total 66 hours a week. No vacation, no insurance, nada. She asks nothing from her parents or moi, her Gram.

She works like a dog and one place has talked about 'grooming' her for management. She said, 'Gram, I'm not cut out to bust someones balls.' LOL She wants to become a phelbotomist.

[seaglass]

46. Truly. My 19 yo son would have jumped at that job for that pay as would

many of his friends who have had a tough time finding summer jobs.

He's accepted a job making pizza deliveries for $4.50 an hour (plus tips). Gee I wonder which he'd prefer.

[Mariana]

63. They usually work more than 40 hours a week, too

when you include the homework.

[leftstreet]

73. +1

Thank you!

[knitter4democracy]

16. I have high school students who would jump at that job.

He must be pulling from the wrong high school. ;)

One of my students who graduated this spring is remodeling the rental home he's in for a cut on the rent, working, and going to school while saving up enough money to buy a foreclosed home to remodel and keep as a rental. He's 18. Hardworking kids aren't hard to find--head to the local tech school or alternative high school.

[madmax]

19. Love the way you write - don't change.

Do be careful if you take this job. It's hard work and blood money. Don't know what state you live but, it's summer and hot!

If you really want to do it.........ask for 30 bucks an hour. :hug:

[depakid]

21. Sounds like something my Dad told me- that his Dad told him

and on and on....

[madmax]

23. Speaking of landscaping - Apex NC - anyone?

Small job 10 x10 patio plant area.b Needs dirt, it's settled and some irregular slabs of flat stone. No grass, plants or mulch needed. I know it's small but, there are physical issues.

Four years ago I could have plowed the North Forty with a mule. Today I can't plow 4 inches...ah nevah mind. :evilgrin:

[johnaries]

24. Jumo on it! For one thing, the physical labor is great exercise. For

another, $20/hour may not be great, but it's nothing to sneeze at. Finally, potential employers are more likely to hire someone who is already working - no matter what kind of job it is.

[Robb]

26. LOL, not great?

I've never made $20/hour in my life! :D Granted a dollar went further...

...I take that back, I probably just made $20/hour by moving that mulch myself and not paying someone. Does that count? :D

[WCIL]

27. My 20 year old son would jump at a job like that

paying $20/hour. He is doing a similar job now for minimum wage. I promise you, if your neighbor told my son his problems, he and more of his friends than your neighbor could handle would be calling wondering when they could start. Not every "kid" today is glued to his x-box. They can't be - they need the money to get through school or oftentimes help their parents pay the mortgage.

[Odin2005]

30. Go for it!

[ddeclue]

32. Not. Credible.

This sounds like another bash American workers story to me.

$20/hr would have plenty of takers. $10/hr would in this economy and really? he needs TEN yard guys at $20/hr for an entire summer? That's $200/hr or $8000/week. We are assuming he's paying his taxes, unemployment insurance and worker's comp insurance as the fine upstanding pillar of the community that he is so that's probably more like $12,000/week. So he's gonna spend $144,000 in labor to fix up his yard?

Not. Credible.

Sounds like you should spread this story on his plants... they'll grow faster..

FAIL.

[Mojorabbit]

34. I need some yardwork done

and I have tried to find someone to do it for 15 and hour with no takers. I just need some raised beds cleaned out, a hedge trimmed, and my garden area weeded so I can plant my fall garden. I have MS and my hubby is on blood thinners and I don't want him doing it.
None of my nephews nor their friends want to do it so I guess it depends.

[ddeclue]

36. Guy cuts my grass once a week for $20. (my landlord pays him)

so I don't know where you live but you aren't really trying if you can't find someone.

[Mojorabbit]

45. I am in Orlando

and have asked quite a few people mostly young men in their 20's some who are out of work with no luck.

[Horse with no Name]

50. Last week I needed help around the house

Cleaning out the garage, cleaning a couple of storage sheds, moving boxes, furniture, etc.
I found a neighborhood kid--worked 10 hours and I paid him $100.
This kid hasn't been able to find a job--(he is actually 20 but I have known him a long time so he is still a kid to me).
Caveat to the story was, my neighbor saw him working really hard and offered to pay him to do some work for her.
Win-win for all of us.

[notadmblnd]

51. if you were in Michigan I'd send my son and his friends over.

They are all good workers. My son did landscaping for a small company a couple of years ago and he had to do some pretty nasty things.

He spent entire weeks cleaning goose poop from in and around the man mad ponds so many corporations have a need for these days. No, he didn't like cleaning goose poop, but he did like his paycheck. He would have gone back to work for them again, but the business didn't make it to the 3rd season.

[Robb]

35. LOL

...He's not "fixing up his own yard."

Did you read what I wrote, or are you just feeling ornery? :rofl:

Edited to add: read it again, he's had a landscaping business going for as long as I've known him.

[ddeclue]

37. then he's BS'ing YOU.. plenty of people will take a $20/hr job.

[Robb]

38. I believe him more than you.

I've known both of you about as long, and he's been a lot more credible in general. :hi:

[dionysus]

40. !!!

:spray:

[pitohui]

43. i have to agree w. you

there's a reason guys from ecuador are out doing the job and it isn't because it's paying $20 an hour, it's because the guy might SAY he's paying 'em but then somehow at the end of the day they're not getting the cash

i've known guys to get scammed like that, at the end of the day, if you're in a cash job getting paid so much an hour and at the end of the day, you don't get paid...yep, if you're an american local you can just walk, if you're from mexico or something, you take the pittance because you have no choice.

robb, i strongly suggest you take the job just to see if you actually get the cash in hand at the end of the day...i think you're going to be mighty surprised!!!

[notadmblnd]

53. I tend to agree with you.

I knew a group of immigrants that would take on landscaping jobs and at the end of the day their employers would not pay. It happens often. you know what else happens often? These immigrants took their pay in the form of their employers equipment and I'm not taling about a little push mower or a gas leaf blower. They took the Bobcats, the riding mowers and sometimes their vehicles.

[Selatius]

74. Taking the bobcats, riding mowers, and vehicles in light of wage theft sounds fair to me.

Especially since nobody in the arrangement is going to go to the proper authorities because the employer would get busted for labor law violations, and the immigrants may be here illegally.

[Robb]

57. Well, I only know a few of his employees

...the ones I met at a BBQ at his house last year. Not a lot of evidence of exploitation from what I could see -- except my feeling was, none of the men helped one bit in getting all those tamales together. :shrug:

[Taitertots]

39. Anyone who can't keep workers at $20 an hour is likely an asshole

The only people who will put up with it are over 30 and desperate for work.

How many of those 40 people keep the job after the summer?

[Go2Peace]

68. Yep, my take too. There are plenty of people who would work

that job in this economy. He's either full of shit or screws with his employees.

I have worked landscape labor in several capacities years back for $7.00-7.50/hour, which would be the equivilent of about $12/hour now. I worked hard and never regretted it. There are plenty of people who would do that job.

[Earth_First]

41. I think this guy was pulling your leg...

I've been in the landscape industry for ten years now and your story seems suspect.

I feel that this guy may have been exhibiting a bit of frustration...

[Jkid]

55. I would love to take a job at $20 per hour.

I would take any job right now, even if it's physical labor. Most american's would not want to do physical labor, but there will some people who do. :)

[TheKentuckian]

56. I'd be on it in the beat of a heart, I know teachers that do little if any better

It's like living in a totally different world. That is close to as much as I've ever made and usually that has involved 24/7 on call and/or a few years and a promotion or two to get there.

I almost can't imagine walking in off the street and getting that kind of money with no specialized skill, experience, or management responsibility and getting to go home tired but without obligations.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

64. Lol...what a great story. Why not get paid for what your doing

for almost theraputic reasons. Ah yes...the jobs Americans won't do.

[Robb]

66. Well, it's only partially therapy

...the main reason I was working the shovel was I'm cheap. :D

[Nikia]

65. If you advertised a $20/hour job around here, many people would apply

Many low skilled young men are unemployed or doing a job requiring a lot of hard work for a lot less money. I live in Wisconsin.

[Hydra]

67. Happy to unrec

I've done jobs like that for big companies for $7 an hour(the free lunch was nice- I couldn't afford lunch at the time). I've never made $20 an hour doing anything.

There are now 5 people applying for every job listed in the US, and if the "lazy kids" jumped in any harder it would actually be worse.

I saw a great post about the new reality the other day:

Top employees(multiple degrees, 10+ years exp) have had their positions shipped out.
Blue collar workers jobs have been shipped out

They now have to move down the rungs to the $10-20/hour positions

The people in the $10-20 per hour positions have to move down to the min wage positions.

New college grads and teens are done for.

Sound like fun? Sound like $20 per hour positions growing on trees?

[Art_from_Ark]

69. Maybe it was $20 per day?

I've picked blueberries for $1.25/hour, and done landscaping for $2.50/hour during tough recessionary times, so this sounds like it might actually be a daily wage.

[JoeyT]

70. That contractor rocks.

Most of the landscaping companies I've seen pay about 8.50 an hour, when they can be bothered to pay their employees at all.
Hell, 20 an hour is more than a lot of jobs that require tons of training and certifications pay.

[Mimosa]

71. Great! n/t

[JonLP24]

72. I would jump at that too

Unfortunately laborer jobs around here don't come often and when they do they pay $7.25 an hour.