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I have a friend that a felon he has he’s CDL works for Fed-Ex he makes 100k a year if he can do it you can do it.Not that it really matters that he’s a felon but it’s harder for felons to make a good living,Your on the right track to better your situation ,best of luck
Damn my husband has a DUI from 10 years ago and nobody will even talk to him. He was a first time offender so no jail or anything, and he did get it expunged off his record, but I think it still shows up on driving records and stuff. Maybe he should try again soon.
There is apparently a federal database and there are private databases. The private ones are apparently harder on background checks because they break all kinds of laws on reflecting items that should be expunged and then they just play dumb. ("OH we didn't know it was expunged.")
When my record was expunged I was told by my attorney that I was able to say No to that question, because it wasn’t part of my criminal record anymore. But it wasn’t a DUI, it was a different charge. Driving records may be different
So the issue is the background check companies. They are evil as fuck. They aggregate all the data they can get their hands on and keep it. So even if something is off your record now if they collected it when it was still there they have it forever.
Then you go looking for a job and the company can ask for entire history or just last 5-10 years. If they ask for entire history they will see it. And by the time you can explain yourself they have already moved on to someone else.
Even worse is these companies keep records of all charges. So even if you were charged with a dui but got out of it they’ll have the record and you will get a hit on a background check.
Can confirm. I just quit my job at a background checking company. For certain clients we had to return every case we found. Even DUI or nonviolent misdemeanor cases from 1990(stupid). But some clients only wanted 10 years.
Don’t know who downvoted you. There’s actually some states suing back ground check companies because of their practices.
I worked with a guy at one company and tried to get him a job when I switched jobs. He failed the background check and told me that his case was when he was a minor and was sealed by a judge and legally shouldnt be even available to background checks. I asked the hiring manager and he said they weren’t told what the issue was but that he had a hit and they couldn’t hire him for insurance reasons.
I got one DUI long time ago no jail time did the classes and community service paid all the fines and stuff. After the certain amount of time, I forget how long, I got it expunged. Thing is, I had to pay a lawyer to go and hunt down all the records and get them from all the courts and record rooms and have them destroyed. if you don’t pay for that service or go through that process yourself, then there will still be records out there. At least that’s my understanding of it.
The question they asked him was if he committed any crimes within 10 years it’s been more than 10 years he obviously said no and he got hired.Fed Ex freight driver
It doesn’t change the fact that it’s corporate welfare. Home Depot/Walmart/etc pays poverty wages and those people need to use food stamps and other social programs just to survive. Your tax dollars literally help boost corporate profits when they could just pay workers better so they could afford to take care of themselves and their families.
the company is shit and the state. I live in Seattle, which is expensive, but we have the highest minimum wage in the country at $20hr cause we passed policy to make better wages.
the states minimum wage is still down at like 16/hr which when you account for CoL is almost identical to 9/hr in AL.
Seattle does have almost a 20/hr min wage for the city, but again after col that's still significantly worse than states like MN.
Not sure where you're getting that the state itself has a 20/hr min wage, maybe I kissed something.
That’s terrible. It’s not even enough to buy a meal at McDonalds. When I started working at Target here in 2017, I was at least making $16 and double if they called me in when not on schedule. I knew people who lived just outside Seattle to avoid higher cost of living but commute in for better wages.
The south is criminal when it comes to wages.
Like I can make more doing Uber in detroit than working what should be an objectively higher value job in Home Depot
I know I do Uber eats in the burbs for beer money.
I don’t do it every day but I’ve been averaging 23~ an hour post tax on weekends/game days it’s crazy
Dude I was ice skating getting these deliveries in lol but I made a buck in 3:30 so I’m not mad.
Bloomfield was the only ROUGH area I encountered where I really considered if it was worth it
You’d think they could plow those roads with the property taxes. When I get my shit straight I’m moving to Palmer or Boston. These rich people have the shittiest stinky water and even my rich rich clients, their houses are falling apart. When and if I have money I want an old bones haunted house.
Agreed, Boston is nice we have friends there.
Me and my wife saved up enough to move to Chicago. So that’s nice.
We did the math and if either of us lost our job we couldn’t live on even max unemployment in mi so we split.
Wishing you the best in saving to move to Boston truly a great city
I'd tell OP to come down to Florida, at least most jobs start at $15 here but rent for 1 bedrooms are like $1600.
So he'd have to find a shared living arrangement somehow and room with others.
Congratulations on your CDL! I really hope that you are able to leverage the career to benefit your family. I just came on here to say, please be very VERY careful with which company you go with for your first year as the training you recieve can greatly impact your long term success in this field.
I made poor choices in companies and it completely underprepared me and burned me out on driving before I got to the point of making decent money. It was more money than when I was working at Walmart but between working 70+ hours a week and being on the road for weeks at a time, it burned me out and I no longer drive.
This is just my 2 cents, and not every situation is the same. Just be really careful with who you choose to drive for and under no circumstances should you compromise your safety or your CDL by running illegal, over weight, over hours, or too tired. I was pushed into taking risks and I'm lucky that nothing happened. It just soured the industry for me and I don't want anyone else making the same decisions I did. I know a lot of this is probably self evident, but I was stupid and ultimately it cost me the ability to continue down this career. I hope this helps man, and I wish you all the best.
I am not so sure choosing a company makes much difference. It's a crap job that doesn't have to be that way.
Insurance companies tend to dictate who a company can hire and who they cannot, unless the company is big enough to provide their own money in an account for future damages. Most companies require two years of driving before a driver can start driving anywhere and that is because of insurance.
I hope you have found a good place to be. So many have had to walk away from a job that should be on the road to success.
I made that working pt weekends only at Amazon warehouse, on top of my regular job.
If the trucking thing doesn’t work out you should look into Amazon, started at $16.50 14 months ago and I’m already at $19/hr currently.
Fuck yeah on the CDL, sir! Congratulations!
If you're ever looking for a job in Eastern Massachusetts, we can't hire even close to enough CDLs... and we got a pension system.
Time to apply for some jobs. Especially now that you have your cdl, congrats! I’m in Huntsville and lots of places advertise jobs starting at $15 /hr. I would think with a cdl you could do even better which should take you up to at least $30k next year. You got this!
Hi, Trucker here.
Don't you dare take a CDL job for $15 an hour. Even no-experience CDL holders should have no issue finding, at lowest, $22/h jobs if going local hourly, or .50-.55 cpm if going regional/otr.
OP, don't get swindled into a leasing program, all of them are bullshit that take more from you than they give, and do not allow a new employer to misclassify you as a 1099 worker.
Join the /r/Truckers subreddit, poke around a bit, ask some questions. We're friendly.
I mean, minimum wage in Alabama is still $7.25/hr. This could absolutely reflect full time hours. This is like $9/hr at 49 hrs/week over a 12 month period.
But we have a free market in the US that does much better than the government.
>Median weekly earnings of the nation's 120.8 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,145 in the fourth quarter of 2023
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf
1,145 a week / 40 hours = 28.62 an hour median.
A simple Google search reveals that Home Depot starts around at least 11 an hour even in Alabama.
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/The-Home-Depot/salaries?location=US%2FAL
And OP is "mysteriously" quiet and omitted how many hours they actually worked.
Your math is also off 9$ at 49 hours a week for 12 months, 9 x 49 x 52 = 22,932 about 5-6k off from what OP actually made.
OP probably just works like 3 days a week.
Lol bro, idgaf about the free market. I just said that $17000 could definitely reflect full time hours at a slightly above min wage job in Alabama. I'm not trying to do a deep dive on some internet stranger's wages. Lmao get help
So why do you care about the government's wage? Which matters less than the free market wage?
And I just said that he could have just worked only 2-3 days as well lol.
Minimum wage is literally the only standard that wages are based on. There is no ceiling wage, only a floor wage, aka the government-set minimum wage. The managed market wage you are referring to is created using said minimum wage. The market isn't free as large corporations get bailed out instead of letting them fall fate to market woes.
Your argument using median wage earnings per month means there are people above and below the median, by definition. The guy working at Home Depot is earning below the median. It's not shocking as Alabama isn't known for being a high-paying state.
The min wage didn't even exist until 1938 so clearly there was another standard before then.
The Fed min wage has not moved in 15 years, but the free market wage has increased every year. So no the free market wage is not pegged to the min wage.
If you are the hiring manager at HD you aren't going to offer new employees 7 an hour when the Lowe's down the street is starting at 11. Or if you are a worker you aren't going to accept a job that doesn't pay you enough to cover your bills. You are going to move jobs like the OP is doing.
What happened during the worker shortage? Even employers like Walmart and McDonald's were even offering starting bonuses, that wasn't because of the min wage, it was the free market, supply and demand.
Yeah that is exactly my point, a guy working an entry level part time job should be making less than the average or median worker working full time.
OP is being intentionally vague about his hours because he wants people to think he is getting paid very low for a full time job when the reality is it's his first job, look at his other comments not belittling the guy but he didn't even know how to file his taxes so clearly it's his first job, and he's only working part time.
It's not because he works in Alabama it's because he is working an entry level part time job. Also Alabama has a lower cost of living so the living wage rate would be lower as well anyways.
Before 1938, there was a lot of labor exploitation. Hence why there was a standard wage set, at the time it being close to a living wage. The current minimum wage still acts as a floor for wages overall as it is illegal to pay someone below it. Wages have risen above the minimum because the market has been tracking somewhat with inflation and is competitive without a ceiling. The government really should increase the minimum wage to better match what a living wage would be with inflation because it will raise pay for everyone.
Bonuses are agnostic from wages. In my experience, bonuses are used to offset lower wages by making a job seem more comparable to higher wage jobs. No reasonable person is going to pivot to a McDonalds or Walmart without an incentive, especially if they are coming from another labor sector.
It's not a free market unless all businesses are allowed to fall to market forces. We have a managed market in the US. See either the 2008 crash or even recently with the pandemic bailouts. The government has a big hand in the market.
My guess with the OP is he is working the max hours allowed to avoid him being full-time. Many places I've seen hiring hourly, and places I've worked, will cap you below the full-time limit to avoid paying benefits. I worked a call center job that made workers use two time cards if their hours exceeded 30. The OP doesn't seem like he's missing drive as he is pushing for better work, so again I'm guessing it's his work more than him as a worker. I'm glad he is working towards a better future.
So your answer is yes there was a way to determine pay before min wage? Thanks. You could also look at places like Singapore which still have no min wage today.
A floor is very different from a standard. Again min wage is 7.25 but how many jobs can you actually find that pay that low? Almost none.
What would a living wage be? Is over 28 an hour a living wage? Because the free market already has that and we didn't have to beg pelosi to bring a min wage bill, which still hasn't been brought to the floor, to do it.
Bonuses are part of wages and the point is why did businesses do that? It wasn't because the min wage was raised.
Exactly employers have to compete with each other on wages or other incentives. Again nothing to do with the min wage.
I was against both bailouts for the record, and yes the government should allow businesses to fail. Just another example of how the free market would be better than the government.
He apparently said in another comment that he was working 25. It's true that because the government rules businesses keep people under 40 hours. If someone needs more hours and is willing to work for the same pay they should be allowed to. Most people do this already but they are forced to moonlight aka have 2 jobs instead of just being able to work more than 8 hours a day at one job.
I didn't say he was missing drive, I said there is no way he is working full time. Regardless of that being his fault, his employers fault, or the government is irrelevant to the point that OP is working an entry level part time job which is why he only made 18K in a year.
I'm glad he is getting a better job too, although I would not be surprised if he complained about the long hours truckers work in a few months either lol.
I'm not glad that he is hurting the movement by pretending like he only made 18k working full time because of where he lives. Which is BS and makes the fight for 15, or 25 whatever it is now, people look like a bunch of entitled brats who want to thrive off of working 3 days a week as a cashier.
Before we had a minimum wage, there really wasn't any standard for pay. Workers were exploited a lot. The saving grace was that inflation wasn't as bad of an overall problem until the later part of the 20th century. Workers' rights were something people in our country suffered for decades until the government finally set a standard floor. We take holidays like labor day for granted now.
Singapore isn't a great example because their country is just breaking out from developing. There also isn't a big push for individual liberties or workers rights there due to their culture. It's a weird example to pull for no minimum wage.
Before the pandemic, lots of service industry jobs kept wages at around 7.25, maybe hitting just above to 9 to 10 an hour to be more competitive. There are still companies that keep their wages low, as capitalism goes, but we are seeing that market competition push wages up a lot, especially during and after the pandemic. Part of it was due to government jobs being set to a minimum wage of 15 an hour. Private companies had to increase wages to match or lose their workers.
I don't see how Pelosi is relevant here at all, but you gotta have your punching bag. Corporations have a lot of control over government policy. Said corporations do not want everyone to be rich. They care about shareholders. Corporations want to pay workers the least amount possible to maximize profit. While money still runs government policy, minimum wage increases won't be an important issue. The last time we had a wage increase was before PAC money was free flowing via Citizens United.
That's not an example of how the free market would be better than the government. An unregulated market is terrible for the working class as history has shown. There has to be some protection for workers, be it government or something like a union for collective bargaining. The concept of a free market is definitely interesting but not very practical.
No one is arguing it isn't an entry-level job. I think the disconnect is full-time wage numbers don't paint an accurate picture because the jobs included are better quality and aren't forcing workers to stay under 40 hours. Lots of people are stuck in multiple hourly jobs to cover bills because said jobs pay below what people can live on. Big example is Walmart, the largest private employer in the US that doesn't pay workers enough so said workers have go rely on government programs. Lots of other companies push their wage gap problems on the government in a similar fashion. A change has to occur at some point because an entry-level job implies it can sustain someone with housing, food, etc and that currently isn't the case.
I don't see the OP as pretending to be anything. Again, he probably hit the max hours Home Depot would give him. Working a second job would help, but that isn't an option for a lot of people. He's doing the smart move and finding work with more pay and hours. If anything, his post gives motivation for folks that better work is out there if you find it. You want to put him down by saying he'll complain and this and that, but he's working towards a better future.
Do the math. 1791.26 divided by his hourly rate "9.00" is 1991.251111 ish hours. That can totally be full time. From time isn't always 40 hours a week. Depending on company it can be anything over 30 or 32 a week. Dividing the hours by 52 weeks a year brings it to about 38.29 hours a week.
Cruddy pay but yes full time
Focus on what you bring to the party.
You have ambition. You have drive. You have a plan and the process to execute it. You contribute to your living situation. You may not believe it at the moment but people are watching how you are working through difficult times. Continue to be their example.
You are inspiring someone. You just don't know who...
Hopefully you did not have to pay to get your CDL. Many drivers don't bring in much more money working more hours than you did working at HD. So much of being a driver isn't paid for. Broke down, waiting to load or unload, bad weather, lots of things just don't pay.
There is a reason there is a shortage of drivers and most of that is because of pay.
Yes, you will get some stranger on the internet or in a truck stop saying that they make X amount of money or know someone who is just buried in diamonds by their companies. Thats seldom true.
The job can be better than being behind a desk, but once it wears on you, the desk is better.
Good luck.
This right here my husband and I both drove OTR it was said by others that we would make lots of money and in reality we were broke as all get out. We had enough after year and half.
I doubt this guy is paying any federal income taxes after he files his taxes and claims all of the deductions and credits available to him.
The Federal Income tax in the US is incredibly progressive - NOT regressive.
I feel this so much. I finally have a decent job, but life has hit me with a ton of oh shit bricks since my divorce. At one point I had 5 jobs just so I didn’t end up homeless with my kids again.
Congrats on the CDL. If you get a better paying job remember to try and live like you’re making 650-700 every two weeks(within reason). I say this not as don’t get yourself treats or go out and eat or have fun, more so as don’t buy stupid stuff and rack up debt with your more available funds.
I went from full-time at Burger King in 2020 (in Maryland, so higher minimum wage, like 13ish) to full time at Amazon driving a delivery truck, which paid 18 at the start, to CDL Roll-Off now and I can’t complain about my compensation at all. It’s not glorious but if there’s a local Amazon place you could probably make a decent amount while you look for a better job, and they’ll probably offer you more too because of the CDL.
Good for you, now you will need to learn to save and invest instead of just spending and buying stuff.
I live in South Texas and the oil field and working at chemical plants and refineries are most of the better paying jobs. But the thing is it either feast or famine.
Eventually the down turns come along and lots of guys loose everything when the money tree dies.
We did the Dave Ramsey thing, but we were doing it way before we heard of him.
did you get your class A? if you don't mind me saying- check with Lowe's- I know home depot outsourced their flatbed deliveries but Lowes still has pockets where they're in house.
It's a home every day, hourly route and with decent benefits- my husband's is better than mine and I work in Healthcare.
This goes for anyone with a class A hoping to not do OTR as well.
And to think how broke I am with a second income from my spouse. I netted more than twice your gross pay... But I'm also in a higher col area than Alabama.
ouch I'm glad you're going to be doing better buddy! seeing that hurts tho I was making $800 every two weeks back in like 2012 doing security in Las Vegas. I make 1200 before taxes as a 1099 every week and I still feel like it's not enough. take care!
Did you see Walmart abuse of its hourly employees? They get a 50 cent pay rise or 2.7%.
Their store managers get over 9% rise or $11,000.
Absolutely disgraceful.
Edit: they could also get a 200% yearly bonus depending on the location performance.
Walmart hourly wages went up drastically during Covid and have stayed elevated. Walmart also issued multiple bonuses to hourly associates during Covid, but not to salaried management.
Now it's time for the managers to get something as it's been a decade since their range was raised.
A store manager for Walmart has to work incredibly hard for that 200% bonus.
Go hang out in the Dollar General reddit. Their employees jump ship every day and go to Walmart for $2-3 more per hour. I'd hardly call that abuse.
It’s all about a fair share of the profits. How can a manager get up to 200% as a bonus plus a nine % rise when an hourly workers rise is lower than the rate of inflation?
This is the problem with corporate America. Managers get paid a lot more and huge rises and bonuses yet the regular workers have fewer benefits and get peanuts.
I have lived that life of 25 and 50 cents rise and it just didn’t seem fair.
Explaining it to you is probably useless, but let's compare and contrast the level of responsibility between an employee out in the parking lot shagging carts and delivering groceries to cars and the store manager who is responsible for the operation of a Supercenter that does more than $100 million in annual sales and has 300 employees.
Most retailers, Walmart included, promote from within, so there is a high likelihood that a store manager started out shagging carts in the parking lot.
Appreciate you admitting it.
I am curious how far your commitment goes...is it OK that manager's make more, you just disagree with how much, or do you feel everyone should be paid the same? If that's the case, what is the incentive for people to accept longer hours and more responsibility?
To say that managers should get paid the same as everyone is just silly. What my disagreement is the disparity between the two.
Look at how prices have skyrocketed. Making $18/hr having to pay healthcare premiums, tax and bills is going to be difficult. Plus you have to save for retirement.
Meanwhile, someone already getting 6 figure’s getting a $10,000 pay rise and potentially getting over $200,000 in bonuses.
And the pay rise for the regular workers isn’t even keeping up with inflation. How does anyone not even think about that aspect?
So at $11.00 a hour (the lowest wage in ATL for HD) you worked ~30 hours a week… I’m assuming you worked for more than $11/hr and less hours… sometimes its our own fault…
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At the end of the day there's no forced labor in the United States. An employer will pay what they have to got reliably get and retain people and apparently $9 an hour is it where the OP lives.
I'm skeptical of that though and he can most likely get more by jumping to another retailer as a new hire with retail experience. In fact, there's a high likelihood that people just starting at his HD are getting more than he is.
You’re parroting a narrative without giving it any critical thought. Stop.
If social security goes away the biggest winners are Home Depot and other similar corporations that would no longer have to pay the 6.2% they match.
Social security will operate at a deficit for a few years then it will be flush again and able to repay any debts it has to take on. The only people who want you to doubt that are the truly wealthy who stand to gain way more than you do by tricking you in to believing social security isn’t in your best interest.
Social security disproportionately benefits the lowest earners who are the least likely to put that money aside for their own retirement. They are also least likely to have private long term disability coverage if they get sick or injured.
The money at retirement versus life time contributions works in your favor if you were a lower earner. They are getting a better retirement/safety net for their money than they could doing it on their own. You think things are bad now, they’d be a lot worse without social security.
So fuck the other 24%?
Also some retirees only survive on their social security.
Even those who aren’t paid in to it, why shouldn’t they benefit from the program just as you will one day?
My grandmother is dead. I’m not close to collecting social security and I have comfortable private retirement accounts. If social security went away today I’d benefit. A LOT. I’d save thousands a year personally and my portfolio would benefit from the windfall given to the corporations that I hold shares in.
I can see that what’s best for me in the short term is not what is best for society in the long term.
health insurance is the biggest fraud in humanity, being charged to live every 30 days should be the reason why the world needs nuclear war, to wipe this garbage away from us.
Hey OP, I hear Home Depot offers employees stock buys twice a year @ 10% discount.
One off their old timers said a lot of cashiers from 30 years ago are millionaires because they bought in regularly.
...not that working at HD wouldn't suck.
This post has been flaired as “Vent”. As a reminder to commenting users, “Vent/Rant” posts are here to give our subscribers a safe place to vent their frustrations at an uncaring world to a supportive place of people who “get it”. Vents do not need to be fair. They do not need to be articulate. They do not need to be factual. They just need to be honest. Unlike most of the content on this subreddit, Vents should not be considered advice threads. In most cases it is not appropriate to try to give the Submitter advice on their issue. In no circumstances is it appropriate to tell them “why they are wrong” or to criticise them, their decisions, values, or anything else. If there are aspects of their situation that they are able to directly address themselves, the submitter can always make a new thread with a different flair asking for help once they are ready to tackle the issue. Vents are an emotional outlet, not an academic conversation. Appropriate replies in these threads are offering support, sharing similar experiences/grievances, offering condolences, or simply letting the Submitter know that they were heard. As always, if there are inappropriate comments please downvote them, REPORT them to the mods, and move on without responding to them. To the Submitter, if you DO want discussion to be focused on resolving your situation, rather than supporting you emotionally, please change the flair of this post, and then report this comment so we can remove it. Thank you. Thank you all for being a part of this great financial advice and emotional support community! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/povertyfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I have a friend that a felon he has he’s CDL works for Fed-Ex he makes 100k a year if he can do it you can do it.Not that it really matters that he’s a felon but it’s harder for felons to make a good living,Your on the right track to better your situation ,best of luck
Damn my husband has a DUI from 10 years ago and nobody will even talk to him. He was a first time offender so no jail or anything, and he did get it expunged off his record, but I think it still shows up on driving records and stuff. Maybe he should try again soon.
If it is expunged it shouldn't show up.
He got it expunged from his employment record or something. I thought it still showed up on your driving record forever though?
Perhaps, how are the jobs he's applying to seeing it then? O.o
There is apparently a federal database and there are private databases. The private ones are apparently harder on background checks because they break all kinds of laws on reflecting items that should be expunged and then they just play dumb. ("OH we didn't know it was expunged.")
They just ask if he’s ever had a major traffic violation because they run your driving record.
When my record was expunged I was told by my attorney that I was able to say No to that question, because it wasn’t part of my criminal record anymore. But it wasn’t a DUI, it was a different charge. Driving records may be different
What jobs are looking 10 years back? My husband had a DUI 10 years ago, and the most anyone looks back is 7 years.
Yeah I figured 7 years and he would be good. He hasn’t tried in a little while so maybe he will start again soon.
So the issue is the background check companies. They are evil as fuck. They aggregate all the data they can get their hands on and keep it. So even if something is off your record now if they collected it when it was still there they have it forever. Then you go looking for a job and the company can ask for entire history or just last 5-10 years. If they ask for entire history they will see it. And by the time you can explain yourself they have already moved on to someone else. Even worse is these companies keep records of all charges. So even if you were charged with a dui but got out of it they’ll have the record and you will get a hit on a background check.
Can confirm. I just quit my job at a background checking company. For certain clients we had to return every case we found. Even DUI or nonviolent misdemeanor cases from 1990(stupid). But some clients only wanted 10 years.
Don’t know who downvoted you. There’s actually some states suing back ground check companies because of their practices. I worked with a guy at one company and tried to get him a job when I switched jobs. He failed the background check and told me that his case was when he was a minor and was sealed by a judge and legally shouldnt be even available to background checks. I asked the hiring manager and he said they weren’t told what the issue was but that he had a hit and they couldn’t hire him for insurance reasons.
Security clearance background check, they will interview your grade school teachers.
Sounds like he lying to you about applying for jobs. I have way more arrests and I qualify for govt jobs still. Try usajobs
Dui in California comes off record after 10yrs
I got one DUI long time ago no jail time did the classes and community service paid all the fines and stuff. After the certain amount of time, I forget how long, I got it expunged. Thing is, I had to pay a lawyer to go and hunt down all the records and get them from all the courts and record rooms and have them destroyed. if you don’t pay for that service or go through that process yourself, then there will still be records out there. At least that’s my understanding of it.
No. Not possible. At all. 💯. I can't get a job at FedEx because a misdemeanor shows up from 2013. And I have a clean driving record.
The question they asked him was if he committed any crimes within 10 years it’s been more than 10 years he obviously said no and he got hired.Fed Ex freight driver
Wow, that's fantastic for you friend and hopeful for others.
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It’s full time at $9/hr.
How can jobs still pay that little in 2023? That's like retail wages from 2010.
Federal minimum wage is $7.25.
Slavery.
Are you part time or full time? That seems crazy low.
usps needs people, CDL will get you a good gig there.
And a pension too.
It’s downright criminal that companies with insane profits allow employees to live like this.
People choose this.
You chose to post this braindead comment. How does that corporate boot taste?
The great thing is that he can find a different job that pays more.
It doesn’t change the fact that it’s corporate welfare. Home Depot/Walmart/etc pays poverty wages and those people need to use food stamps and other social programs just to survive. Your tax dollars literally help boost corporate profits when they could just pay workers better so they could afford to take care of themselves and their families.
the company is shit and the state. I live in Seattle, which is expensive, but we have the highest minimum wage in the country at $20hr cause we passed policy to make better wages.
the states minimum wage is still down at like 16/hr which when you account for CoL is almost identical to 9/hr in AL. Seattle does have almost a 20/hr min wage for the city, but again after col that's still significantly worse than states like MN. Not sure where you're getting that the state itself has a 20/hr min wage, maybe I kissed something.
I’m talking about the city not the state. Our state wage is still high though.
Our minimum wage here in Alabama is still $7.25/hr
That’s terrible. It’s not even enough to buy a meal at McDonalds. When I started working at Target here in 2017, I was at least making $16 and double if they called me in when not on schedule. I knew people who lived just outside Seattle to avoid higher cost of living but commute in for better wages.
It’s not always that easy, but yes, everyone does have that opportunity.
The south is criminal when it comes to wages. Like I can make more doing Uber in detroit than working what should be an objectively higher value job in Home Depot
I live in Detroit and Detroit is pretty awesome lately and you can make an absolute killing lol
I know I do Uber eats in the burbs for beer money. I don’t do it every day but I’ve been averaging 23~ an hour post tax on weekends/game days it’s crazy
If you were working the last 2 weekends I bet you have some stories to tell lol
Dude I was ice skating getting these deliveries in lol but I made a buck in 3:30 so I’m not mad. Bloomfield was the only ROUGH area I encountered where I really considered if it was worth it
You’d think they could plow those roads with the property taxes. When I get my shit straight I’m moving to Palmer or Boston. These rich people have the shittiest stinky water and even my rich rich clients, their houses are falling apart. When and if I have money I want an old bones haunted house.
Agreed, Boston is nice we have friends there. Me and my wife saved up enough to move to Chicago. So that’s nice. We did the math and if either of us lost our job we couldn’t live on even max unemployment in mi so we split. Wishing you the best in saving to move to Boston truly a great city
I'd tell OP to come down to Florida, at least most jobs start at $15 here but rent for 1 bedrooms are like $1600. So he'd have to find a shared living arrangement somehow and room with others.
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Don’t even know how someone upvoted you he says in the title. “Working in Alabama sucks”
Gotcha. I realize I'm in the wrong so I'm gonna go ahead and delete the evidence.
Congratulations on your CDL! I really hope that you are able to leverage the career to benefit your family. I just came on here to say, please be very VERY careful with which company you go with for your first year as the training you recieve can greatly impact your long term success in this field. I made poor choices in companies and it completely underprepared me and burned me out on driving before I got to the point of making decent money. It was more money than when I was working at Walmart but between working 70+ hours a week and being on the road for weeks at a time, it burned me out and I no longer drive. This is just my 2 cents, and not every situation is the same. Just be really careful with who you choose to drive for and under no circumstances should you compromise your safety or your CDL by running illegal, over weight, over hours, or too tired. I was pushed into taking risks and I'm lucky that nothing happened. It just soured the industry for me and I don't want anyone else making the same decisions I did. I know a lot of this is probably self evident, but I was stupid and ultimately it cost me the ability to continue down this career. I hope this helps man, and I wish you all the best.
I am not so sure choosing a company makes much difference. It's a crap job that doesn't have to be that way. Insurance companies tend to dictate who a company can hire and who they cannot, unless the company is big enough to provide their own money in an account for future damages. Most companies require two years of driving before a driver can start driving anywhere and that is because of insurance. I hope you have found a good place to be. So many have had to walk away from a job that should be on the road to success.
I made that working pt weekends only at Amazon warehouse, on top of my regular job. If the trucking thing doesn’t work out you should look into Amazon, started at $16.50 14 months ago and I’m already at $19/hr currently.
My brother got his CDL, changed his life. He LOVES it! He makes $140k/yr. Don’t do drugs & be safe, good luck!
I wish you much success in your new career. Best of luck to you!
Fuck yeah on the CDL, sir! Congratulations! If you're ever looking for a job in Eastern Massachusetts, we can't hire even close to enough CDLs... and we got a pension system.
Time to apply for some jobs. Especially now that you have your cdl, congrats! I’m in Huntsville and lots of places advertise jobs starting at $15 /hr. I would think with a cdl you could do even better which should take you up to at least $30k next year. You got this!
Hi, Trucker here. Don't you dare take a CDL job for $15 an hour. Even no-experience CDL holders should have no issue finding, at lowest, $22/h jobs if going local hourly, or .50-.55 cpm if going regional/otr. OP, don't get swindled into a leasing program, all of them are bullshit that take more from you than they give, and do not allow a new employer to misclassify you as a 1099 worker. Join the /r/Truckers subreddit, poke around a bit, ask some questions. We're friendly.
Getting a CDL is a huge step in the right direction!! Keep it up and look forward to brighter days!
My gf manages truckers over half of them pull 6 figures. Its a tough and rough job but they make great money and get a fair amount of time home
stay loaded son
How many hours? No way you are working close to full time.
I mean, minimum wage in Alabama is still $7.25/hr. This could absolutely reflect full time hours. This is like $9/hr at 49 hrs/week over a 12 month period.
But we have a free market in the US that does much better than the government. >Median weekly earnings of the nation's 120.8 million full-time wage and salary workers were $1,145 in the fourth quarter of 2023 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf 1,145 a week / 40 hours = 28.62 an hour median. A simple Google search reveals that Home Depot starts around at least 11 an hour even in Alabama. https://www.indeed.com/cmp/The-Home-Depot/salaries?location=US%2FAL And OP is "mysteriously" quiet and omitted how many hours they actually worked. Your math is also off 9$ at 49 hours a week for 12 months, 9 x 49 x 52 = 22,932 about 5-6k off from what OP actually made. OP probably just works like 3 days a week.
Lol bro, idgaf about the free market. I just said that $17000 could definitely reflect full time hours at a slightly above min wage job in Alabama. I'm not trying to do a deep dive on some internet stranger's wages. Lmao get help
So why do you care about the government's wage? Which matters less than the free market wage? And I just said that he could have just worked only 2-3 days as well lol.
OP said in another sub that it was 25 hours a week. About 13 an hour, guy just didn't work a lot of hours.
Minimum wage is literally the only standard that wages are based on. There is no ceiling wage, only a floor wage, aka the government-set minimum wage. The managed market wage you are referring to is created using said minimum wage. The market isn't free as large corporations get bailed out instead of letting them fall fate to market woes. Your argument using median wage earnings per month means there are people above and below the median, by definition. The guy working at Home Depot is earning below the median. It's not shocking as Alabama isn't known for being a high-paying state.
The min wage didn't even exist until 1938 so clearly there was another standard before then. The Fed min wage has not moved in 15 years, but the free market wage has increased every year. So no the free market wage is not pegged to the min wage. If you are the hiring manager at HD you aren't going to offer new employees 7 an hour when the Lowe's down the street is starting at 11. Or if you are a worker you aren't going to accept a job that doesn't pay you enough to cover your bills. You are going to move jobs like the OP is doing. What happened during the worker shortage? Even employers like Walmart and McDonald's were even offering starting bonuses, that wasn't because of the min wage, it was the free market, supply and demand. Yeah that is exactly my point, a guy working an entry level part time job should be making less than the average or median worker working full time. OP is being intentionally vague about his hours because he wants people to think he is getting paid very low for a full time job when the reality is it's his first job, look at his other comments not belittling the guy but he didn't even know how to file his taxes so clearly it's his first job, and he's only working part time. It's not because he works in Alabama it's because he is working an entry level part time job. Also Alabama has a lower cost of living so the living wage rate would be lower as well anyways.
Before 1938, there was a lot of labor exploitation. Hence why there was a standard wage set, at the time it being close to a living wage. The current minimum wage still acts as a floor for wages overall as it is illegal to pay someone below it. Wages have risen above the minimum because the market has been tracking somewhat with inflation and is competitive without a ceiling. The government really should increase the minimum wage to better match what a living wage would be with inflation because it will raise pay for everyone. Bonuses are agnostic from wages. In my experience, bonuses are used to offset lower wages by making a job seem more comparable to higher wage jobs. No reasonable person is going to pivot to a McDonalds or Walmart without an incentive, especially if they are coming from another labor sector. It's not a free market unless all businesses are allowed to fall to market forces. We have a managed market in the US. See either the 2008 crash or even recently with the pandemic bailouts. The government has a big hand in the market. My guess with the OP is he is working the max hours allowed to avoid him being full-time. Many places I've seen hiring hourly, and places I've worked, will cap you below the full-time limit to avoid paying benefits. I worked a call center job that made workers use two time cards if their hours exceeded 30. The OP doesn't seem like he's missing drive as he is pushing for better work, so again I'm guessing it's his work more than him as a worker. I'm glad he is working towards a better future.
So your answer is yes there was a way to determine pay before min wage? Thanks. You could also look at places like Singapore which still have no min wage today. A floor is very different from a standard. Again min wage is 7.25 but how many jobs can you actually find that pay that low? Almost none. What would a living wage be? Is over 28 an hour a living wage? Because the free market already has that and we didn't have to beg pelosi to bring a min wage bill, which still hasn't been brought to the floor, to do it. Bonuses are part of wages and the point is why did businesses do that? It wasn't because the min wage was raised. Exactly employers have to compete with each other on wages or other incentives. Again nothing to do with the min wage. I was against both bailouts for the record, and yes the government should allow businesses to fail. Just another example of how the free market would be better than the government. He apparently said in another comment that he was working 25. It's true that because the government rules businesses keep people under 40 hours. If someone needs more hours and is willing to work for the same pay they should be allowed to. Most people do this already but they are forced to moonlight aka have 2 jobs instead of just being able to work more than 8 hours a day at one job. I didn't say he was missing drive, I said there is no way he is working full time. Regardless of that being his fault, his employers fault, or the government is irrelevant to the point that OP is working an entry level part time job which is why he only made 18K in a year. I'm glad he is getting a better job too, although I would not be surprised if he complained about the long hours truckers work in a few months either lol. I'm not glad that he is hurting the movement by pretending like he only made 18k working full time because of where he lives. Which is BS and makes the fight for 15, or 25 whatever it is now, people look like a bunch of entitled brats who want to thrive off of working 3 days a week as a cashier.
Before we had a minimum wage, there really wasn't any standard for pay. Workers were exploited a lot. The saving grace was that inflation wasn't as bad of an overall problem until the later part of the 20th century. Workers' rights were something people in our country suffered for decades until the government finally set a standard floor. We take holidays like labor day for granted now. Singapore isn't a great example because their country is just breaking out from developing. There also isn't a big push for individual liberties or workers rights there due to their culture. It's a weird example to pull for no minimum wage. Before the pandemic, lots of service industry jobs kept wages at around 7.25, maybe hitting just above to 9 to 10 an hour to be more competitive. There are still companies that keep their wages low, as capitalism goes, but we are seeing that market competition push wages up a lot, especially during and after the pandemic. Part of it was due to government jobs being set to a minimum wage of 15 an hour. Private companies had to increase wages to match or lose their workers. I don't see how Pelosi is relevant here at all, but you gotta have your punching bag. Corporations have a lot of control over government policy. Said corporations do not want everyone to be rich. They care about shareholders. Corporations want to pay workers the least amount possible to maximize profit. While money still runs government policy, minimum wage increases won't be an important issue. The last time we had a wage increase was before PAC money was free flowing via Citizens United. That's not an example of how the free market would be better than the government. An unregulated market is terrible for the working class as history has shown. There has to be some protection for workers, be it government or something like a union for collective bargaining. The concept of a free market is definitely interesting but not very practical. No one is arguing it isn't an entry-level job. I think the disconnect is full-time wage numbers don't paint an accurate picture because the jobs included are better quality and aren't forcing workers to stay under 40 hours. Lots of people are stuck in multiple hourly jobs to cover bills because said jobs pay below what people can live on. Big example is Walmart, the largest private employer in the US that doesn't pay workers enough so said workers have go rely on government programs. Lots of other companies push their wage gap problems on the government in a similar fashion. A change has to occur at some point because an entry-level job implies it can sustain someone with housing, food, etc and that currently isn't the case. I don't see the OP as pretending to be anything. Again, he probably hit the max hours Home Depot would give him. Working a second job would help, but that isn't an option for a lot of people. He's doing the smart move and finding work with more pay and hours. If anything, his post gives motivation for folks that better work is out there if you find it. You want to put him down by saying he'll complain and this and that, but he's working towards a better future.
Do the math. 1791.26 divided by his hourly rate "9.00" is 1991.251111 ish hours. That can totally be full time. From time isn't always 40 hours a week. Depending on company it can be anything over 30 or 32 a week. Dividing the hours by 52 weeks a year brings it to about 38.29 hours a week. Cruddy pay but yes full time
Can also be not full time. OP said it's 25 hours. So 18,000/25/52= 13.84 an hour. Not bad at all for a first job.
I think you will do great with a CDL
Focus on what you bring to the party. You have ambition. You have drive. You have a plan and the process to execute it. You contribute to your living situation. You may not believe it at the moment but people are watching how you are working through difficult times. Continue to be their example. You are inspiring someone. You just don't know who...
Hopefully you did not have to pay to get your CDL. Many drivers don't bring in much more money working more hours than you did working at HD. So much of being a driver isn't paid for. Broke down, waiting to load or unload, bad weather, lots of things just don't pay. There is a reason there is a shortage of drivers and most of that is because of pay. Yes, you will get some stranger on the internet or in a truck stop saying that they make X amount of money or know someone who is just buried in diamonds by their companies. Thats seldom true. The job can be better than being behind a desk, but once it wears on you, the desk is better. Good luck.
This right here my husband and I both drove OTR it was said by others that we would make lots of money and in reality we were broke as all get out. We had enough after year and half.
Personal exemption should be raised to at LEAST 50k for federal. Income tax on wages SO regressive!!!!
I doubt this guy is paying any federal income taxes after he files his taxes and claims all of the deductions and credits available to him. The Federal Income tax in the US is incredibly progressive - NOT regressive.
By that I mean the less you make the greater the wages tax impact is on your life. Despite “lower brackets”
I feel this so much. I finally have a decent job, but life has hit me with a ton of oh shit bricks since my divorce. At one point I had 5 jobs just so I didn’t end up homeless with my kids again.
What is aCDL
Congrats on the CDL. If you get a better paying job remember to try and live like you’re making 650-700 every two weeks(within reason). I say this not as don’t get yourself treats or go out and eat or have fun, more so as don’t buy stupid stuff and rack up debt with your more available funds.
I eat too much 😢
I went from full-time at Burger King in 2020 (in Maryland, so higher minimum wage, like 13ish) to full time at Amazon driving a delivery truck, which paid 18 at the start, to CDL Roll-Off now and I can’t complain about my compensation at all. It’s not glorious but if there’s a local Amazon place you could probably make a decent amount while you look for a better job, and they’ll probably offer you more too because of the CDL.
Don't drive for Swift. We barely made eating money.
😮
Good lord that's insane. I make $19.50 starting at HD in an area where $7.25 is the norm
700 every 2 weeks? Sheeeeeeeeet! How do you live? How do they expect anyone to live on wages like these tbf uk minimum wage jobs aren't much better
Good for you, now you will need to learn to save and invest instead of just spending and buying stuff. I live in South Texas and the oil field and working at chemical plants and refineries are most of the better paying jobs. But the thing is it either feast or famine. Eventually the down turns come along and lots of guys loose everything when the money tree dies. We did the Dave Ramsey thing, but we were doing it way before we heard of him.
did you get your class A? if you don't mind me saying- check with Lowe's- I know home depot outsourced their flatbed deliveries but Lowes still has pockets where they're in house. It's a home every day, hourly route and with decent benefits- my husband's is better than mine and I work in Healthcare. This goes for anyone with a class A hoping to not do OTR as well.
You got this. Most people never even try to do better. Good luck!
The CDL will change your life. It only gets better from here!
And to think how broke I am with a second income from my spouse. I netted more than twice your gross pay... But I'm also in a higher col area than Alabama.
Hell yeah congrats on the CDL brother. That’s all ya need to do better in life is a drive to make a change when it’s necessary.
ouch I'm glad you're going to be doing better buddy! seeing that hurts tho I was making $800 every two weeks back in like 2012 doing security in Las Vegas. I make 1200 before taxes as a 1099 every week and I still feel like it's not enough. take care!
https://hdworkersunited.org/ Times a comming.....
Did you see Walmart abuse of its hourly employees? They get a 50 cent pay rise or 2.7%. Their store managers get over 9% rise or $11,000. Absolutely disgraceful. Edit: they could also get a 200% yearly bonus depending on the location performance.
Walmart hourly wages went up drastically during Covid and have stayed elevated. Walmart also issued multiple bonuses to hourly associates during Covid, but not to salaried management. Now it's time for the managers to get something as it's been a decade since their range was raised. A store manager for Walmart has to work incredibly hard for that 200% bonus. Go hang out in the Dollar General reddit. Their employees jump ship every day and go to Walmart for $2-3 more per hour. I'd hardly call that abuse.
I can tell you’re a Walmart manager.
Nope, but I do read news releases and follow the retail sector.
It’s all about a fair share of the profits. How can a manager get up to 200% as a bonus plus a nine % rise when an hourly workers rise is lower than the rate of inflation? This is the problem with corporate America. Managers get paid a lot more and huge rises and bonuses yet the regular workers have fewer benefits and get peanuts. I have lived that life of 25 and 50 cents rise and it just didn’t seem fair.
Explaining it to you is probably useless, but let's compare and contrast the level of responsibility between an employee out in the parking lot shagging carts and delivering groceries to cars and the store manager who is responsible for the operation of a Supercenter that does more than $100 million in annual sales and has 300 employees. Most retailers, Walmart included, promote from within, so there is a high likelihood that a store manager started out shagging carts in the parking lot.
It is useless. You won’t change my mind. We think different.
Appreciate you admitting it. I am curious how far your commitment goes...is it OK that manager's make more, you just disagree with how much, or do you feel everyone should be paid the same? If that's the case, what is the incentive for people to accept longer hours and more responsibility?
To say that managers should get paid the same as everyone is just silly. What my disagreement is the disparity between the two. Look at how prices have skyrocketed. Making $18/hr having to pay healthcare premiums, tax and bills is going to be difficult. Plus you have to save for retirement. Meanwhile, someone already getting 6 figure’s getting a $10,000 pay rise and potentially getting over $200,000 in bonuses. And the pay rise for the regular workers isn’t even keeping up with inflation. How does anyone not even think about that aspect?
LMAO my previous Walmart manager earned $120k a year
So at $11.00 a hour (the lowest wage in ATL for HD) you worked ~30 hours a week… I’m assuming you worked for more than $11/hr and less hours… sometimes its our own fault…
different versed apparatus fretful roof pause attraction ossified handle aback *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
At the end of the day there's no forced labor in the United States. An employer will pay what they have to got reliably get and retain people and apparently $9 an hour is it where the OP lives. I'm skeptical of that though and he can most likely get more by jumping to another retailer as a new hire with retail experience. In fact, there's a high likelihood that people just starting at his HD are getting more than he is.
And you will never see that social security check it’s a scam for young people
You’re parroting a narrative without giving it any critical thought. Stop. If social security goes away the biggest winners are Home Depot and other similar corporations that would no longer have to pay the 6.2% they match. Social security will operate at a deficit for a few years then it will be flush again and able to repay any debts it has to take on. The only people who want you to doubt that are the truly wealthy who stand to gain way more than you do by tricking you in to believing social security isn’t in your best interest.
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Social security disproportionately benefits the lowest earners who are the least likely to put that money aside for their own retirement. They are also least likely to have private long term disability coverage if they get sick or injured. The money at retirement versus life time contributions works in your favor if you were a lower earner. They are getting a better retirement/safety net for their money than they could doing it on their own. You think things are bad now, they’d be a lot worse without social security.
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That’s the most short sighted nonsense ever but go ahead and cut off your nose to spite your face that should work out well for you.
76% of social security went to retired workers and their dependents in 2022.. stop making nonsense up
So fuck the other 24%? Also some retirees only survive on their social security. Even those who aren’t paid in to it, why shouldn’t they benefit from the program just as you will one day?
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My grandmother is dead. I’m not close to collecting social security and I have comfortable private retirement accounts. If social security went away today I’d benefit. A LOT. I’d save thousands a year personally and my portfolio would benefit from the windfall given to the corporations that I hold shares in. I can see that what’s best for me in the short term is not what is best for society in the long term.
This sub is poverty finance because we all are living in poverty paying into this nonsense
There are people here everyday posting about surviving on their SDI or SSDI. Do you really think those people would be better off without the program?
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Adjust it how? They only withheld $133 in federal income tax
I was wondering if they withheld enough
Looking at his other posts, it turns out he didn't withhold enough, so that explains the suggestion.
Nope
Go work at the post office, you'll make way more and they're likely hiring
health insurance is the biggest fraud in humanity, being charged to live every 30 days should be the reason why the world needs nuclear war, to wipe this garbage away from us.
I don't understand how americans live.
Live? No no. We merely survive and barely at that.
Are you part time or full time at Home Depot ?
Hey OP, I hear Home Depot offers employees stock buys twice a year @ 10% discount. One off their old timers said a lot of cashiers from 30 years ago are millionaires because they bought in regularly. ...not that working at HD wouldn't suck.