Many folks have told me about jobs hither and yon, and given me numbers and had people call me about the occasional bit of side work, and then several of them get noticeably peeved about my lack of action or ungratefulness at the help.
I do appreciate the leads, and i am not ungrateful. I am a realist so here's how it breaks down
unemployment pays 362 per week. If my math is off it is only minor, and I don't really care, the point won't change that much. @40 hours per week, $362 per week works out to be $9.05 per hour. Daycare for both of our boys during the summer would be $185 per week. @40 hours per week that works out to be $4.62 per hour. A further analyzation would show that this is 50 hours per week of childcare, which works out to be about $3.70 per hour for 2 kids (oddly half of minimum wage I think) or $1.85 per hour per kid, which isn't horrible. We called 2 other daycare places that we had reviewed and would trust with our children and they were at $225 and $260 per week. We also don't have the luxury of dropping the kids off to grandparents or parents and what not, and some folks will pick a babysitter based on a lot less stringent standards than we do. Our kids matter most to us, and their care is a priority. We hardly mention not being able to find a sitter as having anything to do with our lack of social outings, mostly because there is always someone offering up a relative that is good with kids and we'd have to politely decline when I would rather say, "seriously, there are of people I trust a whole lot more than said relative of yours and I wouldn't leave my kids with them." spend some time with my boys and time with someone else's kids thats a bit more lax and you'll know the difference.
that puts us at a whopping 13.67 per hour.
Now let's look at fuel to a job. Unfortunately due to everything fucked up in the world which I shall refer to as "the man" fuel as of today was about 4.20 per gallon. lets say the hoopty beater i just picked up gets 25 mpg. Another unfortunate circumstance is that I live in Ovid. Look it up, about 1500 people, 1 stop light. 10 miles to Owosso, 10 miles to St Johns, 30 miles from flint or Lansing, or Ionia for that matter. Hell, haven't checked lately but it's probably 30 miles from Alma and Ithaca which have a fair industrial picking of their own.
so 30 miles one way x2 makes 60 miles a day. traveling 60 miles per day at 25 mpg @$4.00 per gallon for easier math makes $48 per week, or $1.20 per hour
that brings us up to $14.87 per hour. I am however, not finished.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield (also the man) Previously this was employer paid, not it falls to me as a measure to provide for my family. This costs $365 per month, or $2.28 per hour (almost exactly half of childcare)
that brings us to 17.15 per hour. counting gasoline, childcare and healthcare as a fixed expense making 17.15 per hour would be exactasmurfly the same as being on unemployment.
I neglected one thing.... Uncle Sam. Taxes ought to be about 30% of my hourly rate give or take. so let's call that $6.00 take home or $240.00 per week take home after the fixed expenses. that's less than 12,000 per year take home. not counting increased expenses in winter for heating, blah blah blah
before you pipe in your.02 about all the help from"the man" we did that. we jumped through hoops and were made to feel like deadbeat trash for three months while being scrutinized for a bridge card (foodstamps) and we get $20 per month. not a typo, $5 per week., and thats getting cut because we got a state tax refund in the amount of $300. You see we started the process in December and after hours of phone calls, two applications, and a half dozen trips to the Shiawassee co. DHS office we finally got our $20 three months later, in February. We always file promptly and pay our taxes like good little Americans so that $300 we got back gets viewed as unclaimed income on our forms, so wallah, thank "the Man"
Let's go back to $240 per week or $960 per month. Our minivan which we financed at less than 2% 5 years ago has about a year till payoff. that is $500, plus the house and insurance runs somewhere around 800 per month. we have been here 10 years. so lets look at my $960 trying to pay that $1300. (if you do the math that cuts $2.15 per hour off Misty's wage)that's not counting car insurance, utility bills, food for a family of four, assorted living expenses. about now i start to sound like a whiney bitch, but honestly, even for $17.15 per hour you might know why it just seems pretty damn bleak.
There you have it.
Coincidentally I have a wage negotiation session with a prospective employer tomorrow. Highly unlikely that the position will even come close. how horrible is it to think that I might have to decline the first job offer in 15 months of looking if they can't adjust to the figures. I'll have a lot to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment