I will be the first to admit that this is a disheartening article, and depressing. The idea that so many millions of people are caught in this place is extremely uncomfortable. On the other hand, finding ways to get out of these situations is what this series of articles is about:
She Works 2 Jobs. Her Grocery Budget Is $25. This Is Life Near Minimum Wage.
The article contains this paragraph, which is essentially a map of the jobs in America to avoid:
Home and health aides are among the lowest-paid jobs in America. Also on that list are cooks and cashiers, file clerks and janitors, drivers and construction workers. The most common low-wage work is in retail.
We can probably add a few more jobs that are typically minimum wage to the list, like fast food restaurants. Not to be totally negative, if you are caught between a rock and a hard place and simply need any money you can find, these jobs are better than nothing. But it would be difficult to build a life in America around the job categories listed in the article.
But note that the map is not 100% accurate. As we have seen in previous posts, long-distance truck drivers can make great money, and so can certain types of more skilled construction workers (e.g. plumbers).
And if you took a fast food job with the intention of becoming the store manager, that could also work out well:
Chipotle Salary Can Top $95,000 Annually
It is an older article, but still true (see also Reddit comments here). It contains this paragraph:
You might not think slinging burritos is the most glamorous job out there, but apparently it’s possible to make a heck of a lot of money doing it. Climbing the ladder at locations of the fast food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill can result in some big bucks, according to CBS Los Angeles. One employee interviewed by the network, Lidia Castillo, said she worked her way up from a service manager all the way to restaurateur (Chipotle’s title for a general manager) within a year, a position with an average salary of $99,000 annually. That’s significantly more than the median annual salary for fast food workers of around $18,230, according to Daily Finance.
Also note that this kind of pay is completely typical for managers:
That said, according to Salary.com, the median expected salary for a retail franchise manager in the U.S. is $95,764 per year.
What is Chipotle looking for in an employee?
To ensure success, job-seekers would do well to embody the 13 qualities of an ideal Chipotle employee, which Castillo told CBS Los Angeles were “conscientious, respectful, hospitable, high energy, infectiously enthusiastic, happy, presentable, smart, polite, motivated, ambitious, curious, and honest.”
Those qualities would be true for any job.
More Jobs Articles
Easy directory of all of Marshall Brain’s Jobs-related blog posts:
- Introduction to “Getting a Good Job in America”
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 2 – How do you gain skills?
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 3 – Newsweek weighs in with 19 jobs
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 4 – Driving a Truck
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 5 – Information Technology (IT) and Cybersecurity jobs
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 6 – Google Career Certificates
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 7 – Becoming an Engineer
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 8 – Making the most of entry-level sales jobs
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 9 – Jobs to Avoid
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 10 – Medical jobs like Nurse Practitioner
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 11 – Electrical Lineworker
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 12 – Software Developer and “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 12.1 – Software Developer
- “Getting a Good Job in America” Part 13 – Cybersecurity