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Why is the author including the commute and taxes in the final figure? I mean doesn't the apply to pretty much everyone?
by nickstewart 3y ago
Why is the author including the commute and taxes in the final figure? I mean doesn't the apply to pretty much everyone?
- tapland 3y agoThey are pointing out that the wage is so low it's net zero and any money made is from tips
- UncleEntity 3y agoThey’re also adding in a one time cost for shoes in their calculations on 8.5 (IIRC) shifts to come up with their low number. Shoes which should last a few hundred shifts minimum. And are tax deductible if you itemize. Also the food credit is only a loss if you don’t use it, it’s a net gain if you get the maximum amount of food because I highly doubt it’s capped at $3.whatever. Bad math is just bad math.
- jleyank 3y agoThey apply everywhere, but for a job to be economically useful to its occupant it has to be a net gain in wealth.
- boringg 3y agoYah but you choose a job and its commute time etc. Those are individual choices that arent the responsibility of a commuter. Its like saying i make 100k in new york but i commute to new york by airplane and thus k only make 2k a year
- sclarisse 3y agoIf we’re going to include taxes in the figure, we should include the Earned Income Tax Credit and other transfer programs, too.
- matthewdgreen 3y agoThe question asked in the article is: is it worth taking this as a side job? If you include the EITC you'd have to factor in the income limits associated with the credit, i.e., that earning more money could actually cost you by making you ineligible. So that's probably more confusing than it's worth.
- jmull 3y agoWhen you take a side job, you want to know the actual amount of money you're going to make, right? The amount before taxes and commute are in the article too, if that's what you're interested in.
- bastawhiz 3y agoIf you don't commute, you really can't do a job as a server, can you?
- Mashimo 3y agoWhy not?
- 100721 3y agoMost restaurants do not offer sleeping accommodations.
- bastawhiz 3y agoI'm not sure how you'd serve customers from the comfort of your home
- Mashimo 3y ago
- snorkel 3y agoThat’s the whole point: the cost of commuting to the job plus taxes plus mandatory meal credit makes the entire job barely profitable. On top of that you’re always just one car breakdown away, or one illness away, or one gas price increase away from going broke.
- Mashimo 3y agoTo final number helps explain why there is a labor shortage in that field. I'm not from that country and the total number helped me to understand the situations better.
- yunohn 3y agoYes, and they are fixed regardless of your wage. As a FAANG employee, they are negligible in the grand scheme of things; but as a minimum wage worker, they will meaningfully eat into your earned income.
- brodouevencode 3y agoI think it's fair to do this. If the employer takes the perspective of a business (providing a good or service, their labor, in exchange for cash, or a paycheck) it's part of the cost of doing business and can be seen as a fixed cost.