this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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What server these days is taking home $3500/month? (i.e. $21+/hour)
That's why I added that the value of that particular location could also be different than it was when it was $700. I have no idea, maybe it's not and even more run down and the prices are out of control.
Btw, that $21/hour is still below where the minimum wage should be if it kept up with inflation all these years. Plus, generally you shouldn't be spending more than 30%(?) of take home pay on housing, so there's that too.
I did almost 3x that as a bartender two years ago in Dallas.
Tbh the idea of a server working for less than $20/hr is insane to me.
I was making minimum wage as a runner after high school here in Stockholm. Minimum wage in the restaurant industry in Sweden is currently $14/hour.
Yeah, SI wages in Europe are way lower than north america. I wanted to move when I was bartending, and then I figured out I'd be lucky to make a third of what I was here.
Yeah, though to be fair, I think you pay a lot less taxes on those $14/hr in Sweden than you would in the us (like 18% effective tax rate, including payroll), and you get health insurance, pension, and vacation.
I guess they are a single issue resident.
Quality of life and purchasing power matters a lot for deciding where to live, it's why a lot of people have moved to cities historically.
I do think that a lot of critics of European wages don't really know all the factors that play into that, though. It's not all about salary.
I think the reasons people move to cities in the US might not be the same as in the EU. Arguably quality of life peaks, in the US, in the surrounding suburbs of major cities. The closer you get to downtown the more expensive and the more difficult it is to do things.
In Europe I get the impression moving to larger cities actually does improve a lot of aspects of life on an individual basis.
For example, we have considered moving to New York or Chicago but what stops us is the amount of money needed and how difficult it can be just to keep up with a regular life in a city that dense and hostile.
Servers can pull in way more than that, like $40+/hr at semi fancy restaurants and Inns. Obviously it's location dependant, but $21/hr isn't crazy if you're on the US coast.
Bay Area fast food:
(Like super fast, very hard work, but still)