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How do people survive on wages close to minimum wage?

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  • 20-04-2017 10:20pm
    #1
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭


    Plenty of people I went to school with are working full time in supermarkets. Most would be on circa €10 per hour.

    How do people live on roughly 400 quid a week. Now they all live at home with the folks but what are they going to do in the future when they need a mortgage? How are they going to afford it?

    I'm in college atm, and earn €50 a week, just to get by, but I'm sacrificing money now to have a good paying job for life.

    Would these people not go to college and at least doubt what there on now a few years after graduating?

    EDIT: Thread Title should be - How do people survive on wages close to minimum wage?


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    #2
    C Montgomery Gurns II
    Closed Accounts Posts: 264 ✭✭C Montgomery Gurns II


    Hollister11 wrote: »

    I'm in college atm, and earn €50 a week, just to get by, but I'm sacrificing money now to have a good paying job for life.

    How much do you expect to earn from your career, out of curiosity?


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    #3
    MyPeopleDrankTheSoup
    Registered Users Posts: 2,717 ✭✭✭MyPeopleDrankTheSoup


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    Would these people not go to college and at least doubt what there on now a few years after graduating?

    i hate this attitude. college isn't for everyone and you're not guaranteed a good job afterwards at all these days. everyone has a degree now.


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    #4
    Armchair Andy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,847 ✭✭✭Armchair Andy


    Like a college degree guarantees employment...


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    #5
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    C Montgomery Gurns II wrote: »
    How much do you expect to earn from your career, out of curiosity?

    About 80K after 5 years.


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    #6
    Your Face
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,277 ✭✭✭Your Face


    It might be possible they cannot afford college at the moment.
    Free fees doesn't mean a free education.


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    #7
    amcalester
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,121 ✭✭✭amcalester


    Armchair Andy wrote: »
    Like a college degree guarantees employment...

    Masters are the new degrees.


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    #8
    snowflaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    I graduated 10 years ago

    I am not on €800 a week :(


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    #9
    petes
    Registered Users Posts: 8,382 ✭✭✭petes


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    About 80K after 5 years.

    Hahahaha


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    #10
    tonycascarino
    Registered Users Posts: 1,373 ✭✭✭tonycascarino


    Armchair Andy wrote: »
    Like a college degree guarantees employment...

    Agreed. I know loads who have college degrees who have no employment


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    #11
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Armchair Andy wrote: »
    Like a college degree guarantees employment...

    Not if you do a BA in classical studies. But if you do something practical, yes you will get a job sooner or later.


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    #12
    Armchair Andy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,847 ✭✭✭Armchair Andy


    petes wrote:
    Hahahaha


    What? That's 16k a year!!!


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    #13
    Kev1001
    Registered Users Posts: 37 ✭Kev1001


    What do you study?

    {not many job areas pay 80k after 5 years}


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    #14
    sonofenoch
    Registered Users Posts: 2,152 ✭✭✭sonofenoch


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    About 80K after 5 years.

    That reminds me of those people on dragons den......'in year 1 we had a profit of 5,000.....by year 3 we project a profit of 1.4 million" :D


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    #15
    snowflaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    Kev1001 wrote: »
    What do you study?

    {not many job areas pay 80k after 5 years}

    I kan haz 80 K's?


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    #16
    Beyondgone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,166 ✭✭✭Beyondgone


    If that's the standard of written English college students are passing off as "normal" then this generation is fecked.
    I keep hearing that they ought to be teaching programming in school. Teaching English might be a start.


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    #17
    lmimmfn
    Registered Users Posts: 3,553 ✭✭✭lmimmfn


    Armchair Andy wrote: »
    Like a college degree guarantees employment...
    Generally it gives you a much better chance in life than without, depends on the degree of course


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    #18
    bmwguy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭bmwguy


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    About 80K after 5 years.

    What field are you in? The good earners in my circle of friends are hitting 80k now 15 years out of university (IT and Finance). Most aren't.

    Nobody was within a country mile of it after 5.


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    #19
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    I wonder that myself. €400 a week, €1600 a month, less tax - how do you pay rent, bills, food... and the rest...


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    #20
    Elessar
    Registered Users Posts: 5,239 ✭✭✭Elessar


    I think it's a valid question and I really don't know OP. The amount of people I know just cruising through life on minimum to low wages is frightening. Zero ambition or motivation to better themselves. I know not everyone really knows what they want to do but people need to start getting serious about their future. Some are renting and are at the mercy of the ever increasing rental market, with no prospect of ever owning a home (but most are living at home). These are people in their 30s. What are they going to do as they get older?

    Truth is many people just won't be able to buy a home, ever.


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    #21
    happywithlife
    Registered Users Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭happywithlife


    My husband hated school and ended up working in the job he started in at 14 years of age
    Rock on 20 years he's still there and yet to hit €10 an hour. It's absolute crap. But he is so slow to change. He pulls in a decent enough wage when busy as he also gets some piecemeal pay on top of his Base wage. But it's very long hours. It was okay when it was just the two of us but realistically now with 3 kids he just about breaks even after paying for childcare but he'd rather be working which is fine. It's heartbreaking that his wage is so low though and he has been talking lots recently of leaving but with no qualifications he's loath to leave and I think he'd rather the devil he knows than the unknown


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    #22
    Your Face
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,277 ✭✭✭Your Face


    1. Get a degree
    2. ?
    3. Profit


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    #23
    snowflaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    Zascar wrote: »
    I wonder that myself. €400 a week, €1600 a month, less tax - how do you pay rent, bills, food... and the rest...

    Its tough, but doable.


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    #24
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Kev1001 wrote: »
    What do you study?

    {not many job areas pay 80k after 5 years}

    Computer Science, I'm specialising in softwared development.


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    #25
    Your Face
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,277 ✭✭✭Your Face


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    Computer Science, I'm specialising in softwared development.

    :pac:


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    #26
    snowflaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    Elessar wrote: »
    I think it's a valid question and I really don't know OP. The amount of people I know just cruising through life on minimum to low wages is frightening. Zero ambition or motivation to better themselves. I know not everyone really knows what they want to do but people need to start getting serious about their future. Some are renting and are at the mercy of the ever increasing rental market, with no prospect of ever owning a home (but most are living at home). These are people in their 30s. What are they going to do as they get older?

    Truth is many people just won't be able to buy a home, ever.

    Money isn't the be all and end all.

    Some people prefer sanity and a healthy work life balance to chasing the Euro


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    #27
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Beyondgone wrote: »
    If that's the standard of written English college students are passing off as "normal" then this generation is fecked.

    I was on my phone.

    I wouldn't send a message to a colleague or clients without proof reading,


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    #28
    snowflaker
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    Hollister11 wrote: »
    Computer Science, I'm specialising in softwared development.

    You missed out on the tech bubble soz


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    #29
    Hollister11
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,482 ✭✭✭Hollister11


    Your Face wrote: »
    :pac:

    Fecking Phone.


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    #30
    SEPT 23 1989
    Registered Users Posts: 43,028 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    Don't judge the happiness of your life by the money in your pocket

    Enjoy your youth revel in it

    It passes in a flash


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    #31
    bmwguy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭bmwguy


    You can't have a mortgage, a new car, kids,holidays and a social life on top of savings and pension funding on 400 a week but you can have some of them and be happy.


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