• roux [they/them, thon/thons]@hexbear.net
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    7 months ago

    Saw a post on there yesteraday where someone couldn’t believe some of us work 2 jobs just to be able to afford rent and food. I really hope this opens a lot of westerners eyes to to what is and isn’t propaganda.

    • argon@lemmy.today
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      7 months ago

      I never understood what is bad about “working 2 jobs”. (I don’t live in the US.) Is two 20 hour jobs not the same as one 40 hour job?

      • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        Two 20 hour jobs is optimistic. Part-time is considered anything under 35 hours a week. It’s much more likely you’re going to be stuck trying to squeeze two 30 hour jobs into a single week because neither job is going to consider the schedule of the other and you’re going to be caught in between. And as others have said, neither jobs are going to give you the benefits a 40 hour job should be giving you, but are often screwing you out of because, in the US, pretty much nothing but cheap healthcare is guaranteed for 40 hours now.

        • Imnecomrade [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          7 months ago

          Not to mention most jobs are gig work now. I haven’t had a full time job with benefits for years now. I am able to survive with one full time contract job, but my mental and physical health are at an all time low because I sit and work all day five days a week, including holidays if I don’t want to lose pay, even when I am sick. There’s no reason all of these gig jobs shouldn’t be full-time jobs with benefits (as well as the numerous low paying part time jobs that people worse off than me have to suffer working in multiple of them). Every time a US company needs an employee, they just hire a contractor so they can get away with not paying them benefits. I’m able to get health insurance from the contract company I’m hired under, but I have to spend around $500 a month, and that’s for me alone. Funny enough, the health insurance cost at my workplace isn’t any better, so even if I were hired, I wouldn’t pay less in insurance. I worked in jobs that paid me much less where the insurance was around a few tens of dollars a week or so.

      • DerRedMax [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        It’s rarely two 9-5 M-F jobs that add up to 40 hours a week.

        It’s usually a combination of a primary job that is just below the threshold of full time and therefore doesn’t qualify for basic benefits like health insurance, paid time off, or retirement <32 hours.

        Usually the second job is in the evening and weekends. Service jobs, retail, etc. Often the schedule varies wildly and changes often.

        Typically both jobs are paid hourly and can end at any time.

        A lot of people work much more than 40 hours per week, but don’t have the security of a full time, salaried job.

      • roux [they/them, thon/thons]@hexbear.net
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        7 months ago

        Most places don’t offer benefits under 36-40 hours, including 401k, IRA, other retirement options. Most part time jobs are lower pay. And also if you are driving 15-30 minutes to either job, that ends up being like 2 hours total drive time since we are a car congestion-centric culture. Working multiple jobs just to get by is predatory and aimed at the extremely poor people.