$15-20K/year FT position

Not trying to be a smart-ass, but the answer is, they get a second job. No reason a single person with no kids can't work one or two part-time jobs on the side. 50-60 hours of work a week still leaves plenty of time to kick back at the bar.

 

You don't need a college degree to live like that.

 

Tough to find a second job with a reporter's schedule. Also, it's a small daily, and it's a news position. It's not like there is going to be a consistent 9-to-5 to schedule around.

 

Not to sound like the guy who walked uphill both ways to school, but have to agree with SBR. First full-time job I had, also worked 3 or 4 days a week part time. Just 3 or 4 hrs a day, but either worked at buddy's deli or doing construction with friend of my parents. Not ideal, but anyone under 30 without kids should be willing to do it.

 

If the small daily pays for the overtime, then there's not much need to work a second job, unless it's some freelance stuff.

If they don't pay for the overtime, then get a second job and get paid for that time.

 

And that's just what the One-Percenters want you to think.

 

Well I did it, so guess the One-Percenters got me. When is the next Occupy Wall Street? Is there room in your tent? I think the girl who quit the LA Times may want a spot also.

 

Not faulting you for that, but the story is all too common now. And the gap widens.

 

Ummm. Yeah. That was about 20 years ago. Was saying first full-time job you have may not be the best so maybe work a part-time job.

 

Do we still get the benefit of the free lectures from the bootstrap crowd here?

 

When I was looking for my first job out of school, 2005, the lowest salary I was offered was $18,500 (I think... maybe $19?). The most I was offered was $24,000. These were mostly 5 or 6 day a week gigs as the man in a one-man sports dept. I ended up taking $22,000 to do sports for two weekly papers in a more desirable location. (i.e. near a real city, not out in BFE.)

The $18.5 place was the last one I interviewed with, and the largest paper I was looking at, though still a one-man show. They offered the job and I told them I'd been offered considerably more by much smaller papers. He got up, closed the door to the office and said, "Well, we can go up to $19,500 but you'd be making more than a lot of people out there."

They weren't surprised several days later when I called to decline.

 

If taking this job would require picking up a second job, why in the hell would anyone take this as the first job?

At least baseball players and actors have the pie-in-the-sky dream of making millions. A journalist's pie-in-the-sky dream is to make $100,000.