I am twenty-two years old and I am constantly underpaid for the work that I do. I work live events, where the minimum pay is 15/hr and as great as that sounds, it isn't enough. I know I sound like a whining millennial, but truthfully I really only get paid to live. I am cool with that, but if it interferes with my eating habits, then it is a problem. I worked New Years and got paid from my previous gigs on the 31st and that sounds great, but it was way less than I thought I was going to get paid. It could have been taxes that were taken out, or we just weren't paid as much as we should be.
Now, lets talk numbers shall we. For concert gigs, we get paid 15/hr and for corporate gigs, we can get either 18/hr to about 20/hr and if you work enough of corp, then you won't really have to worry about rent or anything for a while. The problem with this is that I don't get paid weekly, I get paid bi-weekly. Yup, the dreaded bi-weekly. That means that I have enough money for some bills and at the end of the month, there is just money for rent money.
I pay my rent on time for the most part, but the problem with just having enough to live is that I haven't started to pay off my student loans. If I started, then I wouldn't eat and the only one eating would be my cat because I rather starve than have him starve. Now, how does age factor into this, well like I said, I am 22. Most of the people in live events are in there early to late 30's if they are in lead roles. I see a few people my age doing some lead role stuff, but that is rare.
I have been skateboarding to majority of my gigs in Orlando for a year and at this point, I know what I should and shouldn't skate for. Yeah, extra money is nice, but so is being respected for what you do. If I know that I will have enough money for the end of the month, then I probably won't take an extra job if I know that I will belittled or, if I know that I won't get paid enough for my time.
Also, I have skated 28 miles, for a corporate gig, just because I knew the money was going to be nice. Yes, I am young, but I am not young enough to be paid a lesser wage then people that don't work half as hard as me.
