ipsissimus666 OP t1_j1fj7wh wrote on December 23, 2022 at 11:09 PM

Reply to comment by septagon in Churches that allow sleeping overnight in their parking lot? by ipsissimus666

I really struggle with work and value.

I have 12 employees. They all make $20-30 an hour. It’s still not enough to live and prosper on. The only reason they get by is because they have family and friends and significant others to pool resources.

I can’t pay them more, and I don’t have a plan for their upward mobility. It’s gutting because I want them to have assurance that they can grow old and survive. My salary (when I was paying myself) from the business was pretty much in line theirs, even though my job less physically demanding and taxing.

It didn’t feel right.. Particularly through the last few years.

I don’t know what I’m ‘worth’, and through that job and my two new ones, I simply don’t earn enough to make it on my own.

Is it normal to arrive at 50 years old and have roommates and failing health and no considerable retirement? I mean well, work hard, and do my best for people… But the results are what count, and I can’t produce any more.

I don’t know how to advance from here. If this what I’m paid, this is what I’m worth I suppose. But it’s not enough to really live.

septagon t1_j1fk4zm wrote on December 23, 2022 at 11:16 PM

Idk man I've never run a business so I'm not going to make any assumptions, it just strikes me as really strange being an employer of 12 and still not making enough ends meet to have a roof over your head. I'm left here scratching my head about that I just don't even know.

ipsissimus666 OP t1_j1fkj71 wrote on December 23, 2022 at 11:19 PM

No worries.. For sure it doesn’t make any sense, and it is completely my own doing why I’m in this mess.

I appreciate you listening and sharing all the same. Life is confusing.

All the best to you.

septagon t1_j1flnln wrote on December 23, 2022 at 11:28 PM

If you want to listen to my unsolicited advice from someone who's never walked a mile in your shoes here it is: if you're struggling to provide a living for these employees and failing to provide a living for yourself it might be time to throw in the towel. Some businesses need major changes or just stop making financial sense, I wonder if that's where you're at.

There's parts of the country that don't get brutally cold, that have COL half as much as here. Cities like salt lake or the RDU area or maybe up in the Pacific Northwest like Bend or Spokane. Where you can get a non stressful job that lets you afford an apartment and then work things out from there. I'm just spitballing of course that's just probably what I'd be thinking if I was in your shoes. Regardless, I wish you the warmest of holidays and if you've got nobody to vent to, just dm me here.