deadheadskier wrote: ↑May 4th, '21, 06:25
easyrider16 wrote: ↑May 3rd, '21, 16:36
Bubba wrote: ↑May 3rd, '21, 09:27Unless I'm mistaken, living in Vermont is a choice. Part of that choice is the type of jobs available and the pay scale involved. You can go anywhere, yet you possibly chose to move here and/or choose to stay here. That's your choice. Why are you complaining?
I think this mentality needs to change. Just because you can move doesn't mean you shouldn't have the right to stay put and improve things where you are. Not everyone can move easily, and those that can shouldn't have to leave their home if things can be made better where they are now.
That said, I think the $12 minimum wage in Vermont isn't unfair given the cost of living. It's not good money but it is a living wage. I wouldn't oppose increasing it a dollar or two, and I think ultimately that would be good for the economy in VT overall. But it's a far cry from the federal minimum.
I very much feel wages for numerous jobs should go up and the minimum wage should be a liveable wage. If a company can't afford to pay someone enough working full time to sustain themselves without public assistance, then they shouldn't be in business.
I very much disagree with your first point that people should have the right to stay where their birth or chosen home is and expect decent work. I went to high school and college in VT. I and a very high percentage of my classmates, especially college classmates, left VT for greener pastures. And I had a degree in hospitality, which is one of the industries that does have some opportunity in VT.
After college I stayed for two years in Stowe and looked around the landscape at the average age people were achieving a decent enough job in hospitality to afford their first home in VT and they were typically mid to late 30s. So, I looked for a new job in a location that paid better and was cheaper to live. That took me to Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. Each move was to a place I knew no one, but the job moves were all well studied regarding earnings vs cost of living and included a promotion. I found my way back to VT and got a pretty good management job in Burlington, but still saw even better financial opportunity in Portland Maine and left again.
Eventually I got tired of working 60+ hours a week in hospitality and bored of operations work and looked for an exit. I just happened to host a number of medical trade shows and started talking with the sales reps about how lucrative it could be. I had no idea. Tough field to get into though. They said get some sales experience in an industry you know, prove you can sell and maybe you'll get an opportunity. So I started selling fine meats, did very well at selling and made a decent enough wage to buy our first home here in NH.
I still wanted to get into medical sales though. After a couple of years in meat sales I started applying to medical sales jobs like crazy and could barely even get an interview, nevermind a job. This was 2007-2011, which Asher points out was very tough economic times. I thought that maybe if I started working in a hospital, a medical device company would finally give me my shot.
So, I looked at fast medical degree programs that would still pay me decently if I still didn't achieve the medical sales career I wanted. I saw that two year Community College degrees in numerous disciplines would pay $50-60k+ right out of school. (There's an answer for you Asher). I took a gamble and at 36 years old went to a Community College to get an X-ray degree. My parents and friends thought I was crazy. My wife probably did too, but will never admit it and was supportive at the time. It was a hospital based program. I was in the hospital from 7-4 then went straight to a restaurant three school nights a week and double shifts on weekends to wait tables to pay my bills. The commitment between school and restaurant work for two years was 80+ hours a week. I sacrificed almost all social life and only skied 15 days a year. Part of that sacrifice also included putting off having children until I was 39.
Anyways, long story, longer while working OR cases while still in school I networked with the medical sales reps and got names of their recruiters and started firing out resumes. Come graduation all of my classmates got $50k starting X-ray tech jobs. Pretty solid for only two years of College. I was about to join them, but got a call back from a recruiter and after a six week, one interview per week hiring process got a job in medical sales. This was 2014. It was a "bad" medical Sales job "only" making $90k a year. Did that for a couple of years and got a good medical sales job. It has blown away every expectation I had when setting out on this path in 2007. It took 9 years and massively hard work and sacrifice to get there. I won't say how much I make other than it has afforded us the ability for my wife to be a stay at home mom and my one income has been well above the threshold of being eligible for any Pandemic stimulus.
I'm sharing this story because it demonstrates that if you are nimble and move around, sacrifice and reinvent yourself, you can achieve great things. Not everyone can do what I did, but most people can find a career somewhere that affords a higher standard of living. It might not be exactly where you want to live, but you can find that balance if you work hard and sacrifice. Hell many on this board are retirees now living in VT who slaved away in NYC or Boston for 35 years before they could afford to live comfortably in VT. They most likely would not have been able to achieve that had they moved to VT in their 20s like Asher chose to do.
Good luck Asher. You can figure out a way to live comfortably in VT someday with hard work and figuring out what fields have the jobs in VT to do so. If not there right now, go somewhere else and then come back as a retiree.