Reddit user glasswitch88 recently came to know through interaction with her boss that Target employees earn more than her.
The law firm admin assistant shares how indifferent her boss was to the news that she earns less than a Target employee
Original Poster (OP) is an administrative assistant in a law firm and a single mom to a cat. She heard that Target raised their starting wage to $24.
On Target’s official website they said, “The new approach will apply to hourly team members working in Target stores, supply chain facilities and headquarters locations, positioning Target as a wage leader in every market where it operates.”
“The minimum wage will still be $15, but some positions will have a higher starting salary.”
The admin assistant heard the news that some Target employees are offered $24 an hour when she earns less than that
“The problem is that the OP earns about $23 an hour in a law firm in New York, which is less than a Target employee would. She mentioned it to her boss and the boss’ reaction was that it doesn’t matter because if they had to choose between working at Target and working at a law firm, they would prefer an office job.”
In one of the comments, glasswitch88 explained “this firm makes millions. I have no savings and haven’t even touched my student debt. But nooooo I should be proud to work here… oh and our profits went up last year. And I got a whopping 2% raise.”
We reached out to glasswitch88 and she said, “To be clear, I do want Target to make $24 an hour. I know it’s mostly a PR piece and only for certain NYC locations (and the veracity of that is not even clear). However, I wanted to just use the article as a way of showing my boss that times are changing and it might be time to up the base salary of support staff. If we want to attract the right employees and we require sterling resumes (people with amazing GPAs from Ivy League schools), we can’t be paying them the same wages as Target.”
The boss didn’t seem to be that concerned because working at a law firm gives more prestige
The OP herself opens up about her finances in one of the comments: “I live in a two-bedroom apartment that’s $2200 so I pay $1100 a month, plus $100 a week in groceries (yay NYC prices) and then $200 a month in electric/gas/internet. I make about $2400 a month. So yeah. Saving is not happening.”
She revealed to us that “a lot of non-billable behind-the-scenes work. She answers the phones, fields guests, and does a lot of paperwork for high-powered clients.”
However, the workplace has a few problems that need to be solved, “everyone is underpaid, especially by NYC standards. When we are talking about normal rent being $2,000 for a two-bedroom, a $40,000 salary is about half a month’s paycheck. But I do know a lot of folks are in the same boat. A lot of us also only got a 3% raise which doesn’t account for inflation is around 7%.”
“When Covid hit I was asked to take on a lot of extra responsibilities. Basically, before I was just an admin, now I’m an admin and HR. There was no additional pay, in fact, we all got our salaries cut. We have since been reimbursed and are back to normal but I didn’t get any kind of bonus or pay increase. I’m still doing the job of two people with no end in sight.”
The OP pointed out that a law firm’s salary should compete with salaries in the same work field and not with Target
That is why she decided to leave and managed to find a position that pays $10k more
“There is a brighter side to the story because the OP just accepted a position at an asset management company as an admin assistant for nearly double her current salary, which just proves that it is possible to find a better job if you dislike the one you’re currently at.”
People in the comments thought that Target’s offer is very decent and they would take it
