Maybe it’s the job you’re in or the area?
See this is why I don’t get why people sneer down at supermarket work? I mean don’t get me wrong, I did the same myself until a mate took on a job and acted as my canary in the coal mine so to speak. Best thing I’ve done for a number of reasons.
Firstly at my old job they’ve had a raise and are now on £14.50 flat rate, expected to do at least 60hrs a week general haulage type work, performing miracles each and every day to get either done at a decent time or prevent being dragged into an unplanned night out. The job wasn’t difficult by any means but it was always a battle.
Now I’m on with Tesco, I mainly do trunking work, I start early but I’m done by lunchtime every day so I’m there for the kids in the afternoon this saving on childcare costs. I probably average around 50hrs a week, but could do less, and have paid breaks, no nights out. So in terms of work/life balance I’m much better off.
As for wages if you look at the advert it doesn’t look great at £14.63, but its not a flat rate and you get more for weekends or dark money, more for bank hols, more for anything over 42.5hrs and so on but if you flatten it all out (pay ÷ hours worked) my hourly rate is £19.20ish so I’m on more money now than I was for less hours than I was doing. Plus I get bonuses of which I’m expecting about £2,000 on the next payday.
I don’t particularly hammer the hours like others do, but I’m going to end up paying 40% tax on some of my earnings in this tax year for the first time in a long long time.
The point I’m making is that there are jobs where you can make money and don’t have to spill blood or tears for it. There’s precisely none of my friends who earn more than me and they all do varying jobs, from warehouse work to sales exec to site manager for a construction company.
I’m lucky that I’ve fallen on my feet, but I took a move to do something I’d always almost ‘looked down’ upon to find it.