When gas prices are above minimum wage

[JudyJudyJudy]

With the huge increase in gas prices in the Southeast and the prices expected to increase, what are people supposed to do? A CNA who works in the nursing home where my mother is told my sister last night that she'll probably have to quit work and try to get assistance. Many people, like this woman, in rural areas have to drive a long way to get to work. Most are working for minimum wage. With gas prices, it is no longer worth working; it's a sad situation.

[Sputterduck]

That's terrible. :(

[Bellaelle]

With Houston basically being shut down, they are warning us of gas prices going up to $5 dollars a gallon.

Judy, tell your sister to send her to Catholic Charities. They might be able to help her.

[lolabear]

and with the rising gas prices it forces the costs of other things to increase as well so you really just get screwed all around

[JudyJudyJudy]

Bella, how does she find a Catholic Charities in the area?

lolabear, you're right.

[Indigo]

Yeah it's nearly 5 here now. What a fucking mess.

[jessiehannan]

It makes me very glad that we don't have to pay for my DH to commute back and forth to work. We are extremely blessed that his boss picks him up and drops him off at our front door.
I feel really bad for those whoa re on assitance and are already struggling. They only adjust for inflation twice a year. :( And to qualify for assitance, you must put in so many hours of job searches and or school.

[Bellaelle]

Judy, have her check the site for a local office.

http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=193

[GirlsMama]

This will probably sound very naive, but once the hurricane is over will gas prices get back to normal?

[PiccoloRose]

This will probably sound very naive, but once the hurricane is over will gas prices get back to normal?


Not likely. After Katrina they only went down a small fraction of what they had jumped to. I'm sure they will go down some, but not back to where they were before Gustav and Ike.


DH recently had to take a second job because of all the prices of gas and groceries jumping up. Even with two jobs he still mows yards on weekends and sometimes sells plasma just for gas money. 3 years ago he had one job and we were doing just fine financially, now two jobs isn't always enough.

[vulturemom]

On the other side of this sad situation there are many people on fixed incomes that depend on some of these workers. such as home heath care workers, nursing home CMAs, and cooks in the nursing homes. And they aren't going to be able to get the care that they need. It is a sad situation on all sides.

I have a SIL that recently quite doing home health care for much the same reason and she has felt sick about leaving the people she cared for.

[alejorge]

The gas station up the road from us went from $3.67 a gallon to $4.19 a gallon now. With the job my DH does he drives quite a bit so it is going to be hard on us for a bit. I can't believe how expensive everything has become and how the government thinks that we can afford it.

[HammBugga]

WTH is minimum wage these days? Isn't it over $9 an hour? Gas prices were up to over $5 a gallon this summer but they have gone down now, thankfully.

[jessiehannan]

The national minimum wage is $6.55 an hour. In some states it is higher, and in some states it is lower.

[PiccoloRose]

The minimum wage for the state of Alabama is $5.15 an hour. Gas here has gone up to over $4.50 at some stations. A lot of the stations with cheaper prices listed are out of regular grade gas.

[JudyJudyJudy]

WTH is minimum wage these days? Isn't it over $9 an hour? Gas prices were up to over $5 a gallon this summer but they have gone down now, thankfully.
The minimum wage in Georgia is $5.15/hour unless an employee is covered by FLSA; then the minimum wage is $6.55.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm#Georgia

[GirlsMama]

Wow. My dh is in he USAF, we live on base, shop on base, get gas on base and he drives about 5 minutes to get to work, I've walked to his work before. I honestly feel like I've been living in a bubble or something, all this talk makes me really realize that some people are suffering in just normal life.

Do we feel this is repercussions yet from 9/11?

All this concern with gas prices makes me want our country to get away from gas-operated vehicles and fast so we can stop worrying about where our gas is coming from and so we can help our environment...

[JudyJudyJudy]

Judy, have her check the site for a local office.

http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=193
Thanks, Bella. There are only two in Georgia (none close to where they live). I read that there are sometimes satellites, but I don't know if that's the case in GA or not.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Do we feel this is repercussions yet from 9/11?
Supply and demand play a big role. However, so does the war in Iraq, which has nothing to do with 9/11.

[Hermione]

Like GirlsMama, my DH is in the military. We're lucky to receive roughly the same amount of salary each month. We also get a housing, food, and cost of living adjustment. It's comforting to know that we'll have a roof over our heads every month.

It's just scary that others aren't so lucky. It makes me ill. I recently tried to work outside the home but by the time I paid for gas and childcare, it just wasn't worth it. I can't imagine what some other families are going through right now.

[JudyJudyJudy]

The gas prices are really hitting rural areas especially hard. The commutes to work are often very long, and many in rural area drive old vehicles that get poor gas mileage. I was reading about one town in CA that runs on generators, and the gas prices are about to ruin it. Rural gas stations are shutting off their pumps because they can't afford to keep them running.

Some rural school systems are now only having school four days per week. While I think that's a great idea, it is hurting some parents, who now not only have higher gas prices to deal with but also more daycare costs for the days when their kids aren't in school.

In our case, dh often drives 800 miles per week for work, so there are times when we think it's not even worth it. If the prices continue to increase, we're pretty much screwed.

[Suzette]

That's terrible that someone would quit their job because they can't afford to drive there. :(
Dh and I both work 2 jobs. We each have a M-F 9-5. He also works at the library 2 nights a week and every other Saturday. I work Sat and Sun at an inn doing breakfast set-up. I'm hoping I can keep up the 7 day a week schedule without buring out.

Dh's income might be reduced (again) in January, and there's talk of closing his local office which would mean he'd have to drive almost an hour each way to the other office.

[Sadalsuud]

The gas prices are really hitting rural areas especially hard. The commutes to work are often very long, and many in rural area drive old vehicles that get poor gas mileage. I was reading about one town in CA that runs on generators, and the gas prices are about to ruin it. Rural gas stations are shutting off their pumps because they can't afford to keep them running.

In our case, dh often drives 800 miles per week for work, so there are times when we think it's not even worth it. If the prices continue to increase, we're pretty much screwed.

While I don't drive 800 miles per week, I used to drive 400. I also used to get mileage since I covered 3 towns. Since I was no longer considered a courier for part of the day since I traveled to each town each day, I have had to stop working. (We share a house with my mom, so we split the costs for the house, which is why I can still go online.) I couldn't afford the gas to get to work. Now, you'd think that the hospital would pay a decent wage, but my profession was as important as housekeeping wage-wise. Yup, while the lab techs were making salaries in the mid 20's, us phlebotomists earn single digit wages.

Dh and I have only one vehicle. We thought, when I got hired, that I'd be able to make enough to get another vehicle so that dh could work, but I didn't. So, we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We needed another vehicle so that dh can find and get a job since dropping him off isn't an option since I had to drive all over the place, but with my wage, we can't afford another vehicle. Now, since I've lost my job because I couldn't afford the gas, we have to be careful how much gas we use (we are stretching my last paycheck as far as we can), which makes dh finding a job difficult. If we use up our money for gas finding a job, we won't have enough to last until he gets his first paycheck. So, it sucks.

And just to get an idea of where we live, we live 13 miles from two towns. Because we have to drive through at least one canyon like this one (http://www.markshafferrealestate.com/overlook%20cr.jpg) either way, it takes us 30-40 minutes to get to town. The smaller of the two (pop 350 +/-) finally built a gas station, but but has no high school. The k-8 population is about 100 students. The larger of the two towns (pop 900 +/-) has a grocery store (which I've applied at, I'd make a penny less working there than I would at the hospital, and I'd only have to drive 26 miles a day), 3 gas stations, and a k-8 and high school. An hour from our house is the Walmart and hospital. Eighty miles away is the nearest city and only mall in our half of the state.

I didn't intend for this post to be a whiny/poor me type of post, but just wanted to show that the the gas prices do make life very difficult. Rural areas are the hardest hit at first, since carpooling isn't very often an option, neither is public transport since there is no public transport. The best you can do is to just no go into town unless you absolutely have to and when you do go grocery shopping, you buy in bulk.

[xobehs]

I want to bring up...
THe price of SELLING gas is getting high as well. Small gas stations are getting slaughtered by the credit card processing fees. Most people are buying on plastic.
25k in credit card sales for the month can amount to 600 or more in processing fees. That is a big chunk of operating change.
As prices of gas rise, Credit Card companies are making MORE as their fees are percentage of sales based. Sucks.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Suzette, I hope you don't burn out. That's really too much. I worked 7 days a week for three years, but I didn't have kids then. Regardless, it wasn't good, and it did negatively affect my health.

Sadalsuud, I'm sorry you're in such a situation, too. It really is tough, isn't it? The woman in the OP lives over 40 miles one way from her minimum-wage job. Many people in the rural areas are being hurt by the gas prices like that woman and you are. It's really bad.

xobehs, don't even get me started on credit card companies. :mad:

[mtmomma]

List of U.S. minimum wages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_minimum_wages)

[babymakes4]

We are very much in a similar situation. Dh is a contractor, drives for a living, and must pay for his own fuel....It is killing us. Sometimes it seems as though he works for free. It's sad when you work 60 hours a week, and only manage to bring home $300 a week because fuel prices are so high.

[Sputterduck]

I got gas yesterday and I was expecting it to be bad. A month ago gas was 4.69 here and yesterday it was 3.89. I wonder way it's not bad here.

ETA: It's the lowest I've seen since we moved here.

[KaraJ]

Gas is only $3.67 today where I'm at. The middle of nowhere. :)

[Sputterduck]

Wow minimum wage in Kansas is 2.65