‘Panda Express down the street pays $17 an hour, so I would rather work there’: Jaded job hunter can’t fathom ridiculously low-paying position

There is a common refrain around people of a certain age that “no one wants to work anymore.” Despite the fact that younger people have seen two recessions, skyrocketing inflation, loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs and crippling college debt, people seem to blame laziness. A TikTok recently account clapped back at all that.

An account on TikTok named teacherinreallife, whose real name is Jaclyn Hope, shared a “ridiculous job posting” along with what it pays and what it requires. It’s pretty eye opening.

Hope is a mother of two who has her own design business, and her video revealed just how bad things can be out there. The job posting is for an “elearning Media Designer/Web Designer (Temporary).”

“Look at this job posting. … This job is a full on designer and developer. You’re creating all the images, graphics, 3D assets, you’re also coding in HTML and CSS. You have to be a proficient coder.”

Other requirements? A bachelor’s degree. Four to six years’ experience. Proficiency in a whole mess of things like Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere, After Effects. I can barely handle We Got This Covered‘s incredibly simple CMS!

This sounds like at the very least a $50k a year job, right? But should be $75k. It’s $20K! What in the what! This really is a dystopian hellhole we’ve created for ourselves.

The position, by the way, is offered by Cengage Group, “one of the largest education technology companies in the world.” Largest in the world? Then pay your employees like you are!

Listen, as a stand up and a writer, I know how to be poor. But some people out there need to make a living wage. The more and more we don’t value our workers, the worse it gets for all of us. This is ridiculous.

Hope goes on to explain that the salary comes out to “$9 an hour. Minimum wage in my county is $15.” Her local Panda Express pays $17 an hour. Hey Cengage, Panda Express pays more than you and they don’t really add anything to the world.

Let’s look at it from a different perspective. Per the World Population Review, an average American household spends $61,334 a year on expenses. That’s a shortage of $40k. FOR A FULL TIME JOB AND IT’S NOT EVEN A PERMANENT POSITION.

Average rent for a year? It’s $14k. A house? It’s $274k. This job? A travesty.