I bartended on the side. I finally gave it up mid-covid because the extra money I was earning didn't outweigh the exposure to sick people and people with deteriorating social skills.
The number of people who thought a server in the middle of a pandemic deserved less pay and more grief truly astounded me. Like bruh, I'm not here serving your drunk ass in the middle of covid for my enjoyment. Tip or I will prioritize every possible person at the bar before you.
I got into that latest bartending job because I had free time, I wanted a bit more money every month, and I'm decent at it from previous experience.
You are blaming the customers for "thinking you deserve less pay" when the actual person not paying you enough is the bar owner. Sorry for kicking up yet another fruitless discussion about tipping in the US, but these kind of mental gymnastics just trigger me.
Well.. consider this. As long as people keep buying drugs, dealers will keep selling them. As long as people keep tipping, pay based on tipping will keep existing.
And when adult labor dries up, you see Chik-Fil-A running a "summer camp" that puts grade school kids to work without pay. And 11 states working to make more child labor legal. And states trimming unemployment to attempt to force people into these shit jobs after they quit them during pandemic years.
Disorganized protest is not going to cut it. Me not tipping a bartender does absolutely nothing against the intentional machine built and reinforced at local, state, and federal level over generations.
If someone wants to take a local boycott action, they should stop going to bars and restaurants with a tipping structure. Then the loss is felt by the bar. Otherwise, the patron is getting their food/drinks, the bar makes their money, and the only party hurt is the wait staff reliant on tips.
Don't try to out "America's labor system sucks" me. I live here.
I admin lemmy.ml for 0 Biden/Putler/Xi bux per month. I got into it by doing a little posting, until the admins asked me if I wanted to waste even more of my free time, which I foolishly did.
I live in a area that's prone to severe weather, so i'll run around and clean up peoples yards after a big storm. you'll be surprised at how much people will pay to have a couple of branches and sticks to clean up, After a good storm I could make about $500.
And to finish answering your question I did this so I could buy a new alternator for my car. It just kinda stuck with me and I like having a little extra cash in my pocket.
The trades. Trades are desperate for good help willing to learn. electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pool builders, HVAC... the trades are in need of good help. It usually pays better than average too.
Someone once told me to get into electrician roles you should start young. Sad bc I would totally love to leave IT for good & study to become an electrician, but apparently I’m “too old” to start 🤷🏼♀️
It's hard to get an apprenticeship to become one in Australia after your mid twenties. I've heard it's because your pay has to be a fair bit higher than the kids just out of school, so they'd rather train a teenager.
Not currently, but I did a few sides jobs in the last ten years.
I am a Linux systems administrator. Before I did full contract work, I did part time contract work (alongside my full time salary job) for a general contractor as a piecemeal basis. A job here, 20 hour support there. Some jobs I made $300, some $3000. It was sporadic and came in waves. I got this from a former contract job who recommended me when they folded.
I also did writing gigs. I optioned a few scripts and sold a few short stories. That's still ongoing, but I haven't sold anything for a few years.
I do both freelance graphic design and historic window restoration on the side. I did them both before my current full time design job, and do them in my spare time. I'm lucky that my current job considers 32 hours full time, so I have Fridays to do side work.