When Isa­iah Kir­by arrived at an inter­view for an assis­tant man­ag­er posi­tion for a “large nation­al retail chain,” he was stunned when he learned that his salary would not be near­ly as much as he was expect­ing. 

Kirby was told he would only be paid $12.50 an hour as an assistant manager and would receive a $.25 raise if he was ever promoted to general manager. 

Kir­by shared his frus­tra­tion in a Tik­Tok video viewed over 600,000 times. Sit­ting in his car, he told view­ers that he just left a job inter­view for a nation­al retail chain. The inter­view gave him the impres­sion that “every­one is just doomed.” 

Kir­by was inter­view­ing for an assis­tant man­ag­er posi­tion, and although earn­ings vary, the aver­age salary for a sim­i­lar posi­tion at a retail store, based on tax records, is just under $40,000.

How­ev­er, he was dumb­found­ed when the woman con­duct­ing his job inter­view informed him what his hourly rate would be. “I’m sor­ry to let you know this, I under­stand if this makes you not inter­est­ed any­more, but this posi­tion [earns] $12.50 an hour.” 

When Kir­by asked how much he would make if he was pro­mot­ed to the gen­er­al man­ag­er posi­tion, he learned that he would make $12.75 an hour, just an addi­tion­al $.25.

Pho­to: TRMK / Can­va Pro

“I love retail,” he said. “I used to make a lot of mon­ey in retail. Where did that go?” 

Kirby worried he would have to change careers despite his job experience.

While he expressed an inter­est in learn­ing a trade, he was unsure if he would even have time to learn while earn­ing no salary. 

“You don’t get paid to learn from most places,” the Kir­by lament­ed. “I don’t have any places near me that will pay me to learn, to weld, to code, or any­thing like that.” 

Out of sheer des­per­a­tion, he revealed, “I have no oppor­tu­ni­ties,” adding that he lives in “the mid­dle of the moun­tains” which only added to job scarci­ty.

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Many people could sympathize with Kirby, noting that wages have become nearly impossible to live off of. 

Infla­tion, an unsta­ble job mar­ket, and low wages have all com­bined to cre­ate an unsus­tain­able finan­cial sit­u­a­tion for many peo­ple in the US and com­menters were quick to assure Kir­by he was not alone in his strug­gles,

“I was offered my old posi­tion at a job from 20 years ago… FOR THE SAME PAY AS 20 YEARS AGO,” one Tik­Tok user shared. “The way I cack­led at $12 an hour in 2024. These com­pa­nies are crazy,” anoth­er user exclaimed. “I get paid $65,000 a year to man­age 10 peo­ple at a bank and it’s not enough. Retail is wild,” anoth­er user wrote. 

Pho­to: Hira­man  / Can­va Pro

Oth­ers believed that most of the mon­ey that should be going to employ­ees is going into the pock­ets of CEOs of major com­pa­nies. 

Accord­ing to the US Depart­ment of Labor, the aver­age fed­er­al min­i­mum wage for nonex­empt employ­ees is $7.25 an hour. How­ev­er, more than three-quar­ters of Amer­i­can work­ers (77%) believe that the min­i­mum wage is too low, and most peo­ple are unable to afford a decent lifestyle despite work­ing full-time or even mul­ti­ple jobs.

The cost of living, unemployment, and economic inequality have many Americans struggling to find a job where the pay covers even the most basic necessities.

Address­ing this nation­wide issue involves mea­sures includ­ing pol­i­cy changes, edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives, and efforts to reduce eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty, among oth­er changes. 

Nobody who works 40 hours and five days a week should be earn­ing only $12 an hour. They deserve afford­able liv­ing and far more for their ded­i­ca­tion and hard work.

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Megan Quinn is a writer at Your­Tan­go who cov­ers enter­tain­ment and news, self, love, and rela­tion­ships.