I Could Make More Working at McDonald’s
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I walked into the evil McD’s a couple of days ago and was greeted with this flyer on the door:
Flexible hours, all shifts
Managers and Counter Crew Wanted
Apply Today
I considered it for—no, that’s not true. I didn’t consider it at all, not even for a nanosecond. But the irony struck me hard when I received an invitation from Axia College Online to teach an online technical writing course. Actually, the invitation was to send a resume so they could consider my fitness for the position. Here are the details:
9 week course
15-20 hours per week commitment by faculty
Compensation: $1,235 per course
So let’s see…9 weeks times 20 hours, that’s 180 hours divided into 1,235 is…$6.86 per hour! To teach a college-level course! I have a Ph.D., 10 years of college-level teaching experience, and 2 years of experience in the technical and marketing communication industry. Can they actually find faculty to work for peanuts? I guess so. Come to think of it, I used to do it. But I never figured out the hourly wage because I was afraid of what I might find out.
So be careful who you make jokes to about working in fast food. That person may just be college teacher who’s making less than the fry cook at your local Infarctions-R-Us.
October 6th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I know a guy who is into the practice of “flipping” houses in Salt Lake City. He spent about five months last year trying to fix up a house, working about 50-60 hours a week. He managed to sell it for about $20,000 in profit. He was proud of himself until he realized he was only making about $16 an hour. Not too bad overall, but this is a person with an Ivy League business education. Once people start thinking about the true income they are making, a lot of things aren’t even close to worth the time.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:30 am
Most of the teachers/instructors/professors I’ve come across aren’t motivated primarily by money. Most do it out of love for their profession. So even if they make less than McDonald’s workers, I still give them a lot of respect.
October 8th, 2007 at 9:04 am
This is by no means a representative salary for U.S. college professors. It is, however, fairly typical for adjunct college instructors. And yes, they’re definitely not in it for the money.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Hi FF:
Stumbled to your site. Quite interesting about the #’s! I am disabled and get $623 a month Social Security Disability with no other income. I own my home which is paid for & attended college online for 2 semesters. I cannot afford to finish and am about 12 credits away from an associates.
I don’t even qualify for a volunteer job! It stinks when you were a hard worker your whole working life only to become pretty much worthless although I know better. The kicker is that I used to care for quadreplegics and have a neck injury-also helped handicapped gain and remain in employment.
I have decided to raise Labrador retreivers and have my great companions to thank who will help me survive in the end!
~GH
October 10th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
That makes me feel better about myself. I’m a waiter at a pretty upscale place and my guests always ask me if I’m in school. I’m not. Anyway, to my point; last night I made $268.15 in 5 hours. That’s $53.63 per hour. Beats the pants off Micky D’s.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
@ Gretchen: More power to you! Your Labs will value your time like no job ever would.
@ Hal: Yes, beats the pants off Micky D’s and the salaries of adjunct instructors who would likely teach your first general ed classes. I was a waiter once in what was an upscale restaurant in that neighborhood. I pretty much sucked at it and never made more than $15 per hour in tips.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
DanB: Good example. A lot of people want to make money in real estate, but have no idea what they are doing. I’m in that school of hard knocks, but have found a great deal of value in working with a mentor who is successful in real estate investing. Mentors help us learn much faster than we may otherwise on our own.
Jennifer made a good point in that money is not what motivates many people. If we do what we are passionate about then that is prosperity. Money, however, can be a powerful tool to allow us to accomplish more of what we are passionate about.
Gretchen: Way to be creative in working options. Society needs more self reliant solutions like yours.
Thanks to FF for this website. The idea is to become better fathers. Doing what we love is great, but if we can be innovative in our approach and learn great principles from other successful people that prosper, it opens doors of freedom to spend more time with our children and enrich their lives with experience. Multiple streams of income that we learn to obtain from great mentors will get us to economic freedom quicker and allow us to impact not only our childrens’ lives, but their children and perpetually onward. I’m not there yet, but love to learn from and share with others the strategies that work best.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I don’t know about the “follow your passion” argument. I did it for a long time. Turns out my passion doesn’t pay so well. I think I could be passionate about armpit sniffing if it paid enough.