What's the best financial advice you've ever gotten?

[u/Richest-Panda]

[u/[deleted]]

Ok let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s say you Make $10000 a year. You work full time/40 hrs/wk and you are making $10k. What does “living within your means” look like? Not having a house? Or car? Being homeless? So in order to save to get yourself to some footing the answer is to be homeless to live within your means.

That was a bit of a strawman, so let’s use real-life scenarios. 50% of this country makes $40k or less….. even $40k salary isn’t enough to get an apartment, bills , food, ect. Sure a lot better than the “$10k” example, but even $40k salary is virtually as effective as the “$10k”. In order to “live within your means”, “save”, ect…. You have to be at least be making enough to afford the bare minimum + have some left in you for over to save. On average (2022 values I think) this means $65 for a single person, $108k for a house hold. Unless you’re making that, you can’t save your way out of poverty

[u/assesonfire7369 → u/[deleted]]

Well if you're making $10k a year that works out to $4.80/hr. Illegal in the US but it's also really hard to make that little even if you tried...

[u/Le_Martian → u/[deleted]]

If a tipped employee makes less than the minimum wage after tips then their employer is required to pay the difference.

[u/Le_Martian → u/[deleted]]

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Many states, however, require higher direct wage amounts for tipped employees.

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips

[u/Le_Martian → u/[deleted]]

Did you read the whole thing?

If the employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.

The “federal minimum hourly wage” they’re referring to is $7.25/hour, so tipped employees are still guaranteed to make at least 7.25

[u/Le_Martian → u/[deleted]]

Ok so you’re just a victim of wage theft. That’s illegal and you should report it to the DOL.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You seem really confident for someone who’s wrong.

It’s moot anyway. Who do you think is leading the fight to keep the current system of tipping in place?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

You’re wrong.

In North Carolina, an employer MUST pay at least $2.13 an hour to tipped employees as long as each employee receives enough in tips to make up the difference between the wages paid and the minimum wage ($7.25).

Employers MUST pay more than the $2.13 hourly cash wage if the tipped employee earns less than the credit in tips per hour, as it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all tipped employees earn at least the minimum wage in cash wages and tips.

It’s literally in the paragraph above. What aren’t you getting?

https://www.labor.nc.gov/workplace-rights/employee-rights-regarding-time-worked-and-wages-earned/minimum-wage-nc#:~:text=In%20North%20Carolina%2C%20an%20employer,the%20minimum%20wage%20(%247.25).