General Discussion

Similar jobs are only similar, they are not the same, and pay (and benefits) vary from place to place.

When I started in the prestigious janitorial field I was making $5.50 an hour for working from 2-8 in the morning, and I had zero for benefits - no paid holidays, no sick leave, no paid vacation, no pension. Just a whopping ten cents an hour more than minimum wage.

That still seemed to me better than the $7 an hour factory job because it did not involve an hour and a half of commuting. It also allowed me to keep longer hours at my bookstore.

Then a few years later I got a job for a janitorial service owned by a woman (who acted like she owned her employees) where I got a whole $8 an hour before I quit to take awesome factory temp work (hoping to get in the union factory, but they laid off all their temps after six days).

A few years later I felt vert fortunate to get $10.69 an hour plus benefits for a part-time janitorial type job. Government work pays better than the private sector, that is for sure. But the previous person in that job was a woman, who later on became my boss's boss.

It sure can be a tough world for a woman, especially if, like that one, they are a high school drop out.