$12/Hour

Back in early 2014, having grown desperate (but before having yet discovered the teaching overseas option), I visited one of the state's "One-Stop Career Centers" for help in finding a job -- what a joke! As a "benefit" of being signed up with them, I'd receive a weekly email from them informing me of career fairs in the area. I'd peek at these just to giggle at the miserable positions being promoted, like pest control tech and dry cleaner delivery driver. But this one both shocked and enraged me.

What sparked my ire here? Take a look at the medical assistant job. Requires 1 to 2 years experience. Pays $12/hour.

If I may, I’d like to play Professor Peabody for a moment and invite you to step inside the Wayback Machine, set the dial for June 1992. George H.W. Bush was president. I was 24 years old, having just completed a year in my first permanent job after college, as a secretary in a Providence bank earning $7.50/hr. It was a dead end job in a small city with few opportunities. I wanted something better, so I began searching for a job in Shit City a/k/a Boston. I eventually landed a job as a medical secretary at New England Medical Center (now Tufts) for a whopping $12/hour (everyone in my old office was sooooo jealous of the "massive amount of money" I was going to be making, LOL). Now, I had no previous medical office experience, no medical terminology, no calendar management…but, I typed 130wpm, had a degree, and had a few years of office work experience, so I got the job. Would I qualify and be hired for that job today? Doubtful.

Keep in mind, that $12/hour adjusted for inflation translates to $20.55/hour today. (It's also worth noting that even while working at that bank for $7.50/hr I could afford to rent a studio apartment in Providence for $450/month.)

Now, I do believe that a medical assistant is a bit higher on the professional totem pole from medical secretary. I know they perform all the administrative stuff I did in my old job, but here’s what else they do (from Snagajob):

Medical assistants collect and prepare laboratory specimens or perform basic laboratory tests on the premises, dispose of contaminated supplies, and sterilize medical instruments. They also arrange examining-room instruments and equipment, purchase and maintain supplies and equipment, and keep waiting and examining rooms neat and clean. 

So, really, this is almost like a “junior nurse” role – collect/prepare laboratory specimens? That means DRAW BLOOD, something I never had to do for $12/hour in 1992. And I’m pretty certain the phlebotomist employed by our clinic was earning more than me back then.

I really don’t know what to say anymore when I see horrific salaries like this one, and I don’t know why I continue to be shocked. What I keep wondering is, has it always been this bad and I was just blissfully unaware? In other words, back in 1992 were there people working for a salary out of 1968? 

Sadly, as long as there are enough people out there “grateful” to earn $12/hour, we will continue to see these $12/hour jobs. So, step right up folks and get in line, that awesome opportunity with the 1992 salary ain’t gonna remain open forever – and the more resumes Spherion Staffing gets inundated with, the lower that salary will be the next time it opens up. Yep, happy days are here again...