Never Get a ”Real„ Job Read Online Free PDF Page A

designed corporate agenda dictated from above could result in unforeseen losses—and consequently, the termination of employment. After all, such actions prohibit you from improving the wealth of others and that cannot be tolerated. Mind you, even if you abide by the corporate agenda and there are losses, it still doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed any sort of safety—or severance. Say good-bye to freedom and hello to a life as a corporate wage slave.
     
    Real jobs overwork and underpay you . A recent study conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found that the average U.S. employee works two months longer than an employee from 1969 for nearly the same salary after inflation adjustments.
     
    So, not only are many people overworked—they’re also paid less for working more.
     
    What does this mean to you in dollars and cents? Maybe $35,100 annually; the average salary for 25- to 34-year-olds in the United States according to the July 2010 BusinessWeek article “Retirement: Gen Y’s Empty Piggy Bank”—a dollar amount that has come to be after falling 19 percent over the last 30 years after adjusting for inflation. For many entry-level employees, the workday doesn’t end at 5 pm—and it often includes portions of weekends. So, we’ll suppose that between putting out your boss’s fires at 10 pm on Fridays and composing reports during football game viewing on Sundays, that your actual workweek is 50 hours long. Breaking down your annual salary, your actual wage is a little more than $13.50 per hour. Now let’s include overtime. Oops—I forgot; according to the Department of Labor’s overtime rules, you might not even be eligible for overtime! Silly me. And let’s not forget about deductions to your paycheck for taxes and social security. So we’ll make that more like $10 per hour. After you subtract for your clothing, travel expenses, college debts, and any costs associated with your company benefits package, well, you’re lucky if you can afford a night out at the movies.
     
    On the bright side, you do get paid vacation days. Unfortunately, the average U.S. employee only gets around 13 vacation days—well below that of his counterparts in most other industrialized nations (Italy’s average is 42, France’s is 37, and Canada’s is 26). And according to the May 2009 CNN.com article, “Layoff Worries Keep Many from Taking Vacations,” 34 percent of Americans don’t even use all of their vacation time because they’re too afraid of losing their jobs. And although you might be eligible for a raise in a year or so, that’s only likely to happen if the corporate bigwigs haven’t taken all the profits to buy new vacation homes.
     
    Job-happy stalwarts may claim that being an entrepreneur doesn’t guarantee you’ll make more money than a salaried employee or work less hours—and they’d be right. However, unlike “real” job employees—who are stuck in predetermined pay grades and boss-dictated work schedules—entrepreneurs benefit directly from every minute they spend on their business and have the ability to earn as much money as their efforts can produce. As companies continue to streamline their processes—and globalization continues sending jobs overseas to cheaper labor markets—employees will find it increasingly more difficult to land a job that’s willing to tolerate a more lenient work-life balance or pay them what they truly deserve for a full “40-hour” workweek.
     
    Real jobs don’t reward you for excellence . Not only are your wages pathetic—they are also a minuscule fraction of the marked-up prices that your company is charging its clients. Customers may be paying 10 times more than what you’re earning, but other than the possibility of a small bonus, do you know what your upside is? Bupkes. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Well, except—maybe—a health benefits package (although, according to a Pew Research Study, Gen Y is the least likely