Earning a Living

I work with an all woman work force in a small secluded area of the hospital that most people don't even know is there. We are radiology support. If a radiologist, doctors office, or patient has a radiology question or problem we are the go to department. A few years back our hospital merged with two other local hospitals, so they recently decided to get all the hospitals on the same pay level by department. What would determine my pay increase? Well, from what I understood education, experience, how many years you worked at the hospital, and if you were at the top or bottom of your pay grade for that department. This got me excited. I was convinced I would get a significant pay raise because I knew my responsibilities were important, and some of us were kind of discussing what we were presently making, and I was definitely at the bottom if not under the going rate. I would even joke with the radiologist's if they asked me a question I didn't have an answer for by saying the question was above my pay grade.

Most, if not all of the woman I work with could not earn a living without a roommate or significant other. So this pay raise was something we all really needed to survive on our own. I'm not saying I'm poor. I know a lot of people who would love to have their home payed off like I do, but the reality is even without a house payment I struggle to live on my own. It was to the point where I would have to work a second job if I didn't have a roommate. So when my pay increase was not as much as I had anticipated I wondered if I would ever get a raise that would lift me out of this low income bracket. When I see posts on FB about our economy and middle class doing better I can only hope it will trickle down to me, but in the meantime I will continue to work hard at my job, and make do with that yearly 2% cost of living raise. Cost of living raise? Righht! At least there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. When I retire I get to collect my ex-husbands social security which will be quite a bit more than I make working now. Go figure!

                                                                          Yeah!