A man completed a job interview at T.J. Maxx, only to be surprised with the pay toward the end of it. Now, he’s asking viewers for help in navigating the situation.
Over some of the last few years, high inflation outpaced wage growth, reducing the buying power of every dollar earned by workers in the U.S. This has reversed over the past year, with wage growth now outpacing inflation. But that doesn’t mean all employers are offering wages worth writing home about.
What may have been a half decent wage a decade ago will no longer cut it due to the rise in cost of living expenses since then.
One TikTok user says he is personally upset with himself that he even entertained a job at T.J. Maxx after learning that it was only offering $12 per hour for the position. In a video, user @sobeatmyass reveals that he only learned of the hourly rate toward the end of the job interview.
“Why … did I have a job interview at T.J. Maxx the other day, and then everything went well, but [at] the end, he told me that they paid $12 an hour, and they get paid every week, so I was like, ‘Yeah,’” he says in the video, which is nearing 80,000 viewers. “In my head I’m like, ‘I’m not taking that … job.’”
The TikToker speculates that the low cost of labor is connected to the low cost of goods the store offers.
“That’s why the clothes are so … cheap, because they’re not paying them people. Like, that … is crazy,” he says.
According to Business Insider, affordable items at the store are not connected to the cost of labor but the way T.J. Maxx buys its goods. T.J. Maxx reportedly purchases overstock from manufacturers and department stores.
The Daily Dot reached out to TJX Companies, the parent company of T.J. Maxx.
In his video, the TikToker says he planned to decline the job offer but inadvertently accepted it after he did well in the job interview. He asked viewers to help him navigate the situation.
“I was literally about to come up here and say that, … and then I just got a call that I got the … job, and why … did I just tell this man ‘yes?’ I don’t want that … job. I can’t—I’m truly … baffled. I don’t know why I wasn’t able to tell this man ‘no’ on the phone just now, knowing that I don’t want to do this … job.”
He says his working plan is to just not show up. “I, like, I don’t really know what to do, because $12 an hour? … What … is that going to do for me? I don’t know, let me know what y’all think I should do.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @sobeatmyass via TikTok direct message regarding the video.
@sobeatmyass 12$ ????#fyp ♬ original sound – sobeatmyass
Several viewers advised that the poster take the job until they can find something better, as weekly pay is hard to come by.
“Do you have a job already?” one commenter wrote. “If not, take the job until you find something else. Some money better than no job.”
“I say take that weekly pay until you find something else friend, that weekly pay alone is hard to come by,” another commenter wrote.
“They about to have you assembling all the furniture,” a commenter wrote. “But for real, if you don’t have a different job then take the $12 and keep looking until you find better.”
Others wrote that they were no longer considering jobs that offered similar pay, or did not advertise their pay rate at all.
“Which is why I stopped applying to jobs that don’t tell you what they pay in the advert,” one commenter wrote.
“I just saw some company paying $9 damn dollars here in Dallas Texas,” another commenter wrote.
“I ask for the dollar amount before any interview now,” a commenter wrote. “I don’t want them waisting my time or vice versa.”
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