A Lowe’s worker boasted about the money he was making for the work he was doing—until realizing that $13 an hour doesn’t really go too far.
The TikTok video documenting the revelation came from @theajbaron, who bills himself as a “Texas real estate agent” in his bio. This particular video drew more than 414,000 views in just four days on the platform, debuting Wednesday.
“Here’s me, first day at the job,” Baron says by way of introduction, showing photos of himself at Lowe’s throughout the video. “Look how proud I was to be a Lowe’s associate. Lowe’s was paying a hefty $13 an hour and my teenage a** thought that was millionaire money.”
@theajbaron How much money i made at Lowes #lowes #ajbaron #storytime #motivation #hourlypay #firstjob #finance #greenscreen ♬ original sound – AJ Baron
“I remember the first day they had us do some training on a computer for like five straight hours,” he recalls, before revealing that he was a regular in “the lawn and garden section,” where he’d start work at 6am “and just water a bunch of these pretty-a** plants.”
“I would clock in at six and water for like four straight hours and like my shift was almost over,” he revealed. “I would literally milk the sh*t out of my shifts just watering plants all day. I would water so much I got the nickname Garden Warrior.”
Right before quitting that job, though, he realized he only had $227 in his bank account, and as easy as the job was, it wasn’t lucrative enough for him.
“But that’s just to say I only worked like four days a week, but still, it was nothing. Never again I’ll go back to making $500 a month. Not worth it.”
One commenter did the math on what $500 a month means.
“6000 a year is crazy,” that person observed.
Some commenters weighed in with pay comparisons from their own jobs.
One said, “I work at McDonalds for 20 hours a week and I make 1k a month.”
Another shared, “Bro I make 9 and hour and work 32-36 hours a week and makin like 1k a month.”
Someone else confessed, “I make 800 a month bro.”
According to stats from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the federal guidelines for poverty are $12,880 for a one-person household, and $17,420 for a two-person household, with $4,540 added for each additional person.
A CNBC article from March 2023 notes that according to 2021 figures, “37.9 million Americans lived in poverty, accounting for 11.6% of the total population,” even though as the article put it, the United States “ranks first as the richest nation in the world in terms of GDP.”
The article also noted, “Grace Bonilla, president of United Way of New York City, said the official poverty measure doesn’t take very obvious indicators into consideration. To start, it looks at pretax income instead of actual take-home pay. It also doesn’t consider factors such as family composition or the cost of child care.”
One person came into the comments section, claiming to be 14 years old and looking for work advice. “What is a good job for a 14 year old to do?” they asked.
Baron responded, “Start a business bro!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and Lowe’s via an online contact form.
