Choose Self-Employment Instead of a Low-Paying Job

A new report from the National Employment Law Project finds that since 2010 the majority of new jobs pay low wages between $7.69 and $13.83 an hour, working as waiters and waitresses, food preparation workers, retail salespersons, and manual laborers. In addition to low-pay, these jobs are tightly supervised and may be part-time, have irregular hours and generally come without benefits.

Here are some other findings from the report:

“Mid-wage occupations were 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of recovery growth.

Higher-wage occupations were 19 percent of recession job losses, and 20 percent of recovery growth.”

If the kinds of work you are seeking are in fields like construction, manufacturing, information, public service, or any job market that does not offer a career path, consider working for yourself instead of taking a low-paying job.

What people value about being their own boss is greater Freedom, Flexibility, and Control over their time.  To be sure, self-employment has its ups and downs, particularly the need to provide for one’s own health care and retirement and market their business. But in this economy these challenges can be worth the effort.

Be careful though about choosing what self-employment you take as a last resort. You’ll want to identify a business or freelance activity that provides you with strong motivation for doing it. It may not be your perfect work, but if it produces sufficient income and personal satisfaction that you don’t resist getting up the in the morning and getting to work, then being your own boss can provide you a more rewarding and reliable sustainable livelihood.

If you would like what kind of self-employment would motivate you, see Finding Your Perfect Work eBook or for an initial free consultation with our Motivation Survey to explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality, contact us.

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