My last job I was underpaid. Basically, it was an office manager job. I was making $14 an hour and easily should have been making $22. I charge $22 to a client that I do similar work on a self contract basis. People similar to me who are more advanced with their Quickbooks and bookkeeping knowledge often charge $40 an hour.
I signed up with a temp agency last week and Friday and Saturday I manned Passover/Sabbath elevators at a hotel. The resort is gorgeous (I’ve been there many times before as a customer or guest to an event or with a friend who is a member there) and I actually had fun. I only made $10.50 an hour, which usually I won’t work for so little, but I didn’t care. I wanted to help.
If I took a full time job again ever in the future it would have to be for more than what I have been paid hourly in the last ten years. I worked for less, because I had flexibility and didn’t have to do whatever it was for 40+ hours a week. Semi-freedom from the “prison” of a job is worth money to me. Not that I feel imprisoned by work usually, but you do have to be there.
I see people severely underpaid all around me. I think it’s awful.