Recruiter's shockingly honest comment about the pay offered leaves job candidate utterly baffled

It can be a struggle for most employees to make ends meet, especially for those starting their careers. Usually, people beginning their career journey do not shy away from lamenting the money offered by companies in return for their hard work. A similar incident shared on Reddit by u/Guba_the_skunk shed light on the plight of a white-collar worker seeking a job in a Tier-1 city.

The man, who recently applied for a job, was in negotiations with an undisclosed company. The job seeker shared a screenshot of a conversation they had with the recruiter, revealing the recruiter's surprising honesty. The hiring manager did not shy away from asking important questions when speaking to the candidate about the job. "We live in a very expensive area of the country," the recruiter's message read, arguing that the remuneration offered would not be enough to cover the cost of living. 

"This job would not pay enough for you to support an apartment. Do you have family here or people you could live with? What would you do if you moved here and it did not work out?" they asked. The job seeker described this message as "honest" but was left confused upon reflecting on the response. He wrote, "Just pay a living wage. And I thought $18 an hour was ok, but apparently, in Massachusetts (MA), you need a lot more."

"Actual response I got from a job I applied to. At least they are honest? I guess," he wrote in the caption. The job seeker further elaborated on the job requirement in the comments, "Job lists wanting retail staff, who also do order processing, and 'file clerk' and shipping/receiving, also weekends, nights and holidays." It was unclear if the job seeker agreed to work for the business, as he did not provide any update on the matter. However, the post received widespread attention, with many finding it amusing.

u/Blenderx06 said, "It sounds like someone who has no power over wages but genuinely cares about people." Offering a different perspective, u/gil_bz wrote, "I think they just don't want to recruit people for the job, only for them to quit immediately upon realizing they can't survive on the pay. This has probably happened several times."

u/Slow-Swan561 added, "I don’t hate the employer for this. It seems like they really are trying to find a good fit for the position and their budget, and they aren’t snowballing candidates." u/TheSodernaut questioned, "Why is it not designed to pay for an apartment? Shouldn't any endeavor you choose to undertake be sufficient to afford a decent home and live a comfortable life?" 

u/Unable-Income-2981 suggested, "In MA? Yeah, you'll need more. Maybe redirect the recruiter to the nearest high school. I'm sure they'll find plenty of students willing to work for $18/hr!" To which the job seeker replied, "I have no intention of directing them anywhere. I've done over 60 applications in the last two weeks, I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you have to manually enter or copy your resume information every single time because companies won't just read the God da*m resume I sent them and need to run my info through their AI algorithm... It adds up, fast."