Latest / The 405 Payroll / EMBARK’s $23.59 an Hour: A Bigger Paycheck in OKC

Transcript

EMBARK’s $23.59 an Hour: A Bigger Paycheck in OKC · The 405 Payroll

• 0:13
  Welcome to The 405 Payroll.
• 0:16
  I'm Claire Brooks, and this is the lunch break show for Oklahoma City working people
• 0:20
  who want a bigger paycheck and an easier month.
• 0:24
  Today is built for OKCREAL residents, and everything we're bringing you is fresh
• 0:29
  from this week.
• 0:30
  And I'm Miles.
• 0:31
  Headline first.
• 0:33
  EMBARK, the city's public transit agency, has posted full time bus operator and
• 0:38
  paratransit operator jobs, dated October 13 and October 19,
• 0:42
  and both start at $23.59 an hour.
• 0:45
  The streetcar operator job on the 4.6 mile downtown route starts at $23.57.
• 0:51
  Okay, $23.59 needs some context.
• 0:55
  ZipRecruiter says that as of October 20, the average hourly rate for hourly workers
• 1:00
  in Oklahoma City is $21.90, and nearly 46% of the hourly listings it tracks pay
• 1:07
  between $19.55 and $21.43.
• 1:11
  Meanwhile, entry level retail and food service jobs often sit between $13 and $16.
• 1:18
  So there's a gap, and it has nothing to do with how hard anybody works.
• 1:22
  It's about which door you walk through.
• 1:24
  Claire, bring in the rent side, because that's where this gets real.
• 1:27
  Sure.
• 1:28
  Trulia and Zillow put average rent across all home and apartment types in Oklahoma
• 1:32
  City at $1,395 a month this October.
• 1:36
  One bedrooms average about $895 to $899, two bedrooms about $1,174 to
• 1:43
  $1,195, and three bedrooms reach $1,539.
• 1:49
  South Oklahoma City runs lower.
• 1:52
  RentCafe has it at $1,050 overall, with one bedrooms at $950.
• 1:57
  Let's use a $1,100 two bedroom.
• 2:00
  At $15 an hour, full time, that's about $2,600 gross a month,
• 2:05
  and roughly $2,050 to $2,100 actually lands in your account.
• 2:11
  So that rent takes over 52% of it.
• 2:14
  And that's before electric, groceries, or gas.
• 2:17
  Now run it at $23.59.
• 2:19
  Gross is about $4,088 a month, take home is about $3,250, and the same
• 2:25
  $1,100 rent drops to roughly 34%.
• 2:30
  Same apartment, same person, same effort.
• 2:33
  The rent didn't move, but it went from more than half your check to about a third.
• 2:38
  And here's what I like about this headline.
• 2:39
  EMBARK doesn't require a Commercial Driver's License to apply.
• 2:43
  They train you, and they pay for it.
• 2:45
  We'll get into that next.
• 2:46
  So here's today.
• 2:48
  Who's hiring this week, the next rung up if you're earning $15 to $18,
• 2:52
  extra money you can make this week, a habit that makes a raise stick,
• 2:57
  and one real story.
• 2:59
  Plus one thing to do before your day ends.
• 3:01
  Let's go.