Is This Low Wage Just Too Low?

A great discussion is going on over at Joe Grimm's "Ask the Recruiter" column at Poynter.org...

A reader's question: "Is This Low Wage Just Too Low?"

I am a recent journalism graduate and have been looking for a job since before graduation. After having been rejected from several jobs already I'm a bit down in spirits. The upside, though, is that really none of the jobs I've been rejected for are perfectly down my aisle -- they're not distinctly print journalism, which is what I'm looking for.

Finally, I've found an opening at a local weekly paper where I could be covering the education beat as well as some local government...it's a very small operation...I'd get a lot of clips and also have the chance to do page layout and headline writing, as well as some Web site management...but it doesn't offer health insurance.

I'm expecting an offer from the paper this week, but the pay rate that the editor threw out in the interview was $9.50 an hour. I had crunched $10 to $12 an hour before I went in to see if I could make my budget work, and $10 was the absolute least I could do. That didn't account for having to pay for my own insurance, which I absolutely cannot do without.

Reader reactions and discussion, including some by yours truly, in the feedback and comments.