Let’s say you have a job you love. You find this job to be extremely rewarding and everything about it is great. When you get up in the morning, you are happy to go and sometimes you even stay late because everything about the job is great. However, there is a catch…your “awesome” job doesn’t come with an “awesome” paycheck. You are being paid way under what you are worth either per hour or on a salaried basis.

As a contrast, let’s say you find another job. This job isn’t rewarding to you. You go to sleep dreading waking up just because you hate the job. You don’t have great coworkers and your boss isn’t someone you would send a Christmas card to. There is nothing particularly rewarding about your job and at the end of the day you don’t feel as though you have contributed anything to society. However, this job has an amazing paycheck. So, when you do come home, you come home to a nice house with all the things that you want.

So, which situation sounds better to you?

In my opinion, there has to be some middle ground here. There can’t be just an awful job that makes amazing pay and a great job that has me stuck below the poverty line. The truth is, most people have aspects of their job that they dislike; maybe it is a coworker that may or may not fly off the handle at any time of the day, maybe it’s a boss, who would rather you quit than to reprimand the coworker for his outlandish behavior. Perhaps it is something even smaller than either of those factors such as there is never enough coffee in the break room, even when you made it yourself.

Then again, there are plenty of jobs out there that pay very little and offer nothing in the way of job satisfaction. These jobs often find their employees stuck at the bottom of the job pool and never given the chance to climb up the ladder. Worse yet, they are stuck there being paid just about minimum wage. I’ve had too many jobs like this one.

At the end of the day, however, if I had to pick one of the extremes, I believe I would feel better and more accomplished if I enjoyed my work even if it was for a smaller paycheck. I would likely hold a job like this for awhile then move into a job that I wasn’t as happy with for a bigger salary.

So, which scenario do you think works out better for you?

It has to be that time of year again, when everyone is out looking for gifts for their friends and family. It always seems that the go-to gift for some is a gift card or a some kind of bath set (here’s a note to guys out there who think the bath sets are good ideas: They’re really not; chances are whoever you’re buying the bath set for already has 20 of them).

Because of the season, GameStop is looking to hire 15,000 seasonal workers. The jobs are all part time and only pay minimum wage, but the little bit of money that the store is paying is better than what some people are receiving right now: nothing.

GameStop does something like this every year. It hires this many seasonal workers starting in the fall and their time is over on December 24.

The biggest increase will be the “game advisers” which are the people in the store who are meant to help shoppers pick out video games. There will be 78% more of these than there are currently. Honestly, I have never seen a game adviser in my local GameStop. The most advice I have ever gotten on a game is “That game is really cool.”

You can really tell how much business the company expects over the holiday season because the 15,000 seasonal workers means that the employee base for the company increases by nearly 50%.

This also goes along with most retail stores’ holiday plans. After all, most of the business that retail stores do is done over the holiday season.

Not everyone can have a perfect, clean driving record. For those who don’t have clean records and/ or are considered high risk drivers, there are options available for them.

You have to remember, even if car insurance is expensive, if you are going to be behind the wheel of a car, car insurance is the law. There are some companies that specialize in auto insurance for high risk drivers.

Drivers who have multiple tickets, have had accidents that were considered their fault, or young and/or inexperienced drivers are considered high risk drivers. If you fall into one of these categories, then it is important that you shop around for car insurance. Quotes can vary from company to company. Risky factors for young insureds leads to higher premiums and when you’re working for minimum wage like teens do, then it is important to make sure that you’re getting the most for your money. I remember when I was first driving and it cost almost $100 per month for liability and uninsured motorist coverage on my 2000 Cavalier.

Comparison shopping for car insurance isn’t only for teenagers, anyone can find affordable coverage for high-risk motorists if they know where to look or if they can do a search around the internet. There are so many companies out there that tend to focus on insuring people with squeaky clean records that sometimes those with a blemished record get left out.

Once when I tried to get an auto insurance quote online when I was younger, I had a really hard time finding a company that would offer insurance to me, let alone give me a real quote. I would always have to call the company during their business hours, which I’ve always found to be a bit inconvenient. Finding auto insurance doesn’t have to be as much of a hassle for risky drivers anymore.

There is a history in our country of corporations complaining about new government regulations and somehow the big corporations continue to survive even with the new regulations. I like this cartoon because it shows just how ridiculous some companies can be. While the cartoon may be a bit exaggerated, like most political cartoons are, this one is generally correct.

I think this one missed out on minimum wage though. That argument comes up every few years or so because it can always be heard by some business owners, “If you raise minimum wage, I can’t afford to stay open.” It always happens.

SmartMoney has an article on its front page today talking about seven career fields that college graduates can work. The list is pretty good if you have an accounting, engineering, or computer science (IT) degree, but if you are anyone else things are not looking too good for you.

From the article:

That liberal arts degree isn’t a total waste. Various companies are looking for business or liberal arts students to fill their management training programs.

Rental car agency Enterprise?Rent-A-Car says it plans to hire 8,000 college grads by July, many of whom will start out at a rental branch in a customer service position and, within a year, move up to assistant manager, according to spokesperson Lisa Martini. L’Oreal and Macy’s are also seeking graduates to join their training programs, says Trudy Steinfeld, executive director New York University’s Wasserman Center for Career Development.

Wow. So, if you’re a liberal arts major you can start your life by working at a car rental place? I think that the “promise” of being able to be an assistant manager within a year is a complete joke.

Recently, I found a job that promised the same thing, but when I started talking to other employees about wanting to move into corporate to work in marketing all I got was a laugh. During my interview with this company, I was told that after about a year and a half I would be able to get a promotion (from a retail sales position at a department store) to area sales manager, it just moved up from there depending on if you wanted to have a higher store position or a corporate position.

Well, that all went out the window when I spoke to a girl who graduated with a marketing degree two years before I did. She was working the exact same position I was and was actually making $9 an hour, $1 less than I was.

I’m sure that there are companies out there that want to hire graduates to promote them, but I know at least one that is taking advantage of graduates on a regular basis. Besides, Enterprise wants to hire 8,000 new grads to move them into assistant manager positions? Does it have that many stores? Some of those graduates will be making minimum wage for a bit longer than a year.

SmartMoney: 7 Places Where College Grads can Find Work

With unemployment at the high it is currently at, hovering over 9%, it seems like all those teens who have just finished the school year are having a pretty difficult time finding work.

Because there are so many adults currently looking for work, many are taking whatever they can find, including those jobs usually reserved for out of school teens.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics had a recent survey that tracked a decline in the number of teenagers that are participating in the job market this year versus last year; its down 3%.

So with the lack of work, what are teens doing? Well, it appears as though they’re forgoing the paying jobs to volunteer and do other non-paying jobs throughout the summer, if for nothing else, just to get out of the house for a few hours a day.

Some teens are even becoming entrepreneurs in their own right. Some have taken advantage of the season and started forming their own businesses for the summer, like lawn maintenance or pool cleaning. The best part of these teens starting these jobs on their own is that they can employ their friends and typically make more than minimum wage when there is work.

Right now the jobless rate for 16 to 19 year old range is 21.5%, that’s up from 15.4% in 2008. When you look at those numbers, you have to remember that only includes the teens that are actually actively seeking employment, not those who aren’t.

I know that it is still hard to find work. Living in a college town, there are always college students looking for work, add on top of that out of school teenagers, then the fact that none of the businesses do the same amount of business over the summer as they do during a semester and it’s basically a recipe for high unemployment. There are some restaurants looking for work, but it’s all only part time work and the hours are skimpy at best.

Then, there are just so many adults that have families to feed that are looking for work at the same places. If I were a manager at one of the places where teens usually go to find work, then I would be much more inclined to hire the man or woman who needs to feed their family before I hired a 16 year old who just needs to put some minutes on their pay-as-you-go phone.

When the economy is good, people run up their credit up and there are always those who refuse to pay old doctor bills or credit card bills. There will always be those who write bad checks or even accidentally go over a balance and bounce a few checks…

But, when the economy slows down, people begin to default on loans and credit cards. With this particular slow down, (I am careful with the word recession) people are also defaulting on their houses.

Debt collection agencies are always looking for new people. They pay minimum wage plus commissions. Turnover can be high in a debt collection agency, after all who wants to be yelled at all day while they’re at work? Not only that, but it’s nearly impossible for most people not to bring that frustration home.

Now, while the economy is slow and default is high, more debt collectors are needed. This makes work for those who are losing their jobs…the lowest paying jobs anyway.

Next year the minimum wage will boost to $7.25 an hour.

A lot of business owners are complaining that they will have to raise prices due to the increase in minimum wage. Perhaps they should accept a lower income to keep business instead? I know it sounds a bit harsh, but some earn plenty of profit now?and while they are paying their employees minimum wage, they are bring home more than enough to live comfortably.

Twenty three states have minimum wage laws that are currently higher than the federal rate. These states DO NOT include Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama or South Carolina. The states who have laws that are currently lower than the federal minimum wage rate are Kansas, Georgia, and Colorado. The states who are the same as the federal rate are Idaho, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Indiana, Kentucky and Virginia. All other states have minimum wage rates higher than the federal rate.

When the federal rate changes to $7.25 in 2009, some of these states will catch up with the federal rate.