Reading Tarot to sell cars?

This ad appeared this morning (01/03) in a local paper:

ACTIVE SPECIALISTS We need the following people for 1 day each week, 8am to 2pm. Each shift will pay $10/hr plus $100 to $300 in estimated tips. You can pick the day you wish to work. -Massage Therapist -Manicurist -Palmist/Fortune Teller -Caricaturist/Portrait Artist -Tax Accountant -Counselor -Other Skills Welcome As one of these people you will be spending time with our customers individually. You would work for 1 day per week each week. Please respond with a resume or description of what you do to: rg@countylineauto.com and we will set up an interview.

I cannot resist calling them up to ask ....

Please do let us know...

"Tips" are non-compulsory payments that people don't have to pay.

Unemployment "benefits" pay more than $10 an hour (the poverty-line minimum wage is about $18 an hour), and once you've covered your rent, there's nothing left for groceries or bills.

I'd think about that carefully.

$128 an hour ??? Typo I think...

Many countries I can assure you the minimum wage is $10 an hour or equivalent....

Yes, it's way less that $128 dollars an hour here! Maybe she meant $12.80 an hour.

That's quite an innovative car lot there. They must really be desperate to get people to come in there if they're offering so many incentives.

gregory said:

$128 an hour ??? Typo I think...

Click to expand...

Eighteen. Going back to edit typo in a minute.

Many countries I can assure you the minimum wage is $10 an hour or equivalent....

Click to expand...

In Australia, you can't live on that ... looking up in another window ... In 2009, it waas $15.52 per hour, I don't know what it is now, but there have been two increases. I think it's eighteen, based on the wages of a friend of mine.

Eighteen dollars an hour for a full working week allows you to live in substandard housing, drive a rust-bucket if anything at all (with huge problems every time it needs maintenance), buy reasonable groceries, and maybe go out once or twice if you don't spend a lot doing so. It also allows you to panic every time the quarterly power bill comes in.

If you are on the Minimum Wage and you have two or more children, you are below the poverty-line and probably can't afford the rust-bucket, although you'll need it more. Above the poverty-line, you're still doing it tough.

The lucky country, eh. Land of opportunity. No wonder illegal immigrants are panting to get in - if I lived in a war-torn zone, I'd be casting my eyes towards Scandinavia, myself.

tarotbear is not in Australia. He's in the US.

US federal minimum wage is $7.25 / hour.
The official poverty level for a family of four is just above $22,000.

I think it would be a hoot to read cards in a car dealership! But I wouldn't count on tips. When people get free readings, in my experience here in the United States (not Australia), they like them to be ... free.

How about if the sitter knows the car lot is paying a wage? Or maybe you could put a sign on the tip jar saying words to the effect that a donation is expected but the sitter can decide their own amount? In other words, not giving the impression that tipping nothing is an option but that the amount is flexible. I don't know how you could do that but I'm sure there's a way. I'm not thinking real creatively at the moment.

"Please help by donating what you think the reading was worth to you".

"generosity powers the universe"

"Donations for my time gratefully accepted"

are all possible labels.

I'd also try to have some kind of water-feature nearby, even if it's just a pretty bowl filled with water with a floating candle lit in it. People are always more generous in the presence of water.

Tax accountant? "Other skills welcome?"

Yyyyeah... I can think of a few other "skills" that would be probably be far more welcome than those of a tax accountant.

I'm sorry, I just find this a smidgen... surreal. 0_O