Starbucks and Costco offer health insurance to hourly wage workers. Start there.

I’ve never heard of insurance being offered to part timers. In fact, many hourly jobs deliberately only schedule you for 39 or less so try don’t have to pay you benefits. This will get worse with the insurance rates going up. Cheaper for them to hire two pt than one ft.

If kids under 14, get Medicaid now. Work part time or do continuing education to improve chances of finding full time when they are older.

Anonymous wrote:All work is honorable. Most hourly work has health insurance and also 401(k) retirement accounts.

Never had 401k or health insurance offered in service industry and I started end of 1997.
We do make about $30-$40 an hour right now though. Won't be the case in the winter unless we cut staff. The restaurant has to pay $10 and since we seem to be the only place in town, we are busy.
Used to be $10-$12 until 2007 and then $12-$15 until 2022.

I’m sure you thought of this, but with substitute teaching, you could work as much or as little as you want, and your hours would be in sync with your kids’ school day.

You could also look for a “PRN” position in health care - as a receptionist or activity coordinator at a nursing home or assisted living, for example (and you could work your way up in the “elder care” field, which is a broad and booming area). I know private duty caregiver agencies like Home Instead train people for caregiver positions, but you would be working with people with dementia. That being said, your hours would be flexible and again, you could use it as a stepping stone to other positions in health care that might be more lucrative.

Due to Labor Compensation Laws almost all corporate work is hourly.

No one cares if you are being compensated hourly.

The good news is you get time and a half over 40 hours.

All work is honorable. Most hourly work has health insurance and also 401(k) retirement accounts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a SAHM and went back after 7 years out of my field. I had to take something that paid $9/hr, no benefits As PP said, it was a stepping stone. Now making $40/hr plus benefits.

Where did you work for the $40/hr?

Gs11 govt job. Was originally hired as Gs7 from the hourly job. Not in my original field of training.

Some retail jobs offer insurance from day one. They’re out there, good luck!

Anonymous wrote:I was a SAHM and went back after 7 years out of my field. I had to take something that paid $9/hr, no benefits As PP said, it was a stepping stone. Now making $40/hr plus benefits.

Where did you work for the $40/hr?

I discovered COBRA (very good ppo plan) for me and one child is less expensive than me buying a plan on the exchange with higher deductibles.

Anonymous wrote:I was a SAHM and went back after 7 years out of my field. I had to take something that paid $9/hr, no benefits As PP said, it was a stepping stone. Now making $40/hr plus benefits.

What line of work are you in?

I was a SAHM and went back after 7 years out of my field. I had to take something that paid $9/hr, no benefits As PP said, it was a stepping stone. Now making $40/hr plus benefits.

I don’t think it’s a mistake.

Health insurance is a question for hourly, so yeah, there’s that.

But references, good references, are going to be even more golden. Do you feel you are already good there? If not, take a good hourly job.

It’s your stepping stone. Hourly places won’t mind if you need to move on in 6-12 months. They are always replacing I’m sure.

Follow your gut, and yeah, keep focusing on the insurance and reference points.

Last, if you get in, keep applying for better situations and pay.

Caveat: I'll be talking to my attorney about this to ensure it doesn't affect the scraps of spousal support I'll get. We don't have a final settlement yet.

Surprise divorce, SAHM for many years, and my former career no longer exists so I'll have to do some sort of retraining to have a semblance of a new career. Late elementary and middle school kids but I'll likely have primary custody and no local family so it will be tricky to balance going all-in on a new career and caregiving for a few more years until at least one can drive.

Kids have healthcare through their dad but to retain the doctors I need to keep for a heart condition I will be looking at ~$15,500/year out of pocket. I can't keep my current healthcare via COBRA- it will be so expensive that it would be irresponsible. Is there a way to start at an hourly job these days and get enough hours for health insurance, or will the hours be too fickle as a new employee to have a chance to fit them around having my kids the vast majority of the time? I'm at a loss for how to make this work in the short term. My kids are at two different schools without busing but not walkable so my days are squeezed by drop-off times and aftercare pickup for the younger one. The older one can linger at school to some extent on most days that they don't have an activity. Cannot afford to move further in to a walkable area.

Also, would an hourly job affect my future attempts to gain full-time employment? I'm already in a weird place of starting over but being stale and undesirable compared to fresh college grads, and I don't want to further taint myself, but I need to start from somewhere. Originally I thought temping might be a good way to get my foot in the door somewhere, but health insurance costs made me reconsider.