Your Paycheck Matters: New York Minimum Wage Trends & Worker Rights

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[00:00:15] Employers cannot retain any portion of tips received by employees. Okay, so your employers cannot keep your tips.

[00:00:24] Welcome to episode 43, folks. We're talking about New York minimum wage. But before we get into all the goodness, what's up, Walt? How you doing, sir?

[00:00:35] I'm good, man. Happy Monday to you. 11-11.

[00:00:40] Happy, yeah, 11-11. I thought I was writing the dates that I was like, 11-11-11. Oh, wow, that was 2011.

[00:00:46] People make fun of that all the time. How you doing, man?

[00:00:50] I'm all right, man. I'm standing up again. I got, I was sitting for a while.

[00:00:55] I like standing. It gives the freedom. We can get to move around a little bit.

[00:00:58] Yeah.

[00:00:58] Some flexibility. Not too much because we need camera placement, right? Remember?

[00:01:03] Yeah. Stay in place.

[00:01:04] We didn't upgrade our cameras so they moved with us.

[00:01:06] Yes, I did. Yeah, I had a co-worker that had that.

[00:01:10] And, oh, duh, we could just do that. Yup.

[00:01:14] Upgrade the mic, get the boom mic and the cam. Come on now.

[00:01:17] Get some LED lights or neon lights back in the background.

[00:01:22] I'm still trying to figure out how I would do it. How the lighting would work.

[00:01:27] You would have to turn off all the lights and just let those light from the back kind of like just light us up and then have, you see that little, you see this glare right here?

[00:01:37] Yeah.

[00:01:38] Yeah. The light.

[00:01:38] That's what I got.

[00:01:40] You got the face, you got the social media. The doors are like, no doubt.

[00:01:45] Yeah. One day folks, we'll update.

[00:01:47] Yeah. We're going to get there.

[00:01:48] We've been told we need to update apparently.

[00:01:50] No.

[00:01:51] I don't know. I like my background.

[00:01:55] It's working for us right now, but we'll get there one day.

[00:01:58] We will get there. Yes. We will get there. So yeah, we're talking about New York state minimum wage. This is, it's about your paycheck. We have made a conscious decision to split episodes now. Right. We were doing some group. We're just experimentation folks. It's evolution. We experiment then you like, you don't like it.

[00:02:18] We started out doing the two separate shows. Actually, we had a bunch of different shows, right? We had four or five shows at one time.

[00:02:25] Yeah. We had save time and we had lost tapes. We had all these different things we were trying to do. Yes. You know what I'm saying? And now we're just like, okay, we're just gonna focus on these two different things. And we like combine the two, consolidate the shows and say, okay, we're gonna do this. Like one show, save on some recording time.

[00:02:44] And then like Brian said, we were just like, nope. It needs to be their two own entities or their two own things. Yeah.

[00:02:51] Yeah. Pretty much. And don't worry folks, you, we have put all those other recordings out on the episode. Like it was basically all the lost tapes that went out. If you look at the, if you look at the seasons and the episodes, they're all there. And then, and I think we just, we just got to a point with quality.

[00:03:07] Like our, our, one of our number one things is delivering a great product to our listeners. And we started to feel like it was getting sacrificed by trying to do two shows in one.

[00:03:20] Yeah. And especially cause we shorten the shows as well. Yeah.

[00:03:23] It was to go hour and change. Yeah. East West.

[00:03:25] Remember, I remember Gerard, the first time he came on, he's like, guys, you killing me with these shows. Two hours, two hours. And we're like, all right, all right. So ever since it took another year, but two years from then to, to really get it, to really, to make that decision, to be like, all right, we're going to do 30 minutes.

[00:03:41] Yeah. 30 minutes. And then we go over here, five, 10 minutes. But in editing, you get right around 30 minutes now. I think that's a very digestible timeframe.

[00:03:52] Mm-hmm . Especially if you speed it up like me, I speed up my, my playback speed, like a time and a half, two times and a half. And I just get through it.

[00:04:03] Yeah. Yeah. Everybody has their thing.

[00:04:05] It's all good.

[00:04:06] It is all good. So yes, again, we're talking about New York state minimum wage today. It's about your paycheck. Let's get into it with pay news first.

[00:04:15] All right. So I must go first. I have a quick article from Bloomberg law.com.

[00:04:22] And it's talking about just states with the highest and lowest minimum wage out there. So for any employees listening, you can go to the site.

[00:04:31] Your, one of your states might be on here on the lowest or the highest.

[00:04:36] So what's the highest and the lowest? Give us that.

[00:04:38] The top five locations with the highest minimum wage. Number one is the district of Columbia, DC. Wow. $17 an hour.

[00:04:47] Oh. State of Washington is $16.28. California is $15 an hour. New York City, Nassau, Suffolk.

[00:04:57] Suffolk County. Suffolk County. Okay. And Westchester counties are at $16 an hour. And then number five is Connecticut at $15.69.

[00:05:09] So it's not just states. It's like counties really. But those are the highest ones.

[00:05:14] I feel like, I thought there was, I thought there was an $18 one in Cali.

[00:05:18] Maybe there is. This article was written on in April this year. So maybe during that time, it changed.

[00:05:24] Well, we could have. Yeah. So I'm just reading off of this article. So the lowest. Yeah. Number one is Georgia.

[00:05:34] At 15. At $5.15. That's their statement of wage. How can they be lower than the federal though?

[00:05:42] That's what it is, bro. That's their statement of wage.

[00:05:44] It's the least developed a couple of times. Mm-hmm. This is the law.com. How can they be lower than federal? That's the problem.

[00:05:55] Wyoming is at 15. I said 5.15. West Virginia is at $8.75. Minnesota is at 8.85. And now there's a caveat here. They have this in parentheses.

[00:06:08] This is for small employers. Are those. Oh. Minnesota. See, that's the thing. I think there are a lot of caveats there for that because.

[00:06:18] Like how can they drop below federal without some type of exception? There's gotta be an exception in there.

[00:06:25] Maybe. Let me see. Okay. It says the state minimum wage law is 5.15, but it says it automatically defaults to the federal because it's higher.

[00:06:37] Oh. So it is 5.15, but they default to the 7.25 because the federal is higher.

[00:06:45] Same thing Chad GBT just said too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it is accurate. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's accurate, but not really.

[00:06:54] It is. It's like the state one is literally 5.15, but they just default to the 7.25 because it's higher.

[00:07:02] That's so silly. Okay. Is it, you know, and it's, but it's such a great thing. Yeah.

[00:07:08] This is exactly why we do this show folks. Mm-hmm. Because as an employee, you get confused. You're like, what? Wait a minute.

[00:07:16] And now guess what? Don't let them pay you 5.15 in Georgia when the federal is, is 7.25.

[00:07:21] Look, just like, just like we had that, that situation in what we talked about in California where those immigrant workers were being threatened and paid under minimum wage.

[00:07:32] Maybe that might be going on in Georgia. Maybe you're an immigrant, a migrant worker, right? Yeah.

[00:07:37] Make sure you're not getting paid. You still have some rights too.

[00:07:39] There are some exceptions and that's why I said, wait, there's gotta be an exception because there are meaning, and actually, do I talk about them here? Yeah.

[00:07:47] I'll talk about them in a little bit. All right. Then we'll get into that. What else you got?

[00:07:50] And then the Minnesota, like I was saying is 8.85, but the caveat for that is that it's for small employers or those with an annual gross revenue of less than 500,000.

[00:08:02] You make a little as a business, then the minimum wage is going to be higher in Minnesota.

[00:08:06] Okay. And then number five is Puerto Rico.

[00:08:10] With a low minimum wage?

[00:08:12] 9.50.

[00:08:13] 9.50. See, and they're not technically a state. They're, they probably, that's the, they're all exceptions.

[00:08:22] Yeah. They're a territory.

[00:08:23] That's probably actually good for their status. Wow. Very interesting.

[00:08:28] Yep. So that's all I had. And Puerto Rico did increase it.

[00:08:34] As there's some notes down here, they did recently increase it in July of this year from 9.50 to 10.50.

[00:08:42] So they ran to the dollar.

[00:08:43] Good.

[00:08:45] Good for them.

[00:08:47] All right.

[00:08:48] So I have a article from Forbes magazine, Forbes.com that I wanted to share.

[00:08:55] And it's just a blurb.

[00:08:56] They go into a lot of rankings on benefits and what industries have good benefits.

[00:09:02] What are the worst?

[00:09:03] Folks can look it up.

[00:09:04] I just, I'm just sharing the top five workplace benefits, right?

[00:09:09] Basically they did a survey survey of employees, right?

[00:09:12] And they asked them, what are the best benefits to have?

[00:09:15] What do you look for?

[00:09:16] Number one is paid sick leave.

[00:09:19] Hey, this is William Tincup, work to find.

[00:09:22] Hey, listen, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about inside the C-suite, the podcast.

[00:09:26] It's a look into the journey of how one goes from high school, college, whatever, all the way to the C-suite, all the ups and downs, failures, successes, all that stuff.

[00:09:36] Give it a listen.

[00:09:37] Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:09:39] So it's interesting.

[00:09:40] I thought it would be paid vacation, but it's paid sick leave.

[00:09:43] And all of these are within a few points from each other ranking wise, because I was like 82% of people said paid sick leave.

[00:09:51] 78.5% said healthcare benefits.

[00:09:55] 78.1% said paid holidays.

[00:09:58] 76% said retirement benefits.

[00:10:01] And then 71%, 71.4% said paid vacation.

[00:10:06] I thought that was interesting that the paid vacation, like was number five in the top 10 or top five or whatnot.

[00:10:13] But yeah, you see, you get to, it's interesting to see what employees like hold most important as far as benefits are concerned.

[00:10:21] And I know one of the things that was like the bottom five list was like flexible hours or flexible this.

[00:10:27] So there's like other, some things that I thought would be higher were lower, but these are the top five.

[00:10:34] Yeah.

[00:10:34] So interesting stuff for the, the link to this art, these articles will be in the show notes.

[00:10:40] And let's pay some bills.

[00:10:43] Let's pay the bills.

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[00:12:23] All right.

[00:12:24] So again, main topic today, folks, we're talking about New York state minimum wages.

[00:12:28] I'm going to give some facts on basically what to expect.

[00:12:33] What you're an employee in New York.

[00:12:34] What should you know about minimum wage?

[00:12:36] The first things is all employees are covered specifically exempt.

[00:12:42] Okay.

[00:12:43] And I do have an exemption list here for that as well.

[00:12:46] And in NYC, both large and small employers must pay a single minimum wage rate, meaning they're all subject to the minimum wage rate in NYC.

[00:12:58] There's no small employer exemption, just like how what was talking about earlier in the states that he was ranking.

[00:13:06] Some states say, Hey, this is the minimum wage, but if you're a small employer, you can pay less and small employer, meaning like headcount and or revenue.

[00:13:16] They give them a bit of a break because they got to do the math folks.

[00:13:20] Right.

[00:13:20] And you just get be aware of that when you go out and look for jobs, try to stick to the larger employers unless you can afford to get a minimum wage at a small employer.

[00:13:31] And if that's in your state and that's applicable, some of the exemptions, meaning these folks, these companies that run these businesses or these businesses don't have to pay minimum wage at the New York state level are babysitters.

[00:13:48] Right.

[00:13:49] Think about it.

[00:13:49] Babysitters is like, Hey, just get Sally from next door type of thing.

[00:13:53] It's not a business.

[00:13:54] And even if you are running a business, guess what?

[00:13:56] They're going to be exempt.

[00:13:57] Farm laborers and some agricultural workers are exempt from these, from that minimum wage.

[00:14:04] Executive, administrative and professional employees.

[00:14:07] I thought that was a little interesting because like, why would they be exempt from minimum wage?

[00:14:12] The only thing I could think of is if you give an executive or some, Hey, I just want to give them a month lease, but I don't know that they don't get it.

[00:14:20] They get money to do very little work when they're an executive.

[00:14:23] I have no idea.

[00:14:24] I don't know why they're exempt, but they're exempt.

[00:14:27] Outside salespeople and taxi cab drivers, outside salespeople, I could see cause that's commissions and taxi drivers have tips involved and salespeople have commissions involved.

[00:14:38] So that's why minimum wages could be lower.

[00:14:41] Religious officials and members of religious orders.

[00:14:45] That's usually a not for profit, right?

[00:14:47] So that's why they're going to get a little less.

[00:14:50] A lot of religious people like their, which McCall, how can I say this?

[00:14:53] They're living, their needs are met by the church.

[00:14:56] So they don't need that high dollar amount.

[00:14:58] Workers in religious or charitable institutions, including certain not for profit staff, camp counselors, usually a short time of work that they work in.

[00:15:09] Students working for a recognized college or university, because students, again, all these things make sense.

[00:15:15] Okay, yeah, they're not.

[00:15:16] These are all folks that public employees, not for profit volunteers, and learners or apprentices in not for profit sectors.

[00:15:24] And then volunteers at specific events, meeting conditions around event duration or an employer notification are also exempt from this.

[00:15:34] If you like swiping, then head over to Substack and search up work defined.

[00:15:39] W R K defined and subscribe to the weekly newsletter.

[00:15:44] Let's see.

[00:15:45] Industry specific exemptions are hospitality, building service, miscellaneous industries.

[00:15:52] I don't know what that means.

[00:15:53] Sorry, folks.

[00:15:54] Not for profit institutions and farm workers.

[00:15:58] So again, they break it down by like class of employee, but then also some broad stroke industries.

[00:16:04] And then the tip credit.

[00:16:06] Of course, most of us know that people who work on tips, they have a lower minimum wage because they expect the tips to cover the difference and to get them to minimum wage.

[00:16:18] But there is a rule there, folks.

[00:16:21] If you're in this type of business, if you, if your tips don't get you to minimum wages, your employer is supposed to make up the difference, get you to minimum wage.

[00:16:30] Okay.

[00:16:31] And so anything worth calling out here?

[00:16:34] Oh, something good I liked in here is for employees.

[00:16:37] Employers cannot retain any portion of tips received by employees.

[00:16:42] Okay.

[00:16:43] So your employers cannot keep your tips is not allowed.

[00:16:46] Now, if you guys made some agreement, that's different.

[00:16:49] That's probably got to look into the legalities of that.

[00:16:51] I'm not, I've never, I've still have not worked in that industry.

[00:16:55] I spent very little time as an employee in that industry.

[00:16:58] So I don't know how that works, but would love to understand if you guys come on the show, teach us about it.

[00:17:04] And in that hospitality industry, tip credits are not allowed if tipped employees spend more than two hours or 20% of their shift doing non-tipped work.

[00:17:14] Thank you for sharing that stuff, man.

[00:17:16] So absolutely.

[00:17:17] Me, I just have some key changes to share and then some other information about potential resources for budgeting and saving.

[00:17:24] If you are being paid minimum wage in New York, because the cost of living in New York, from what I'm told is it's really expensive.

[00:17:34] If you are at minimum wage, you may need some of these resources, these free resources that I'm going to mention here in a little bit.

[00:17:40] As I said earlier, New York's minimum wage have recently increased as of January this year, 2024.

[00:17:46] New York City's Long Island's and West Chester County's minimum wage has gone up to $16 per hour.

[00:17:54] Other counties in New York State are at $15 per hour.

[00:17:59] The rates will continue to increase by 50 cents each year.

[00:18:04] By 2025, they will reach $16.50 for New York City, Long Island, and West Chester and $15.50 for those other regions.

[00:18:13] And then by 2026, if they continue to do that, to raise that by the 50 cents in 2026, they will be at $17 for the New York City, Long Island, and West Chester counties or locations.

[00:18:26] And then $16 for the other regions respectively.

[00:18:31] So this is based on annual adjustments that are tied to consumer price indexed, and will likely affect those middle wage rates, potentially increasing those wages further based on inflation trends.

[00:18:45] So there's a lot that's going into these calculations.

[00:18:49] That means a lot.

[00:18:51] To me, that's a lot of work.

[00:18:53] Yeah.

[00:18:54] So beyond 2026, I said that.

[00:18:58] So what can you do as an employee if you need to report violations?

[00:19:03] So you can report minimum wage violations or label law violations directly to the New York Department of Labor.

[00:19:12] The New York State Department of Labor website offers an online complaint form and other resources to help those employees understand your rights.

[00:19:20] So really, again, we keep harping on it.

[00:19:24] The whole reason we started this particular podcast, it's about your paycheck.

[00:19:29] What's to empower?

[00:19:30] What's to educate?

[00:19:31] So find out.

[00:19:33] Do your research.

[00:19:34] Take ownership of your pay is something that we say now, right?

[00:19:38] So you taking ownership is right.

[00:19:39] Making sure that you're holding your employer accountable and making sure that they're paying you correctly.

[00:19:45] So anybody who's a worker in New York, those are not being paid fairly, or do you feel like your wages are being stolen from you?

[00:19:54] Or you have other issues?

[00:19:56] You can use this platform to file that complaint.

[00:19:58] And you can also consider reaching out to local workers rights groups for additional support and understanding your rights and navigating complaints.

[00:20:07] Look, you may, this might be the first time you're hearing this.

[00:20:10] There's local worker rights groups out there that will support me as a New York employee.

[00:20:16] Yeah.

[00:20:17] You know what I'm saying?

[00:20:18] There are groups out there.

[00:20:18] You just have to know exactly where they're at, find out where they're.

[00:20:22] There may be one local to you right down the street and you don't even know because you didn't empower yourself, right?

[00:20:29] So now you know.

[00:20:30] So as far as budgeting with saving resources, so for the employees that are earning minimum wage, budgeting can be challenging, right?

[00:20:38] So here are some free resources and programs that are available to help New Yorkers stretch those dollars.

[00:20:46] So the New York State Department of Financial Services has online tools, workshops, and guides for budgeting and financial literacy.

[00:20:58] The United Way of New York City provides financial empowerment centers that offer free one-on-one financial counseling.

[00:21:06] And the New York Public Library has free financial literacy classes and often focuses on saving strategies and budgeting basics.

[00:21:19] So look, those are some three free resources you have at your disposal that you can just tap into and they will help you learn how to manage your money better.

[00:21:30] We all could use that these days.

[00:21:31] You know?

[00:21:32] Heck yeah.

[00:21:33] Absolutely.

[00:21:34] Thanks for sharing that, man.

[00:21:35] Yes, sir.

[00:21:36] All right.

[00:21:37] So we are going to our question of the day, our other episode, and we're going to ask you, well, I did one.

[00:21:46] I did throw an extra one in here really quick.

[00:21:49] So from your experience, I know you haven't been, I know you frequent travel, travel often to New York from time to time.

[00:21:58] But I'm going to ask you, but I'm going to ask you, which borough in New York has the best food?

[00:22:07] Queens, hand down.

[00:22:08] Queens.

[00:22:09] Queens.

[00:22:09] Yeah.

[00:22:09] Cause it's the most diverse borough.

[00:22:12] Okay.

[00:22:12] Manhattan would come in second, I think, but Manhattan it's, it's more expensive.

[00:22:18] I think one is more expensive period.

[00:22:20] And so to get the diversity, you might have to pay more.

[00:22:25] Whereas Queens has the diverse pockets of neighborhoods.

[00:22:30] It's such a great diversity.

[00:22:32] And I think the other boroughs I'm Queens native, so I'm Queens.

[00:22:37] I'm queen.

[00:22:38] It's going to be Queens all day for me, but to be fair, NYC period.

[00:22:43] Brooklyn is.

[00:22:44] When I, but I, but I, when I think Brooklyn, I'm thinking right away, three things is the Jewish neighborhoods, the Italian Caribbean.

[00:22:52] So it's like, it has its focuses there.

[00:22:54] I'm sure there more and Staten Island.

[00:22:57] I don't know very well at all.

[00:22:58] The Bronx is the heavily Caribbean and Italian.

[00:23:03] So as a New Yorker, I think of what the cultures like that speak to me from those other boroughs.

[00:23:09] Queens.

[00:23:10] I'm not the only one that says it.

[00:23:11] People always say Queens is just a very diverse borough with, with that you get amazing food.

[00:23:18] Yeah.

[00:23:19] Yeah.

[00:23:20] Yeah.

[00:23:21] Yeah.

[00:23:21] My girlfriend, she says the same thing.

[00:23:23] She's from Queens to Jamaica.

[00:23:25] Yeah.

[00:23:25] Food there.

[00:23:25] Like you said, very diverse and everything.

[00:23:28] And I've been in New York a couple of times, but the one thing I have yet to experience is a North, a New York pizza, a pie.

[00:23:36] I went to New York and didn't have pizza.

[00:23:39] No, bro.

[00:23:40] It was for work.

[00:23:41] Couldn't do anything.

[00:23:43] Didn't have time.

[00:23:45] Didn't have nothing on the street meat.

[00:23:46] Like you call it.

[00:23:47] Oh, street.

[00:23:50] Oh,

[00:23:51] this is an amazing thing.

[00:23:52] Yeah.

[00:23:52] It's a dope.

[00:23:53] It's a good one.

[00:23:54] Yeah, man.

[00:23:54] All right.

[00:23:55] Now let's get back to the, the real question of the day.

[00:23:58] Just wanted to ask you that, man.

[00:23:59] No doubt.

[00:24:00] Is the annual increase in New York's minimum wage and effective solution for supporting workers amid, uh, rising living costs, or does it place too much burden on small businesses and risk inflationary impact or effects?

[00:24:19] So basically it is the 50 cent adjustment until 2026, he said?

[00:24:24] Yeah.

[00:24:25] Oh, so it was really only two more times.

[00:24:28] Hey everybody.

[00:24:29] I'm Lori Rudiman.

[00:24:31] What are you doing?

[00:24:31] Working?

[00:24:32] Nah.

[00:24:33] You're listening to a podcast about work and that barely counts.

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[00:24:41] We chat with smart people about work, power, politics, and money.

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[00:24:47] Are we fixing work?

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[00:24:57] What?

[00:24:58] It says each year.

[00:25:00] So I think they're going to do it.

[00:25:02] 25 and 26.

[00:25:03] I just did it for 20.

[00:25:04] I did it up until 2026.

[00:25:06] I think it was going to continue beyond that.

[00:25:08] Oh, really?

[00:25:08] Yeah.

[00:25:08] Oh, okay.

[00:25:09] For each year.

[00:25:11] We talk, I think it's great.

[00:25:13] Look, I think they're, they're very aggressive, just like California, but good is so relative, you know?

[00:25:19] It's so relative.

[00:25:21] It's so.

[00:25:21] It's later we get in, man.

[00:25:22] Yes.

[00:25:22] Right?

[00:25:23] It's just, at the end of the day, if we're not good with money, it doesn't matter how much money you have.

[00:25:32] Yep.

[00:25:33] You're not going to be good with money.

[00:25:35] Yep.

[00:25:36] It, yes, I think it's great, but we're still going to have folks that are going to say it's not enough.

[00:25:43] Yeah.

[00:25:43] And those will be the folks, honestly, you kind of tell it on yourself because those are the folks who are like, Hey, you kind of, I don't want to be.

[00:25:52] I know.

[00:25:52] I know you don't want to.

[00:25:53] Stereotypical.

[00:25:54] I don't, not even stereotypical.

[00:25:55] I know you don't want to be insensitive.

[00:25:57] I know you're not trying to be insensitive already.

[00:25:58] Yeah.

[00:25:59] That's a good one.

[00:26:00] But look, look, I'm, I have complained about money, right?

[00:26:04] We've even talked about, we do.

[00:26:06] Americans are struggling to live, living paycheck to paycheck on here.

[00:26:09] But we've also talked about different things that we can do as Americans and people who are living in, in this current climate, right?

[00:26:17] This economic climate.

[00:26:19] One of the things I was just looking at, I saw somebody on TikTok and she, the Publix, and she said, Publix, people say that Publix grocery store is expensive.

[00:26:28] But she was like, if you coupon.

[00:26:30] Oh yeah.

[00:26:31] You can have a lot of money.

[00:26:32] Yeah.

[00:26:33] Mm-hmm.

[00:26:33] Yeah.

[00:26:34] Yeah.

[00:26:34] I tried to reach out to see if she'd come on this show.

[00:26:37] Yeah.

[00:26:37] Coupon, Quinky.

[00:26:38] You can't, yeah.

[00:26:39] I didn't find her.

[00:26:40] You can't, she doesn't have a open on TikTok.

[00:26:43] I gotta find another way.

[00:26:44] Okay.

[00:26:44] Yeah.

[00:26:45] It would be great, but because she's coupon queen for, if you go hit her lick tree.

[00:26:52] Yep.

[00:26:52] She's got Costco and like, she does it all.

[00:26:55] She's got all the hacks.

[00:26:56] There's a bunch of people like that, but that's the point, right?

[00:26:59] Like if you are intentional, you can make a dollar stretch.

[00:27:03] If you're not, then you're going to run out of money.

[00:27:07] You know what I mean?

[00:27:08] Yep.

[00:27:08] To answer the question, yeah, I think it's great, but it is still not going to solve the, everybody's problem.

[00:27:14] And I think we, I was just telling my oldest daughter, like we live in a capitalism government.

[00:27:20] It's about money.

[00:27:22] You know what I mean?

[00:27:23] It's about chasing the dollar.

[00:27:25] It's about pulling yourselves up by your bootstraps and getting the American dream and chasing that dream.

[00:27:31] And they want you to chase it because you're going to spend money all along the way.

[00:27:35] That's why you called the rat race, right?

[00:27:37] That's why they call it the rat race.

[00:27:39] Exactly right.

[00:27:40] So yeah.

[00:27:41] What do you think?

[00:27:42] I totally agree with you.

[00:27:44] And I go back to those resources that I mentioned earlier, right?

[00:27:48] The New York public library, the financial service, New York financial services, right?

[00:27:55] They have free online stuff to teach you financial literacy, to teach you how to save, to teach you, hey, do this, do that.

[00:28:02] Don't eat out so much.

[00:28:04] Dude, if you go on TikTok and be like, save money, just search save money.

[00:28:08] Yeah.

[00:28:08] Your TikTok feed is going to get flooded with save money, life hacks.

[00:28:13] Like there's a ton of things if you want to be intentional.

[00:28:15] But it's like you said, we live in a capitalistic world.

[00:28:19] Cause it's not just our country.

[00:28:21] World really.

[00:28:21] You know, it's a world that's always our tip, trying to sell you something somewhere.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:25] You know what I'm saying?

[00:28:26] Whether it's legit or not.

[00:28:27] And, and.

[00:28:28] Yep.

[00:28:29] It's up to you to say, no, I don't need that.

[00:28:32] Yes.

[00:28:33] And we get caught up in that.

[00:28:35] You know what the Joneses and all that stuff.

[00:28:37] And just to give you a real life example of the resources you mentioned, a mom recently went through a rent hike and she went to the library.

[00:28:48] She went to one of her public, it was either the library or her local like alderman office that's like in the neighborhood.

[00:28:54] And there was a resource and she got a credit.

[00:28:57] And as she qualified now, she's a senior citizen.

[00:29:00] She's old.

[00:29:00] She hears this.

[00:29:01] She's going to get mad at me, but she's older, right?

[00:29:04] She's retired.

[00:29:04] She's older.

[00:29:05] And she does listen to the show, like the clips, but she qualified for these things and she got a subsidy.

[00:29:11] That's.

[00:29:12] Boom.

[00:29:12] Money back in her pocket because she qualified, but she went out and looked for it and got it.

[00:29:17] Also, another thing you can do in all states.

[00:29:21] I believe that all states, I could be wrong, but I believe that all states that have unclaimed property sites.

[00:29:29] Oh.

[00:29:30] Unclaimed wage.

[00:29:31] That's a good, that's yeah.

[00:29:32] Go on there.

[00:29:33] You may have some money.

[00:29:34] Unclaimed property.

[00:29:34] You may have some out there.

[00:29:36] GMA does it.

[00:29:37] Good morning, America.

[00:29:38] Mm-hmm.

[00:29:38] They made a whole thing of it.

[00:29:39] And it was like for payroll people, we were like, oh, SGS.

[00:29:43] Yeah.

[00:29:44] There's a fancy word for it, but it's basically unclaimed wages.

[00:29:49] This is not recurring.

[00:29:50] It's not like you're going to always every month have something on there.

[00:29:53] But if you go look it up, look your family members up, look everybody close to you up.

[00:29:57] There might be money sitting out there in your name that you never claimed.

[00:30:01] And I, if I were you, I would check it periodically.

[00:30:03] Even if you do it.

[00:30:04] Yes.

[00:30:04] Check it every.

[00:30:05] Oh yeah.

[00:30:05] Yeah.

[00:30:05] Every quarter.

[00:30:06] Right.

[00:30:06] Because think about it.

[00:30:07] Why?

[00:30:07] Tell us why.

[00:30:08] There's a timeline that the employers have to release that to the state.

[00:30:14] So some states, I forget the state that it actually is.

[00:30:18] And I think it was Colorado or California.

[00:30:20] Again, fact check me both this.

[00:30:22] They have up to three years to try to pay you in one way.

[00:30:25] And then after those three, then they release it to the state and say, Hey.

[00:30:27] Yes.

[00:30:28] And then it posts on the site.

[00:30:30] Yeah.

[00:30:31] Right.

[00:30:31] Yeah.

[00:30:31] So it takes time.

[00:30:32] So yeah.

[00:30:33] So both point keep checking every few, every quarter is good.

[00:30:37] Yeah.

[00:30:38] And just keep checking every now and then.

[00:30:39] So it's not a big deal.

[00:30:40] You don't have.

[00:30:41] And something pops up.

[00:30:42] You don't have to.

[00:30:42] And you guys might be like, what is that?

[00:30:44] What do you mean unclaimed money?

[00:30:45] It could be a refund from an insurance policy.

[00:30:49] It could be a paycheck.

[00:30:50] Light bill.

[00:30:51] That you never got.

[00:30:51] Actually my Burger King check from when I was 18 should still be out there.

[00:30:57] It's $30.

[00:30:58] It finally still is.

[00:30:59] $30.

[00:31:00] But now, I think you do in some states, you do.

[00:31:04] You as the employee have a timeline too, to go to the site and claim it.

[00:31:09] To go claim it?

[00:31:09] Uh huh.

[00:31:10] Some states.

[00:31:11] Because the state keeps the money?

[00:31:12] Yeah, bro.

[00:31:14] Yo, people getting rich, bro.

[00:31:17] It's always something.

[00:31:18] Yeah.

[00:31:18] Look at that.

[00:31:19] That's right.

[00:31:19] Wall is right.

[00:31:20] Every quarter would be better than every year because you might have missed your, missed

[00:31:24] something.

[00:31:25] Yep.

[00:31:25] Go check it.

[00:31:26] Yeah.

[00:31:27] Go check it out.

[00:31:27] Yeah.

[00:31:28] Good stuff, man.

[00:31:29] Good stuff.

[00:31:30] And that's it folks.

[00:31:32] All right.

[00:31:33] We back to business.

[00:31:34] Don't worry.

[00:31:35] More good info coming your way.

[00:31:37] It's about your paycheck.

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[00:31:47] We want to hear your experiences too.

[00:31:48] Reach out.

[00:31:49] Absolutely.

[00:31:50] Absolutely.

[00:31:50] If you want to, if you want to keep getting info, hit that follow, hit that share.

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[00:31:58] Peace.

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