Reason #1: Money

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I'll be frank. This job can be LUCRATIVE. First, you earn $10-$13 an hour. That kind of hourly wage is unheard of in small towns. Working hours are extremely flexible, so you make your own hours and work as much or as little as you'd like. This makes it ideal as a second job, a job for senior citizens and stay-at-home moms. But it would be especially perfect for graduating seniors or college students home for the summer.

So, you start off with that great wage, but that's not all. Last year, I drove an hour to a bigger city each day to make a better wage. But I didn't want to do that again this summer, because I felt like it was cutting out too much from my time at home. Another great thing about the census is that they pay you for your travel time. Currently, I am driving daily to a county that does not have enough workers. I like getting paid to listen to the radio for an hour both ways. Ideally, we'll recruit enough workers so that people can work locally and won't have to drive so far. But in the meantime, I'm happy for the commute. Plus, the government offers a very generous mileage reimbursement: 50 cents for every mile. That may not sound like much, but it adds up.

So, I make $11.50 an hour. But when I am driving for an hour (60 miles) I actually make $41.50 for that time.

Did you ever have a job that you had to put some of your own money into? When I worked at Dillons I had to buy some black tennis shoes. At Subway, my uniform shirts got taken out of my first paycheck. It seems unfair, doesn't it? In order to make money, you have to spend some of your own. Well, the census is very conscientious of refunding you for your expenses. They provide all the materials to do your job and pay you back for any supplies, faxes or stamps you have to buy. Just save your receipts and turn them in.

Oh man, I forgot to tell you about training. This will probably be the topic of a future misperception post. It seems to be a deterring factor for people to take this job. But training is GREAT. Well, maybe not the actual training part, but the paycheck that results is certainly grand. Usually, you have to drive a good distance to the training. Training can range anywhere from 1-4 days. During that time, the census pays for you to stay in a hotel (mine was very nice). Your mileage there, around town during, and back home is all reimbursed, you get paid for your travel time there and back, and you get paid for your training time. PLUS (this is my favorite part) you get a $39.50 per diem (a fancy name for a stipend) for EACH DAY you're there for FOOD. You get the money no matter what you eat (they openly tell you they don't want to know what you ate) so you can either have lobster every day or pocket the difference when instead you make it the whole day on one McGriddle.

So my training lasted about 6 hours. But I earned around $200 dollars for that day when you add in my travel time, mileage reimbursement and food per diem. Like I said, LUCRATIVE.

So let's review Reason #1 to Work for the U.S. Census.
$10-$13 an hour (even higher in other states I hear)
Paid training with food per diem
Paid travel time with mileage reimbursement
Refund on any business costs

What are you waiting for? Call the number at the top!

Or you could go to this money origami website and whittle away another 30 minutes of your life. Your call. They have step-by-step instructions!!!