WORK IN THE US
Ultimately one of the most important things to consider, when making a decision to go on a Work and Travel or to choose an employer is what the salary would be. The average salary in the USA is roughly six times greater than in Bulgaria, and this is valid for the minimum wage as well. The minimum federal wage per hour in the US is $7.25. Only the tipped positions like servers or bussers could be paid less, and their wages could range between $2.13 and $5.35. In many states the minimum wage per hour is different than the federal and it could be as high as $14-15 per hour. This is due to the higher living expenses in those places.
What we can advise you is when choosing your summer job in the US to take into consideration not only the salary, but the costs for food and accommodation, the possibility for working extra hours, the chances for finding a second job. In some cases with a $9 per hour job you will manage to earn and safe more money than on a place with job for $12 per hour. Whatever you choose as a job and where ever you decide to go it is quite certain that you will earn enough money to cover your program and travel expenses and even save a good amount of extra money. Usually the students on a Work and Travel program are earning between $10 and $15 per hour.
The work week in the US is 40 hours, and if exceed this limit, you may get paid overtime, which is one and one-half times a regular rate of pay and for example if your standard pay rate is $10 per hour, for any hour worked over you will be paid $15.
It is important to know, that you will have to pay taxes for your incomes in the US – federal and state tax will be deducted from your paychecks. The good thing is that you do not have to pay all the taxes that apply to American residents and on the top of this you can apply for a tax refund upon completing your program and returning home.
Above you can see the wages per hour in the states, where the minimum wage is different than the federal one.
COLORADO
$12.00
CONNECTICUT
$13.00
WASHINGTON, D.C.
$15.00
DELAWARE
$9.25
SOUTH DAKOTA
$9.30
VERMONT
$10.96
WASHINGTON
$13.50
WEST VIRGINIA
$8.75
Online interviews
Recently many employers prefer to conduct online interviews, because of the flexibility in scheduling. This option is convenient for the students as well, because they can be interviewed literally from everywhere and the interviews’ schedule is much more flexible, comparing to the in-person events.
The dates for the online interviews and the detailed job and companies profiles will be available in advance on our website.
Self-arranging of job placement
Without any doubt this is the most cost effective way to secure a job for the next summer. A great help on this matter can be provided by friends, living in the US, or have been on a Work and Travel program already. Online is another option for sourcing a job, although you may have to send hundreds of mails and fill a lot application forms before you get a job offer, but in most of the cases it is worth the efforts. For your protection every self–arranged offer will be vetted and the employer will be verified by our US partnering organization before further to proceed with your application.
IMPORTANT! The deadline for submitting self-arranged offers is February 14th. As earlier you provide us with your job offer for vetting, as faster we will proceed your DS-2019 work permit application.
In the US under this program you are allowed to work on seasonal positions. Usually the job are in the tourist sector – hotels , restaurants, shops, national and amusement parks. Sales clerks, waiters, bartenders and bar backs, housekeepers, lifeguards, bellman – these are the most common Work and Travel jobs. The sponsoring organizations are approving only those employers, whose offers fully comply with the program regulations.
If you are looking for higher skills occupation, than you should enroll for the trainee program category – Internship USA and Professional Career Training USA. According to the US Department of State regulations and for your own safety and well-being there is a list of jobs, prohibited under Work and Travel program. You can get the list of prohibited jobs from our office.
USIT go to usa
We are Usit Colours - one of the leading US exchange programs agencies in Bulgaria, and GO TO USA is our website, specially designed to present the destination US. Our aim is to provide you with all the information you need to plan your trip to the US. We would be delighted if you choose us to be your exchange program agency for Work and Travel, Internship or Camp Counselor USA.