When You have no Choice

I have a friend who's currently in a situation that I genuinely feel no one should be in, but seeing how he doesn't exactly have a better choice at the moment, all he can do is say nothing and just endure the whole thing.

_{photo by David Pisnoy}

So some time last year, this friend of mine decided to learn how to paint houses from another friend of ours (let's call him boss). So whenever boss has a job to do, he would invite my friend to go with him and then pay him after the job is done. I should also add that he taught my friend this job for free as a way of helping him get something doing and not be broke all the time.

Anyways, recently, something has been happening that doesn't exactly sit well with me, but then I can't say or do anything about it because it's none of my business.

It's been more than a year since this friend of mine learnt the skill from boss, and everytime they would go on jobs, boss would give him pennies as his pay for a job well done. The amount he would pay him were always significantly less than the amount he would have paid if he had invited a colleague to do the same job.

At first, my friend said nothing because he was more than grateful that he had learnt the skill for free and was also getting jobs (even though the pay was nothing to write home about)...but recently, it's been getting worse.

It's almost as if boss has decided to get more greedy with his payment because nowadays he pays almost next to nothing. Some few days ago when they had gone for a job, the money he was paid for that job was only enough to feed him for that night (they had left home very early in the morning and return around 7pm that evening). To me, it's almost as if the boss keeps paying enough just to get him his next meal, so that when next he calls him for a job, he would come running because he would be very broke by then.

Mind you, their relationship isn't a 'master and apprentice' kinda relationship because if he was an apprentice, he would have been done serving his master by now because he's really good at the job.. So they're just two friends working together, and yet my friend doesn't get treated like a friend.

And I'm not even saying he should share the payment equally, I'm only asking that he gives him enough (based on the work done) to at least help him to be able to get not just food, but other necessary stuff as well.

What's even more sad is the fact that my friend can't say anything about the situation. Earlier today he had told me about a job that they have to go do tomorrow and I had asked him how much he would be paid, to which he told me that he has no idea. After the work is done, whatever money he gets from boss is what he gets...no negotiations, nothing.

And like I said, he can't say anything about it because he's scared that if he does, boss could get someone else to replace him and stop taking my friend to jobs (seeing how boss is the one with the connections for jobs), so it's better he shut his mouth and just take whatever he's been handed, rather than to speak up and end up with nothing at the end.

And that is a situation I wouldn't want to find myself in.. Being in a place where I know I'm not being treated right but I also can't say or do anything because my source of livelihood is literally dependent on them.