'Not for less than $45/hour': Irreplaceable employee gets fired after falling sick; two years later, the company begs him to return; he refuses unless he gets a 40% raise

'Know your worth' is a phrase we usually hear when we're down in the dumps on a break up, but some of the unlucky few get this 3-word pep talk from strangers online when they get fired from a dead-end job. In this case, a loyal employee and construction manager for a large company, got fired after he got extremely ill. Because he had to call out sick for 2 months, the higher ups decided he was no longer 'employee' material and phoned in their pink slip. 

Outraged and disappointed, the family flopped for a few months before he was able to bounce back, but OP's wife kept her ear to the streets, listening for news from his old company, curious to see who they would get to replace her irreplaceable husband. She always saw job listings, but never saw them fulfilled. Sure enough, almost two years later, OP received a call from the company basically begging him to come back to his old post because they couldn't find anyone who would accept his $17/hour rate.

Keep scrolling for the full story on how one man got wrongfully terminated, but came back years later, hyped up from the Internet encouragement, demanding a 40% raise and a bit of respect. For more stories about minimum wage workers getting the raise they deserve, check out this story of a man who cheated the system to get his dream job.