Crude Essentials interview questions

We talked over the phone, he wanted to know what kind of pay I was looking for I explained that I was making 16 and hour and he said the most he could offer me was 14 an hour. Then I asked about perdiem since I get 40 per day at my current job. He said that the IRS frowns on things like that and therefore they dont off perdiem. After thinking about the job offer for a couple days I decided to decline the offer since it was too much of a pay cut.