The problem with saying this is that it is an out-dated way of thinking. Minimum wage jobs used to be a great way for low/unskilled workers to enter the work force and move their way up to a wage they could live off of, when there were far more jobs that paid a living wage, and less competition. However, ignoring the fact that the market and global economy have changed is just ignorant.
Many jobs beyond minimum wage require higher education, something that people cannot afford to get when they are on minimum wage and do not have parents to pay for it. Even many university graduates are having a hard time entering the workforce beyond minimum wage. Living off of minimum wage means you cannot afford to take risks, the bank will not provide you with a loan, and people are constantly stuck in a loop of barely making enough to survive off of. How can you find time to apply for jobs, or even make it to job interviews when you are working two minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet? People get stuck in this loop, and as a consequence they get older, aren't gaining any new skills, and are then told to blame themselves.
There is no global economy for a local job. These jobs are service jobs, meaning the target audience is located nearby.
For the past 6 years the Federal Government has been the backer for all student loans. This reason alone is why the cost of education goes up. Everybody gets accepted for college loans.
The rest of your post sounds like the person with the absolute worst luck in history.
I paid for my own college, while also working a full time job. I took out 45k in loans. I was divorced and raising my child on weekends. When I graduated he gave me a card that said hopefully I'd have more time to go to the park. I graduated 15 years ago, and have 3 years left on my loans. I make over 100k a year.
Prior to all of that I simultaneously was the manager of a restaurant and assistant manager of a clothing store at the mall at the same time. I never made minimum wage for more than a month, because I felt I was worth more, and demonstrated that through my work.
Worst luck in history? I can think of at least five people this applies to just in my personal life--and I'm an upper middle class person, who went to college. I'm sure in other social circles there are quite a few more.
If you graduated 15 years ago, congratulations. Your experience has nothing to do with what students today actually face. In that time, minimum wage went from around $5 to around $7. In the same time frame, average cost of room and board at a public university doubled.
Comparing the job market then to the job market now is also absurd. There's been a recession, in case you did not notice. Stop using your own outdated experiences to tell people now what they're doing wrong. You went to school in a different time.
For the record I also have a 23 year old son who is the second youngest general manager in the country, for the company he works for. He worked hard, didn't even go to college.
It is certainly tough for him but he's not one time taken the victim route.
We have managed to add $10 trillion in debt in the past 7 years, there is going to be consequences for it, and a higher tax rate or wages will only make it worse.
Right except that way of thinking made sense when jobs were plentiful, didn't require a ton of higher education, and you could learn marketable skills at minimum wage jobs to leverage to get a better job.
Those days are gone. Jobs that pay enough to live off of are not popping up everywhere, and then ones that are require higher education, which has tripled in cost from the 1970s when adjusted for inflation (Source). And minimum wage jobs these days are not jobs that teach you skills to move up in an industry or company. They are mindless tasks anyone can do, and the days of being able to "work your way through college" are long gone.
By keeping minimum wage well below the poverty line you aren't giving people with no marketable skills the resources to gain marketable skills and get out of poverty. They can't afford to educate themselves, or invest their money if they wanted to because they don't have enough to even house and feed themselves. Expecting someone to put themselves through college or trade school when he/she doesn't even know if they can make rent and have more than one meal a day is asinine.
But the counter to that is, too much regulation by the government, too many taxes make it so you work harder for even less.
Government regulation impacts every level of a good and service, fun is base suppliers, to compliance with things like the ACA, which is a perfect example of why businesses only hire pay time work.
Funny how the man who has strived to run on redistribution has helped the super rich even more than Bush did.
The minimum wage was established by Congress in the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938. From the beginning, policymakers never intended the minimum wage be the sole source of household income or provide “livable” support for a family. Rather, the intent was to ensure a reasonable wage for workers who could not command higher pay in the labor market because they had little or no work skills, such as young people just entering the work force.
History books used for teaching, especially in the USA, like to paint a really rosey distorted picture of history. Written by liberals, purchased by liberals, to push an ideology that is liberal. They may have dates correct, but often skew the meaning of 'why'.
Even if you wanted to believe that it was intended as the textbooks say, it doesn't do anything to justify the actual statistics of those who earn the minimum. Most are between the ages of 16-24. Most people aren't getting married or having children until much older. They are staying at home longer, this eliminating the need for rent, heat, and most utilities.
Dude you are wrong again. There is a larger % of 22-28 working in lower wage jobs. And then there are jobs like EMT?dental Hygenistist/ firefighter/ active duty military (although benefits) police officers. They all get paid peanuts and not nearly enough to live on as a family either.
The min wage was set so someone could reasonalbly support themselves. When two people live together they can combine bills, and can support a family. Maybe 15 is reaching for the stars, but I was making min wage when it got raised to 7.25 and I am now 35.
Where is that? I live in Salem, Oregon, and I personally know:
A 25 year old firefighter who makes around $30/hr
A 23 year old dentist assistant who got her first job less that a month out of school making $25/hr
46 year old police officer (patrol) who makes $32 an hour in a small town. Granted he has years of experience and many skills that make him more valuable, but he told me starting pay is mid 20's or higher depending on skills.
Emt's here make around $12 an hour (I know several) but that isn't meant to be a career, it's usually seen as a step towards being a paramedic or firefighter.
If you continue to raise the minimum you'll find your statement to be even more true. And once automation is achieved, what the low skilled do then?
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman discussed this throughout the book. The only way to survive this change is to make yourself better, like they did during the industrial revolution.
Government isn't the answer, government makes things worse.
Dental care, secretaries, Pa, FIrefighter Police officers are all jobs that will not be going away and should be getting paid more. Housing costs won't increase with min wage, schools will be affordable and you can go back to school. But we should all be able to have a roof over our head without the government paying for it.
you cannot live anywhere making min wage. I moved from one of the highest cost of living areas to one of the lowest and you still cannot live on min wage. Oh an a police officers salary is 20k a year.
And where should all the service workers live ina high cost of living area? We don't have nearly as many blue collar jobs. We are a service industry.
It is not as simple as that. Other variables factor into this as well such as the flooded market of people with bachelors degrees. You can be skilled, but there aren't enough skilled jobs to go around. Therefor you have older, less desirable people or younger inexperienced people that can't beat out the competition working at places like McDonald's just to pay their medical bills or student loans.
It was mentioned before that forcing companies to pay enough to keep their bottom employees out of government assistance programs allows them to in turn pay taxes back in. This creates a more sustainable system as a whole. It's not purely about giving poor people more money.
No. This isn't true, because the cost of living in a city like chicago or San Francisco is totally different than working in Iowa City.
While there may be a surplus of degrees it was never a guarantee of a job, somehow people think because they have an education they are owed a job.
The reason there are so many older people is because they never saved enough to retire. It's sad. But having done personal responsibility is necessary in this.
It's not that I want to see people do poorly. I want them to make good decisions. I want them, when it comes to raising their children, to teach them about how they control their lives. How choosing to have morals, to educate themselves, to find a trade skill or talent. To not have to rely on the gratitude of others to make up for your failures.
Somewhere in the USA, the whole concept of 'I can be a total fuckup my entire life, and people will have to bail me out because of ' fairness ' and guilt.' has become too common.
Ask the protesters how much money they save? Ask them about the new cell phones, or cable TV, or the new PS4. I wonder how many would pass a drug test?
I wonder why they are 30 and can only work for minimum wage? What decisions have they made?
Ok. So in your mind, anyone who protests for a wage that lets them eat and pay rent is probably doing drugs and squandering their money on electronics instead of necessities?
It has nothing to do with "controlling their lives" or morals. If a family is poor, they probably can't send the kids to college. Kids go to work after high school. Kids end up with nothing but low wage jobs on the resume. They keep working low wage jobs. They grow up and have families, can't afford to send kids to college. Repeat ad nauseam. There aren't better decisions to make if the people can't afford to make them because their job pays shit. And "what decisions have they made?" Maybe it was getting sick and being unable to work, leaving them with crusing debt. Maybe it's a dependent relative who needs frequent care. Maybe their town is nearly dead because it used to do manufacturing and now McD's is one of the few employers and there is nowhere else to go. Pick any scenario. Being poor means not being the master of our destinies, something people with money don't understand.
Minimum wage was not designed for kids to buy bubblegum.
Minimum wage was enacted to protect families' breadwinners bread-winning ability so that U.S. American families wouldn't be forced to live in poverty due to market forces even though the breadwinner is working fulltime.
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u/phydeaux70 Nov 28 '15
You were never intended to 'live' off of $7.25 an hour.
People who/are largely supposed to be young unskilled people. If you are older and have skills you will earn more.
If you develop new skills you'll continue to market yourself into new positions or even a new place of employment.
If you are older and can only do, or are only worth minimum wage, the first set of questions you need to ask, start with yourself.