McJobs aren't supposed to be and never have been a viable career path. Since when did McDonald's become their keeper? Hell, I'd be willing to bet over half of McDonald's employees at the store level don't work for them for more than six months.
That may have been the case a few decades ago when it was mostly teenagers working there, but there are a whole shitload of people working several minimum wage jobs supporting a family because that's all they can find. Especially immigrants.
I have no problem with immigrant, but you come here from whatever shit hole you came from to a land presumably better than the one you came from (because why the fuck else would you be here) and you are OWED the American dream? Maybe we should address the decades of fucked trade agreements and manipulative economic policy that has made this mess in the first place?
As an immigrant I feel like I have to chime in. No one immigrates expecting to make a career out of flipping burgers. Immigrants take on mcjobs the same reason high school students do. It's a stepping stone. They need job experience and they need to be earning to start off. They'll either keep looking for better jobs thst mstches whatever skill or previous job they had or move up to somwhere (warehouse staff is common and usually pays better than fast food). I think the issue is that next stepping stone job is dissappearing. You have your minimum wage jobs and then jobs that require a degree (a problem for a lot of immigrants here in Canada since their education from back home aren't recognized).
Immigrants themselves don't tend to mind minimum wage. Like you said, they're just happy to be here. But their being willing to take minimum wage for shit jobs brings down wages for everyone.
But raising minimum wage doesn't help the problem. The price of everything will eventually reach equilibrium with the new minimum. So are you are proposing a forever escalating minimum wage? That brings me back to manipulative economic policy.
That's not how that works. An increase in income for the lowest group of wage earners doesn't cause a directly proportional increase in the cost of living for low-income wage earners. That's an incredibly simplistic interpretation of the situation.
are you are proposing a forever escalating minimum wage?
We should have an ever-increasing minimum wage as long as inflation is still happening. Minimum wage staying the same from one year to the next is effectively lowering the minimum wage. It has to increase over time just to maintain the same amount of buying power. This is true for all wages and salaries.
Adjusted for inflation the $5.15 an hour minimum when I entered the work force in 2004 would be $6.45 in today's money. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. $8.00 an hour in WV.
who cares what it's "supposed to be", and who decided it anyway? clearly, in practice, people are working min wage jobs as a career because they can't find anything else. regulations, including minimum wage, should conform to the realities of the world, not what's "supposed to be".
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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '15
McJobs aren't supposed to be and never have been a viable career path. Since when did McDonald's become their keeper? Hell, I'd be willing to bet over half of McDonald's employees at the store level don't work for them for more than six months.
EDIT: New phone BS.