Not a day goes by that I see a headline about the need for a minimum wage
increase. I read about staged sit-ins, protests and boycotts. I see people
investing a ton of time and energy to remain the lowest paid workers in the
country. I generally keep my political diatribes to a minimum on my blog, but I
feel like this needs to be addressed. Why are people putting so much effort into
staying at the bottom of the food chain?
Minimum wage was introduced to help protect people from being completely
devalued, but no where was it intended as a career path. Minimum wage jobs are
ideal for high school students that need a shitty part-time job to fund their
extracurricular activities not as a main source of income. Unskilled labor is
the pool you swim in when you are starting off in life. The whole point is to
acquire skills and better yourself by way of job experience and education.
McDonald’s is a prime example of how minimum wage / unskilled labor can work to
people’s advantage as quite a bit of their corporate hierarchy is composed of
internal hiring at the franchise level. These are people that have applied
themselves and worked their way up the food chain in an effort to not remain a
minimum wage earner. You don’t have to eat that swill to respect the
availability of advancement in their organization. Minimum wage is a starting
point, nothing more.
I’m with Kevin O’Leary on this one, it’s insanity to disrupt existing businesses
in such a way that it effects their business model and revenue stream. Sure,
perhaps it would’t have that great of an impact on a multi-billion dollar chain
like McDonald’s but it very well can hurt the little guy in the worst possible
way. Many small business owners already take reduced salaries to keep their
business afloat, and a raise in minimum wage could easily push them closer to
the poor house.
Hoping I don’t seem too much like an O’Leary disciple but I agree with his
sentiments about it taking away the motivation to be a better you and work
towards advancing your career. I haven’t faced the struggles of making minimum
wage in a very long time but that’s because I wanted more. You don’t have to be
materialistic to desire more money, there’s a stability aspect to it. If you
aren’t living paycheck to paycheck your quality of life is instantly improved
because there’s a level of stress that simply doesn’t exist.
I’m working hard to become part of the 1% and I wish more people did too.
