> Jackass: it's a job for young people, that's why it doesn't pay well! If adults want to work there, it's their choice, but it's not going to pay well! > James: Why? > Jackass: It's a low skill job that doesn't require a degree or anything > James: So? > Jackass: So the jobs aren't going to pay well > James: Why not?
People get so hung up on "low levels workers are being paid more than me" or "are being paid more than I was paid when I was there" and instead of thinking: the system is broken and I should be paid more now for the skills or knowledge I have, while they alos get a fair pay, or: I should have been paid more when I worked there
like no, mcdonalds workers should not make more than a teacher. we should pay mcdonalds workers a livable wage, and teachers SHOULD BE PAID MORE than they are now etc. but they just see "how dare barista or mcdonalds pay get high!"
> Jackass: I... yes? that wasn't in doubt? but it's a low skill job? > James: So? People are willing to pay for it, and it seems like a pretty big industry, so why shouldn't they be paid more?
I feel like it's a no-brainer that any job you can have full time should pay a living wage. because that job is demanding all of your reasonable working hours, so you shouldn't be expected to get a second source of income.
and the "this is a job for young people" is always a wild argument because they're always talking about businesses that are open during school hours. and that, again, include full time positions.
or perhaps those who couldn't afford to/didn't want to go to college and are thus aiming to acquire a full time job which pays all their bills as a young adult person?
I will say that at every 'low-skill job meant for young people', I have seen a constantly rotating string of young people and, supporting that constant turnover, a core squad of middle-aged to elderly employees
If those low-skill jobs meant for young people were actually and exclusively done BY young people, 1) your average citizen has NO idea how badly done the job would be, because those jobs would be consistently done by kids either with no work ethic, no training/experience, or in many cases BOTH
Every 'low-skill job meant for young people' RELIES on older people who can't get better-paying jobs/jobs that require more experience, for whatever reason, and it PREYS on them. On purpose.
By not paying them enough for what they do, and then recruiting chucklefucks like the one you're arguing with to insist they don't deserve to be paid any more because they should have just taken a job that's meant for them! Which they can't, usually because there isn't any job meant for them.
And the chucklefucks wouldn't want them to leave, either, because again, this would cause their day-to-day lives so much more stress and upheaval than they have any idea about BECAUSE they never see the older (and frequently disabled) core teams that hold retail and food service jobs together while the younger employees constantly cycle through.
I promise you that the attractive young girl at the register of the McDonald's is not vital to the running of that location. But her not-conventionally-attractive, exhausted senior employee/manager who's at least 50 years old, who comes over when you want your refund? THAT woman is being asked by literally every other employee on shift how to put out fires.
Because she's the one who knows, while all the rest of them are relatively new hires and 50% of the people in that building will probably have rotated out within two months. But the manager's been there 5+ years, and is the ONLY employee in the building who's been there 5+ years. (There are other employees like her, but usually only one per shift.)
You literally can't run retail and food service jobs on young kids who are in school, and everyone who actually THINKS about the subject for more than two minutes knows this, but the ILLUSION that you can is how companies sell idiots on defending their underhanded wage practices so they don't have to keep up with inflation.
So that they, quite literally, do not have to pay living wages to the people who are doing jobs that literally all of society not just wants but DEMANDS that they do, people who need to make a living and pay bills to no less of a degree than any other person working any other job on this miserable planet.
(For the record, I have multiple people working at my 'entry-level retail job' who are grandmas and grandpas over the age of 60. Several who are past 80. Some of them barely hobble along because of how the multiple decades working retail have crippled them. One of them had a stroke recently, and she's still coming to work because she needs the money.)
(Tell your idiot to haul his ass out of the Reagan era and Reagan thinking, Reagan was a dogshit president who invented reasons to rob from the poor to give to the rich like it was his job, and we've been out of the eighties for nearly fifty years at this point. The world now is SLIGHTLY different than his antiquated arguments reflect.)
(And they ARE antiquated because it has been DECADES since the US - hell, since the global economy - was doing so well that no one would ever work a low-paying entry-level job except for young kids looking for a little spending money.)
(Hell, I don't know if the global economy was EVER that good or if it was a bullshit argument since its inception, I just am only 40 years old and can't speak with personal authority past a certain decade.)
my mum was actually talking with her other boomer friends the other day about how bad they feel for millennials because yeah the economy IS shittier than it was in their day
Bottom line: if you want any job done well, and done on hours beyond 3-9 PM every weekday, you had better be prepared to pay that job a living wage that stays consistent with inflation. Otherwise you're demanding something economically irresponsible and morally unacceptable in the form of other people sacrificing decent lives so YOU can profit off them.
(And you don't have to be employing them to be profiting off them, you can just be using their services while grumping about paying any more for those services so they can, y'know, afford to pay rent based on their performance of those services.)
> James: Why?
> Jackass: It's a low skill job that doesn't require a degree or anything
> James: So?
> Jackass: So the jobs aren't going to pay well
> James: Why not?
> James: But people are paying for it, aren't they?
> James: So? People are willing to pay for it, and it seems like a pretty big industry, so why shouldn't they be paid more?