Have you ever tried to get a job in a college town? There are none. There is a HUGE workforce that will work for nothing. Job competition is fierce.
-filmgeek, who works minimum with a “mileage” compensation.
bump. That kind of language and sentiment doesn’t belong in GQ. Take it to the Pit.
samclem GQ moderator
As I posted above, I worked for minimum wage for three years at my last job, from age 21 to 24. Hmm, well I did get a twenty cent raise each anniversary, does that still count as working for minimum?
The job was secure, offered health benefits and a steady dependable schedule. Jobs that I was qualified for that paid a higher wage did not offer those other benefits.
As a single parent my being able to secure child care in order to work depended on me working a regular schedule, there aren’t any daycare options available in my area for swing shifts/weekends. I could have taken a higher-paying job and used Medicaid to cover my kid’s health insurance, but a mere $1.50 more per hour would have put me above the salary cap and not eligible for benefits. Granted, that’s before my state’s health insurance for children went into effect, I don’t know what the current salary cap is for that. I could have taken a $2 hourly raise for seasonal work, and found myself out of a job in a few months and back scouting another min.wage position and hoping no one in the family needed medical care in the interim.
I worked, paid my bills, raised my family in the best manner I could and didn’t become part of the dreaded welfare demographic. When a suitably better job became available, I jumped at the opportunity and bettered our standard of living substantially. I wasn’t aware this behavior fell under the “truly worthless mofo” category, thanks for fighting my ignorance.
Ok… point taken. You’re not a worthless mofo if you work for minimum wage.
But I will assert that nobody’s forced to work for minimum wage- even in the examples here, the people choose to work for that wage due to other benefits, and one of the examples actually got raises on top of it.
Or… maybe I should say that nobody is doomed to a minimum wage career. Sure, there are times people may take minimum wage jobs for a temporary period, but I find it hard to believe that anybody **has **to work for minimum in anything beyond temporary jobs until they find a job more suitable to their skills.
I guess what I’m really sick of is hearing about this horrible plight of minimum wage earners trying to support a family, etc… when in fact there are very, very few of them, and even at that it’s a temporary thing.
Keep in mind that when you see statistics of who makes minimum wage, it may not count people who make just above minimum - when I worked at Suncoast I started out at 5.35, which is not a hell of a lot better than 5.15. In six months I went up to, I think, 5.70 or so. Still hardly generous. After I had worked there for 8 months or so, starting pay went up to 6 something, but I didn’t get a raise! So I was making quite a bit less than new hires, which still pisses me off.