We hear it all the time: Some nose-in-the-air jackwagon that thinks minimum wage jobs are menial jobs, and thus have little to no respect for anyone doing any job they deem beneath them - and adamantly believes the person deserves minimum wage. "This lazy dumbass works a no-skill job" they say. "Why should there be a minimum wage? Why should we pay these people even that much?" they may say if they're uber far right conservatives or Ayn Rand worshiping libertarians.
Follow me below the fold, and let's take a closer look at that attitude.
Judge Smails in Caddyshack said it best:
The world needs ditch diggers too.
This is true. The world
does need ditch diggers. And cashiers. And fast food workers. And janitors. And busboys. And... You get the point, reader. Our modern world does not function without these people. We all know this. We all know that there is a great demand for these kind of employees - because we're not obtuse morons who think that the solution is for anybody and everybody to move on and get an advanced degree. Our economy couldn't even
support that, because so much of it relies on what some consider unskilled labor. But is that labor, in fact, unskilled?
I posit the idea these people are largely not unskilled. Do they work jobs that don't require huge amounts of education? Sure. But does that diminish the skills they do obtain working a job? Who walks into a job - any job - and immediately becomes the most productive employee in the company with vast amounts of institutional knowledge at their beck-and-call? No one. Every position, from the lowliest grocery bagger to the CEO of the entire grocery chain has a learning curve, and that learning curve takes time and experience. Sure, at the end of the day, the bagger is less valuable to the company and more easily replaced than the CEO, but does that mean they're completely without skills?
This all came to mind for me earlier today. On my way into the office, I stopped by my usual coffee shop to get my morning coffee. Unlike a typical day, there were people I didn't know behind the counter. The person usually responsible for pouring the coffee wasn't there, so the person behind the counter doing that today didn't recognize me and instantly start pouring my usual cup with just the right about of cream and sugar. When they did pour it - after the cashier, who was also not one of the usual staff took my order - they poured it wrong and put in hazelnut instead of vanilla (EWWWWW!) and had to remake it. The cashier took two or three tries to ring that cup of coffee up correctly. Long story short - instead of walking in and walking out quickly and efficiently, I was there, in line, for 4 or 5 minutes.
This isn't to say the staff were bad. The staff was largely new and inexperienced with the morning rush. I found out the usual crew was mostly in some kind of training seminar while engaging with the manager in some chit-chat - who happens to also be part of the regular crew.
On my way back into my office, this thought came into my head: It is valuable to me as a customer to have people that work behind the counter that can quickly and efficiently make what I want each morning, ring me out, and get me on my way. I got less value for the same cost today than I usually get.
That is certainly not a swipe at the staff working this morning. They're new. They need time to learn the job, and if working mornings, time to get to know me as a customer, so like the usual staff, when they see me standing in line, they instantly know "There's Mr. Large Vanilla with 3 creams and 3 sugars." That time they save me in the morning on the way into the office is in many cases practically invaluable. Is that kind of experience worth minimum wage to me? Is that kind if experience worth minimum wage to their employer? Not in my opinion. This "menial job" getting my coffee every day actually requires some skill to get me in and out quickly and efficiently.
Rinse and repeat this in practically every "menial" job out there. As time goes on and employees learn - even in "menial jobs" - they become much better at the job and more efficient.
Sure, there are those that will say that this issue will rectify itself, because as an employee remains with a company for a while, their wages increase. But is this always the case? No. Thousand upon thousand of employees are out there nationwide with years of experience on a job making minimum wage - because their employer is an elitist jackwagon that doesn't recognize that employee does have valuable skills and experience - regardless of the job. Ditch diggers get better at figuring out how to quickly dig ditches in difficult to dig soil. Casihers learn how to ring things up faster. Fast food workers learn how to make more and more burgers on the grill. Again, you get the point.
Jobs are only "menial" when the person is a "trainee." As such, the idea that "low skill" jobs are always low skill is bollocks. Every job requires some skill to be good at it. Every job requires some effort to be good at it. Every job requires some dedication to be good at it. Perhaps it's time the American public started to recognize this reality again and stops looking down on those working "menial jobs" - thinking that minimum wage is all they should get.
Minimum wage might be an appropriate "starter wage" for people in so-called "no-skill" jobs, but as soon as that person shows even a modicum of experience, they're worth more than minimum wage - because they now have skills relative to that job.