Most people that get minimum wage jobs are living with their parents, or at least that's how it was when I was young. I started working farm jobs that paid well below minimum wage. I picked beans for $3 a bushel. My first non-farm job was at Sears working in Receiving for minimum wage. I didn't know squat, but learned and moved into the Warehouse and got a raise, then I moved to the sales floor selling Electronics, then I moved to Customer Service counting register receipts and processing the daily bank deposit. That's how it used to be.
Kids now seem to think that fast food is a career rather than a learning experience that you grow from and then move on to a better position. I don't know the reason people are so unmotivated to try to improve their lives through hard work rather than government intervention.
Income Inequality
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Kulaf
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Ddrak
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Re: Income Inequality
If I had to make a guess, I'd say it's the progressive breakdown of family structures and the 50's ideal of one income earner being able to support the (insert nation here) dream.
There's a huge difference between Boomer parents that could have Dad working to support the family and go on a 2 week vacation somewhere annually, with a pension to retire on, and the modern all-parents working to make ends meet with kids encouraged to fend for themselves ASAP. Government policy is active engaged here too - there's a strong pressure to get the entire workforce productive instead of having one parent stay home. Increasing GDP is generally good for the economy, but also feeds back in problematic ways.
With more people in the workforce, there's more competition for "good" jobs and less competition for "good" workers. That drives more jobs to paying less, and so you have more people attempting to survive off minimum wage.
Note: I have no problem with an age-graded minimum wage (as we have here), but that adds new dynamics to the workforce with people effectively losing their jobs as they jump into higher categories.
Dd
There's a huge difference between Boomer parents that could have Dad working to support the family and go on a 2 week vacation somewhere annually, with a pension to retire on, and the modern all-parents working to make ends meet with kids encouraged to fend for themselves ASAP. Government policy is active engaged here too - there's a strong pressure to get the entire workforce productive instead of having one parent stay home. Increasing GDP is generally good for the economy, but also feeds back in problematic ways.
With more people in the workforce, there's more competition for "good" jobs and less competition for "good" workers. That drives more jobs to paying less, and so you have more people attempting to survive off minimum wage.
Note: I have no problem with an age-graded minimum wage (as we have here), but that adds new dynamics to the workforce with people effectively losing their jobs as they jump into higher categories.
Dd
