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Mostly laziness. With rare exception, most people that work at minimum wage that aren't high school students do so because it requires few skills, zero responsibility and they have zero interest in advancing their career.
There's also a lot of college graduates who work for min. wage because they're line of work isn't hiring. Do you call it laziness if someone, say, gets a bachelors in history or biology but can't pay for a masters program so they end up working a min. wage job until they can afford it? "Be weary of those who believe in a neat little world" such as yourself.
Sure, there's absolutely truth to this, you can be an idiot and earn a bachelors, or hell even a masters and you can be brilliant without ever having gone to college. I know people who earn more than I could ever imagine, but go and have a conversation with them and it's like talking to a wall. Never confuse intelligence with education, and visa versa.
Really? Then why is it that the person who signed it into law said this:
Quote:
It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.
Franklin D Roosevelt
Additionally, its 2015, live in the present. A lot of people depend on minimum wage despite your assertions that it wasn't "intended" to be that way. Given Roosevelt's quote above, I would argue that you are wrong. And lets be honest-Times have changed.
Really? Then why is it that the person who signed it into law said this:
Additionally, its 2015, live in the present. A lot of people depend on minimum wage despite your assertions that it wasn't "intended" to be that way. Given Roosevelt's quote above, I would argue that you are wrong. And lets be honest-Times have changed.
You don't see the irony in saying "times have changed" and then use a quote from 1933 to support doing the same thing today?
Minimum wage in 1933 (when FDR said that) was $0.25 / hour. In 2015 dollars that would be $4.48. Regardless of what he said, was 25 cents an hour ever a "living wage"? I doubt it was even close to the wages of decent living even in 1933 and especially since FDR didn't get his welfare programs going until 1935.
At $0.25 / hour before taxes someone would be making $10 / week, $44.33 / month, $520 / year, about 1/2 what the average laborer earned and 1/3 of the average US income.
Was (after taxes) $8 or 9 a week really enough to live on, much less raise a family on? It cost $18 / month to rent a house in 1933, so right there half of those wages would be gone on housing. So now someone would have $4/week to feed and cloth themselves. $0.10 for a can of soup, $0.11 for a pound of hamburger, $0.07 for a loaf of bread. Looks possible, for a single person with careful spending, easier with a room mate to split the bills with - much like someone making minimum wage today who would be taking in (pre tax) $1256.67/month or $290 / week, $1641.47/month in WA (not Seattle).
So how much have times really changed? It looks like minimum wage in 1933 was barely enough for a single person to live on, much like minimum wage is today - possible but not pleasant.
Did FDR really mean it to be "the wages of decent living" when it clearly wasn't?
There's also a lot of college graduates who work for min. wage because they're line of work isn't hiring. Do you call it laziness if someone, say, gets a bachelors in history or biology but can't pay for a masters program so they end up working a min. wage job until they can afford it? "Be weary of those who believe in a neat little world" such as yourself.
They would probably tell them they should just suck it up and learn to love IT.
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Really? Then why is it that the person who signed it into law said this: Additionally, its 2015, live in the present. A lot of people depend on minimum wage despite your assertions that it wasn't "intended" to be that way. Given Roosevelt's quote above, I would argue that you are wrong. And lets be honest-Times have changed.
In 1933, Roosevelt signed an executive order making gold ownership illegal, required everyone to turn in their gold coins to their nearby bank to be given a $20 federal reserve note (newly created) in return. Failure to do so could result in jail time. He then devalued this paper money by 50% and used the proceeds to fund his social welfare programs.
i.e. FDR's antics of 80+ years ago were unsustainable and have no bearing on modern times.
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