A Minimum Wage for Minimum Achievement

By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

Minimum Wage SweeneyI am sick and tired of hearing the whiners complain, Save Jerseyans, particularly about how Wal-Mart, McDonalds and the like don’t pay enough.

That is precisely why we supposedly have a free market; if you don’t like the job you are in at the moment, you are “free” to get an education and leave for a better position.

McDonald’s wasn’t meant to be a career choice or your dream job, nor was it designed to pay a livable wage.

It is an entry level job, a job that teaches an unskilled person people skills, the ability to learn how to count, make change, and what it means to be on time for your shift . . . responsibility.

McDonald’s, dishwashers and start up positions like it are jobs for those who have no prior work experience, or to supplement ones income.

It is a proving ground to learn the skills needed in business, a stepping stone to the corporate world.

There are workers who complain they have worked 10 years flipping burgers without a raise. If you are flipping burgers for 10 years and didn’t take the initiative in all those years to educate yourself, it comes down to plain laziness.

 

These jobs were meant for high school students, college students and people looking for a PT job for a little extra cash. Even now, in the Obama economy, the vast majority of these positions are filled by young kids or folks earning a secondary household income.

Expecting to earn a wage to support a family, pay your rent, groceries, car insurance and medical bills was brought on by many who lacked an education and now expect to survive on the backs of all those who learned the skills needed to better themselves.

Coming here without an education and then complaining you don’t earn enough to get an education is not everyone else’s responsibility. The ineptness and incompetency of those low wage earners is not the obligation of everyone else that worked those jobs to gain the job skills need to move forward and ahead.

It is unfair to those who were employed in those low skilled jobs while working their way through school, to pay more for a product simply because the current crop of low wage earners now feel this is now their permanent job. To add insult to injury, hourly pay for these jobs is now tied-in with the cost of living.

Keep in mind that these are the same minimum wage earners who can’t make change when the power goes out, because the computer isn’t able to tell them how much change you get back, but yet feel that after years of flipping a burger or washing dishes feel they deserve a raise simply because of longevity.

One reason out of many that minimum wage jobs are becoming a scarcity for today’s teenagers is due to a lack of turnover because these are the new full-time jobs for the uneducated or unmotivated.

As minimum wage increases, along with the COLA, increased costs will be passed on to the consumer. The end result is we just created a higher minimum wage without creating any great impetus for social mobility in an American society desperately in need of it!

Joe Sinagra
About Joe Sinagra 73 Articles
Joe is a U.S. Air Force veteran, small businessman and former candidate for the New Jersey legislature and New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. He continues to actively work for GOP causes and candidates in the Central New Jersey region.

3 Comments

  1. No, but those of us who actually are deserving of wages based on merit. Am I not "entitled" to a wage increase simply because "stuff got more 'spensive"?
    I have no issue with raising the minimum wage as Christie suggested. But auto increases is ridiculous.
    Not to mention that "minimum wage" was never meant to be a "living wage".

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