I thought i read somewhere that minimum wage jobs were only like 2% of the jobs in the labor foce
The biggest problem is people are trying to come up with a one line answer to a multi-faceted problem.
Minimum wage jobs, even just low pay jobs aren't just work done by high school kids any longer. Everyone knows the middle class is being killed off...meaning middle class jobs are being shipped out of the country. Well if middle class jobs are being shipped out of the country at the rate of about 15k a month since the mid 80's, what do people think those workers are going to do? They can try to compete with the fresh crop of 20 somethings that come out of college every year into a saturated market, or they can take the lower paying jobs. The people i see around here in low paying jobs like mcdonalds or mom and pop jobs aren't kids and 20 somethings. THey are 30's, 40's and older. It's not unusual to see a 50-60 year old working a drive thru window around here because there are really no 'middle' jobs You either have high tech jobs, or you have low end blue collar jobs. between those are hospitality jobs. Lots of those i guess.
There are issues that have to be addressed relating to the job market environment and economy in the country before people can start talking about pay rates while scoffing about 'those jobs are for kids'.