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Minimum wage job.
August 26th, 2008
Working a minimum wage job is not all too glamorous. And there are days when the work just doesn’t seem worth the effort. Most times, when this is the case, there are usually people who are not in the category of the minimum wage pay scale who will spout a slogan or other statement which is supposed to make things better, but most times just remind everyone how much they really do not know the situation.
Among these slogans and statements is what I consider the top five most often misused and misguided comments by people who are not part of the minimum wage group. Many times the people who use these statements either do not know the answer, or do not wish to see the problem because they are not in the situation nor do they care to be.
- Minimum Wage is better than Welfare - this is a line most often used by the local Welfare Office or Unemployment Office; with the theory behind it being to convince you that a low wage job is enough to support yourself. The problem here is that when you account for food, medical care, housing, and other costs usually covered by Welfare, the benefits of working minimum wage jobs are most often very slim.
- It’s Job Security - this statement is most often heard during a busy time in the retail trades where you are dealing with a constant flow of customers who don’t care about your job. Usually it is coming from the business owner who is already secure because of more business. The problem is that job security in this case is a myth since anyone at minimum wage is replaceable by a younger, faster employee who is more willing to deal with the job you have.
- It’s not about the Money - this is a line most often spoken by someone who doesn’t seem to need the job as badly as you. These people usually have found another side activity or are able to use income from family to support themselves. These are also the people who need to constantly inform everyone about the newest toy or item they just brought home.
- You Could Be Poor And Homeless - this is always a good line to tell someone who is always one step away from that very thing. No one has been able to produce a minimum wage earner who isn’t constantly worried about not making rent or paying other needed bills for any given month. Another version of this line is the famous ‘Would you rather be homeless?’ to which the appropriate response is to say ‘no’, but with all the help available to homeless people, there are days I wonder who has life better off.
- It’s Better Than Nothing - the problem is that everything is better than having nothing. There are many people working minimum wage who are just above having nothing simply because they can’t afford to tell the utility companies that the little amount they can afford to pay is ‘better than nothing’.
While earning your own money, and providing for yourself, are admirable goals to have and should be achieved when possible; comments and statements from people outside the minimum wage scale that try to downplay or spin the situation to make things appear better than they are often do not help. Most times these comments are given by those who do not understand the burdens associated with the situation, or simply do not have an answer. Expressing statements such as these seem not to help the situation, or the person in the situation, but rather add more to the aggravation and frustration felt by those who must depend on the few hundred dollars each month to survive.
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