Hands down the most common argument against living wage. Boy do these people live in a fantasy world because plenty of supposedly “respectful” jobs are severely under-paid such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and paramedics. These people sacrifice their youth, their mental health and sometimes their own lives for society yet only 2 paycheques away from sleeping on the pavement. Besides, do people really think burger flippers only— flip burgers? They have to run the registers, deal with dine-in, pickup and online orders, clean and sanitise, check inventory for expiry dates etc. All of this require skills. Any good fast food establishments you have gone to cannot be run by 16-year-olds who are only 3 days into their first jobs. These skills being easily acquired doesn't change that a business can turn into shambles real quick if workers don't have them.
Strangely enough, “Burger flippers shouldn't be paid” crowd is often the first to wail about automation “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JOBS!”. Well shit mate you just said burger flipper isn't a real job because “it doesn't contribute anything to society” and now you get it. No one will be a burger flipper if burger-flipping position isn't even there. With automation, said “low-skill jobs” would be abolished so even the least motivated of lads have to pick up tools and books and learn something. Think of how many innovators, critical thinkers and humanitarian workers we would have if we're not trapped in mundane and physique-and-soul-crushing labour. Society would benefit greatly from it. But again, that would mean drastic changes in schooling system whose purpose is to churn out obedient and disposable pawns for capitalism so obviously corporate overlords would do anything in their power to prevent it. You're telling me there is AI that can identify me just from my walking gait but no robots that can simply fry some chips? I call bullshit on that. Capitalist society needs these “low-skill jobs” so they can threaten us with starvation if we don't want to play their games and hoarde all the wealth being produced. Rant over.