I keep seeing posts about people explaining how horrible working conditions are and have been. Whether it's the “I worked for my uncle for $20 for a 10 hour day” post or the “Only teenagers work for day to day retail/fast food companies” posts where people don't understand corporate heirarchy as in managers and overseer's and general franchise owners. He I've been a laborer/labor supervisor for most of my life and I see posts where people genuinely say that THOSE jobs are for teenagers. I've seen people say entry level programming jobs are for teens. When does the exploitation stop? At what level does a job become “for big boys and girls”? Where these commenters decide it's acceptable to start paying a wage worth earning? Why is it that teenagers are required to earn pennies on the dollar in their eyes? I get especially livid in two situations: the “when I started working I worked 300 hours a day for $0.12 per day and I was happy to do it”, and “I worked for my family for free for years before I started making any money.”
My first job was at 11 years old for my family company. Yes they took advantage of me I understand that, but I was also paid $12-$15 an hour at 11 years old almost 20 years ago, I wasn't unpaid or paid garbage cash. My family paid me what they paid their other employees and didn't FORCE me to work. The work was there when I wanted to do it, so when I wanted money I asked for work. Whether it was digging earth by hand to fix water lines for $15 an hour or spreading mulch and picking up lawn clippings for $12 an hour, I would work as many hours as I wanted provided my overseer was still working and I would be happy to do it. I didn't need it, but from around 10 years old my family taught me what it means to “earn” things. And that's when the dynamic changed. I'm thankful being where I'm at with the work ethic I have, but I also understand it's RIDICULOUS to ask someone to work today where gas is almost $8 per gallon where I live for less than that price per hour. Paying someone the national minimum wage should be a crime punishable by life in prison, and justification of that action should be punished in the same way.
Anyone that wants to come in the comments here and cry “I had it hard so ALL OF YOU SHOULD TOO!” Rather than “man what I had to do sucked, I really hope my kids can learn the value of a dollar without some disgusting middle aged monster making them carry 10 sheets of 4×8 plywood so they can't ever bend down to play with my grandchildren, if they make it that long.” Should be jailed immediately. I've worked for some of the most vile disgusting people in my life and I've seen morons in this subs comments defending that generation. I went to school at 14 to learn to make furniture, my first job in that field at 19 I had a 67 year old man throwing table saw blades, chisels and turpentine at me and I've had people who were handed corporate jobs making 20x what I did tell me I should be thankful for the experience. At 22 I learned to frame houses and had a 46 year old man throw his 28 oz framing hammer at me on a regular basis intending to injure me and I have been told that that's how jobs are supposed to be.
Not only shame on you, but at this point, after everything you've encouraged, I hope one day your children experience what I have. But I hope the table saw blades hit them in critical areas when I have only been grazed, I hope the chisels are mirror sharp and your children lose so much blood they wind up with a multi hundred thousand dollar hospital bill that you become responsible for as they recover and learn to use their limbs again. I hope the turpentine you encouraged my boss throwing at me hits your children in the eyes that it so narrowly missed in my. Ase and they never see again. I hope the framing hammers knock your children off of the 24 foot ladder I was on top of that I needed to emergently reach around and grab the inside of the window frame, but I hope your children miss and fall that entire height. I hope that for every sin commenters in this sub and people in my life have justified in the name of someone above me making a dollar at the severe risk of my health and safety, that it happens to someone you cherish more than the air you breathe every moment. I hope that happens so you can come to realize what you have been wishing on me and everyone else in my position. Maybe when you become a part of this cycle of abuse as a fully formed big brained adult and see it happen to your loved ones you might hopefully change your tone.
Until then, I hope the things you've told me are normal and encouraged happen to everyone you hold dear and you aren't there to fix it. I'm sick of being told I deserve to have my body broken for a disgustingly low wage while people who sit in the safety and comfort of an office make 100x what I make while I put my body and future on the line.