Do companies not see how big of a slap to the face minimum wage is? I don't care how much minimum wage is an hour…it's still a slap to the face. Why? Look at the phrase “Minimum wage”. What does it mean? It means that's the lowest wage the government would literally allow you to pay people. They had to create that threshold for a reason- Because employers would pay less if they didn't have that law.
They said they couldn't afford more when it was $7, then 8, then 10 & now in some places $15+. They're not closed down tho, that means they always could have afforded to pay their employees that much and chose not to. If the minimum was $2 an hour you can bet your ass they would be paying just $2 an hour.
You cannot give people the bare minimum you can legally give without getting in trouble…and not expect your employees to give you the bare minimum without getting in trouble. You cannot increase prices for inflation “because cost of running has gone up” and then not actually give that increase of pay to the employees. Otherwise wtf are the price increases for?
Let's not forget how miserable these jobs are too. Much of older society (especially) look at minimum wage workers with zero respect. They're seen as unskilled, dumb peasent servants for the public and they're abused for it daily. Every week I read or see another story about Karen's screaming, spitting and even throwing shit at employees. Now more than ever MURDERS against minimum wage workers have gone up. People getting fucking killed because their chicken sandwich wasn't made right or their fries were too cold. Can you imagine being killed for something so stupid?
Then you have managers micromanaging every stupid mundane task you have. They disrespect and talk down to you like you're a piece of shit. Employees being sexually harassed or assaulted and corporates doing nothing about it. The list goes on and on.
On top of all this you can barely make rent and eat. Sometimes you have to choose one or the other.
Employers ask yourself…why the fuck would anyone want to ever work for the minimum you're willing to give…with your expectation that they should be so grateful they should even go the extra mile for you?
It blows my mind that employers are dumbstruck that “no one wants to work”. People probably feel like they're better off living off of welfare in assistant housing over working for minimum wage.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.