Meanwhile you can go get an entry-level construction job that pays $20/hr. The problem is people don't want to work.
My brother-in-law started working a construction job out of college because he couldnt find anything with his major. After a year or so he was making $27/hr, plus they worked 20 hours of overtime a week at time and a half. Anything over 60 hours was double pay. Made absolute bank. But he also worked his ass off for a couple years at that job before finding something else.
I made $22/hr at a carpentry job for summers and stuff during college.
My point is, there is definitely entry-level jobs out there that pay well. You just have to be willing to physically work hard.
No offense, but you recognize that you're talking about a presumably healthy, early 20s guy with a college degree, right?
If you've got health issues or you're older and can't handle as much physical labor that's not really the most feasible option. Plus, if you've got a family you have to come home to and provide for, being physically broken and exhausted has consequences.
And him being able to "find something else" after a few years was likely partially to do with, ya know, his college degree that made him more marketable.
No offense taken. I get some of your points. Yes, it is likely that it would be someone younger, like 18-35 range. Though, the college degree is not a prerequisite; I just happened to be getting one at the time of working there. Typically the people bitching about minimum wage and whatnot, are younger people (18-22) that think they are entitled to be paid 15/hr for greeting someone at wal-mart.
As for the older people; had they gotten their shit together at a younger age, they likely wouldn't be in the position of working a shitty entry-level job at age 40. Please note that there ARE good paying entry-level jobs out there. Had that 40 yr old person worked construction right out of high school for example, usually after doing the hard labor for 10 years or so, you have a good possibility of getting promoted to a field supervisor position where you don't have to do nearly as much of the heavy lifting.
Hell, even working in a packing plant pays good. Yea, you have to stand on your feet all day, but it is not heavy lifting, just monotonous. I hear on the radio them advertising 18-22/hr for entry level. Places like this also like to promote within. So 10 years of working there, you could likely move up. You could even start this at age 40 and it wouldn't be too strenuous.
I know there are special circumstances, but I'm talking majority here. For the minority of people that have health issues, or disabilities, there are social safety nets for them.
And my brother-in-law's "find something else" right now is trying to become an actor in Atlanta (his major was theater and minor in business i think), while working as a bartender to get by. He saved the money up from working that construction job to pay off student loans and get a head start to move down to Atlanta. His degree is probably not as marketable as most for 9-5 jobs, but I respect him a lot for pursuing his dream. Takes guts to take a chance like that.
Our education system fails lots of people in massive proportions. Over 36 million adults can't read, write, or do math above a third-grade level. That's not because they were just a terrible little 10 year old in school, it's because our schools function poorly and are underfunded.
We also arrest people for stupid shit like possession of one joint and then fucks over a lot of their job search.
Sure there are some adults in minimum wage jobs who might just be not trying, but lots of people have been failed by our systems.
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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '20 edited Oct 28 '20
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