So, ready for another Dark Truth about the minimum wage. Like yesterday this looks at the reason why many people are against the minimum wage, often passionately. Again, a reader warning is advised.
Bob and Janet are a happy married couple. They have a nice house, cars and lots of stuff. They have the base felling of being better then anyone they see has less money then they do, but also a bit more. Bob is a plummet and Janet is a nurse, both make $25 an hour and have worked at their jobs for ten years. The $25 an hour is no where near what they want in pay, but it is sure a lot better then minimum wage. Or anything close to it. When Bob and Janet go to a dollar store or restaurant they can point and laugh at the lowly workers they see making even $11 an hour. Both Bob and Janet make twice that, so they feel they can belittle such a poor person. After all, as they make more money, they are better people.
That %25 an hour that both Bob and Janet make is still a bit low, even for the area they live in currently. At ten years in with each of their companies they both should be making over $30 an hour, but they are not. Why? Well, three big reasons are:
*The company is just filled to overflowing with excuses. Whenever the subject of a raise comes up you can be sure that it is "the wrong time" or "the economy is bad" or "sales are down". Really the company can just say anything and use anything as an excuses not to give out a raise.
*Most companies give raises annually, and again this gives the company lots of excuses not to give a raise. With a year of work, the company can carefully look over everything an employee has done over the course of a years time. Anything, even the smallest foot note can be blown out of proportion. Bob talked back to a supervisor ten months ago and Janet was late three times seven months ago are both more then enough for both companies to deny giving a raise.
*Even on the rare year when the company does breakdown and give a raise, it is very small. As decided by the nameless faceless people in far away corporate office that maximum raise is 2%. so even when they got a raise, it was not very much.
So just think what would happen if the $15 an hour minimum wage law was passed. Suddenly both Bob and Janet would not be making way more then the other lesser workers. They were making over three times the federal minimum wage. Worse, for them, is that many people might be making even more then the new $15 an hour minimum wage. That worker at the dollar store or that restaurant might be making $17 an hour. Bob and Janet will recoil in horror as they realize they don't make way more then twice the money as such people.
The horror for Bob and Janet is only just starting. They will rush into work Monday morning and demand more pay. They want to put things back the way that feels right to them. They want the world where they make two or three times the money of the menial workers. In order to keep everything right in there world, they demand a pay raise. About $35 an hour should do it, and make then feel normal again. Of course, the chance of any company doing that is very slim.
Bob and Janet will be faced with a new horror. The company that exploited them for years cares nothing about their feelings. The company that both underpaid them and used any made up excuse not to give them a rasie simply does not care about them. The company does not care how upset they both are, but they will never be getting a raise of something like $10 an hour. Though the company is open to talking about maybe giving them that 2% raise come their annual review.
Both Bob and Janet are crushed. They have wasted ten years of their lives at each of their companies. They both knew they were underpaid. They both knew the company was lying when it said things like the bad economy prevented the company from giving any raises for that year. Even the couple years when they got the pathetically small raise of 2%, they knew that amount was next to nothing. Yet both of them just staid at their jobs. They both let a company exploit them for years. That is the horror they must now live with.
That is another Dark Truth.
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