For those who feel entitled to $15 an hour, here is some real world math I did myself. Yes, me.
Minimum wage jobs are a stepping stone, not a career. If you want more pay, prove you are worth it and move up in position or change jobs. If you've messed up in your personal life and dropped out of school, got in trouble with the law and have a criminal record, just don't want to put in the effort to do well and get a good recommendation from a previous job, that's probably your fault. Yes, there are circumstances that may contribute, but you can probably look in the mirror as to why you're not doing better financially.
If you want more money, show you're worth it. Invest in yourself and further your education. Take positions other people don't want in order to show you're willing to work hard no matter what and performance is more important than position. Say it with me: performance is more important than position. Your boss will see this. If they don't, move on.
Now to the real world math. You think you, possibly a high school dropout with a criminal record, are entitled to $15 an hour to flip burgers. Why?
Lets take a private in the Army. Their base pay is $1547 a month. As an officer I get about $250 a month as a food allowance. Enlisted get meal cards, so they get three meals a day for free. Lets add that $250 on to their $1547. Then they also get free living conditions. These aren't that good. Really. It's basically a studio or one bedroom and they kind of suck. Often they're in less than desirable places (think Ft Polk), but they don't have much say in where they live. I'd estimate they're worth (utilities included) $500 a month, and that's probably over estimating them by quite a bit. Housing, food, base pay that private gets $2297 a month.
Most of the enlisted I work with probably work 11 hour days on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but it is rarely ever a 9-5 job. That $2297 a month working 55 hours a week comes out to $10.44 an hour. And you think you deserve $15 to flip burgers? These enlisted soldiers are the ones who maintain, fix and keep my helicopter working and flying and keep us safe while doing it. You flip burgers. They are subject to UCMJ action if they get in trouble off post, after hours, or during the weekend and can have pay taken away. They get late night inspections of their living areas. They deal with a bunch of crap you never have to. And they do it for $10.44 an hour. Difference between you and them, they're not whining about wanting more money for doing nothing. They work to advance their knowledge, skill set, experience which in turn gets them promoted, which gets them more money, more responsibility, which has a snowball effect which can land them a high paying helicopter maintenance position in the civilian world. How did they get it? They earned it.
If you want more, go out and earn it.
Minimum wage jobs are a stepping stone, not a career. If you want more pay, prove you are worth it and move up in position or change jobs. If you've messed up in your personal life and dropped out of school, got in trouble with the law and have a criminal record, just don't want to put in the effort to do well and get a good recommendation from a previous job, that's probably your fault. Yes, there are circumstances that may contribute, but you can probably look in the mirror as to why you're not doing better financially.
If you want more money, show you're worth it. Invest in yourself and further your education. Take positions other people don't want in order to show you're willing to work hard no matter what and performance is more important than position. Say it with me: performance is more important than position. Your boss will see this. If they don't, move on.
Now to the real world math. You think you, possibly a high school dropout with a criminal record, are entitled to $15 an hour to flip burgers. Why?
Lets take a private in the Army. Their base pay is $1547 a month. As an officer I get about $250 a month as a food allowance. Enlisted get meal cards, so they get three meals a day for free. Lets add that $250 on to their $1547. Then they also get free living conditions. These aren't that good. Really. It's basically a studio or one bedroom and they kind of suck. Often they're in less than desirable places (think Ft Polk), but they don't have much say in where they live. I'd estimate they're worth (utilities included) $500 a month, and that's probably over estimating them by quite a bit. Housing, food, base pay that private gets $2297 a month.
Most of the enlisted I work with probably work 11 hour days on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but it is rarely ever a 9-5 job. That $2297 a month working 55 hours a week comes out to $10.44 an hour. And you think you deserve $15 to flip burgers? These enlisted soldiers are the ones who maintain, fix and keep my helicopter working and flying and keep us safe while doing it. You flip burgers. They are subject to UCMJ action if they get in trouble off post, after hours, or during the weekend and can have pay taken away. They get late night inspections of their living areas. They deal with a bunch of crap you never have to. And they do it for $10.44 an hour. Difference between you and them, they're not whining about wanting more money for doing nothing. They work to advance their knowledge, skill set, experience which in turn gets them promoted, which gets them more money, more responsibility, which has a snowball effect which can land them a high paying helicopter maintenance position in the civilian world. How did they get it? They earned it.
If you want more, go out and earn it.
