Minimum Wage-It's the way it should be

I haven’t done this in a while so I figured I may as well put up a post that is relevant to the times. The point I’m going for is to relay to the public is that fast food workers DO NOT deserve 15 dollars an hour. When you think about the concept it seems like a great idea. Let’s give people a chance to make a living, off of a basic level job. We can eliminate the poverty we see in our country by simply paying employees a higher wage. Give people who are actually working a shot. Like I said it seems like a good concept in a theoretical design. However, the real question is it realistic? The unfortunate answer to that question is, no, there is not. I chalk this up to a lack of education on the fast food workers end. I am not saying it is their fault, but this is why the first step is education reform. That on the other hand, is an entirely different topic. So here is a little crash course on why this won’t work. When you raise the wages eventually everything else will raise as a result. This means it takes away the “ease” factor that most people enjoy about fast food. People like fast food because it is quick, easy, and affordable. I mean who doesn’t love having the option of a 1 dollar double cheeseburger? All of that disappears when you raise the wages. Maybe not so much the quick part but, the affordable part. Are people really going to want to pay 5 dollars for a Mcdouble? I know I won’t. So as a result, demand drastically decreases, while the money the company invests increases. Not a very good business model if you ask me. The next logical step that the company would take is to hire more employees and cut payroll hours. So yeah you may be making more hourly, but, the cut in hours will negate the hourly wage. Another thing that is imperative to look at is why this is brought up in the first place. The poverty line currently sits between 11-12 dollars an hour. So, due to lack of education, employees ask for wage increase to make it over the poverty line. Again, great in theory, now the reality. All increasing wages does is raise the poverty line. Instead of 11 dollars an hour being the poverty line, it is now replaced with, just to throw a random number out there, 19 dollars an hour. Also, as this happens inflation takes it course. Once that happens and your paying more for the price of your goods, it negates your raise. The last thing I intend to highlight with this is that these types of jobs are not meant to be a career. They are “stepping stones”. The jobs are intended for the younger years of your life. They are meant to give you experience at a young age and to help you get through college. My friend had told me what the Wal-Mart CEO had said. He said “ I want college students to work at my store so they can make more money to spend at my store”. It’s really as simple as that. This is what every single American needs to understand; if you are under the assumption that being a cashier at Wal-Mart is a career path, you are wrong. This is just a small portion of a much bigger issue. We need to educate the masses, and people need to understand that working a low-level job makes you highly dispensable. Which is why minimum wage is 8.50 an hour and should stay that way.