I am tired of being equated with a generation that keeps wanting more, more, more … yet are not willing to work more to compensate. Calling our paychecks “wage ‘slavery’” now … wtf?! When companies did provide housing, communities, and everything else workers needed so they could work, workers and unions protested against it calling it slavery, too. So what gives?
Yes, a minimum wage should be the minimum amount anyone achieves at a permanent, full-time job that affords someone to live comfortably, without the need for any kind of welfare. (Funny how the libtards are trying to rename it as “living wage”; what’s wrong with the old term?)
To my peers who espouse socialism, communism, or other forms of collectivism; and that we eliminate the concept of wages: if you expect the community (er, government at any level) to provide you your housing, your food, your clothing, your transportation, you need to work in return to provide back to the community. Electricians must work so you have electricity. Tradesmen must work to build and maintain your housing. Farmers must grow crops to provide your food (and to supply food for the animals to provide you your meat as well). Truckers, railroads, and other couriers are needed to transport these goods from their sources of origin to your home. Public transit needs conductors, crew, and maintenance to keep them in operation. If everything is provided for you, how is the government expected to pay them, or to provide for all their housing?
If you perform the least amount of work, you should be paid the least. I am still against the idea of split shifts, part-time work, seasonal work, etc—all workers hired should be hired for full-time, permanent positions so they can afford a paycheck to pay their bills, and not have to rely on welfare to get by. Save the welfare for people who genuinely lost their jobs, and stop doling it out so freely to disincentive someone from looking for full-time, permanent employment. Heading that in many areas it makes more financial sense to bum off the state than to get an honest job?! I see too many people claiming welfare, yet walking around with Nike sneakers and Under Armour sweats on, where is that money coming from??
But the younger generation today wants all the perks, all the benefits, all the money, without putting in any of the work effort. They think companies have all this money, so disregard anything and everything. If a machine breaks down, the company should just buy a new one. Instead of double-checking current inventory to replace something like desk materials, they just order new stuff. When problems arise, they automatically just pass it on to the next party, blame others for the circumstance, or make excuses—do anything rather than solve the problem, even if they didn’t cause it; good managers will see you as a problem solver and keep you in mind for better pay raises and promotions!—and then when a chance for a pay raise or promotion comes up, they wonder why they get denied, and they say the company is demanding more from them without compensating them.
My current position is an entry-level one. This generation’s thinking is that I shouldn’t have to do more than what my job requires. Instead, I have shocked my superiors, because I also took on the initiative and learned to do things far beyond what my position calls for. I clean and reorganize our department so it doesn’t look like a shit show. Yes, doing another position that requires far more work, but not getting paid the same or anywhere close to what he makes. Why? Initiative, and appreciation. I am part of a team; people have covered for me, and I’ve covered for them … and I think I finally work for a company that will notice, and help me advance with time.
Prior employers have taken advantage of me because if I got promoted to a supervisor role, that’d be one less good barista making drinks quickly—because instead of being on the floor processing orders, I have to handle cash, conduct food inventory, deal with customers, and take in deliveries instead. Or there one less material handler who could be easily transferred to different departments to do different jobs because of cross-training and prior experience doing various positions. My experience shows me why so many don’t do more than they’re required to anymore … many I am an anachronism from another time, because I’m still driven to exceed what’s expected of me, hoping it wins me career advancement. But that’s because networking matters, too…for better and worse, who you know matters as much, if not more, than what you know. So long as it’s not ass-kissing. (I still have my standards.)
Yes, the person making my sandwich when I order take-out deserves a full-time schedule and paycheck to make ends meet and not have to depend on government handouts welfare. But should they be paid as much as someone who processes orders for specialized, industrial equipment? Should the material handler who just does basic labor, much of it assisted with machines, be paid as much as a shipping project planner? Should the new guy be making as much as the loyal employee who’s been there for 15+ years? Bloody hell no.
I am not going to argue if CEOs, upper managers, or certain positions within a company should be allowed to make in mere minutes what the workers—who manufacture and provide the goods and services that helps a company profit—make in an entire fiscal year. Such positions help a company network with suppliers, clients, transit, planning of those goods and services. Some positions require specialization, which can take years to obtain, and so the pay should reflect that skillset and dedication.
The worker who’s worked for a company for 2 decades should be compensated for that loyalty, even if all he’s ever had was the same position; the new guy, even if it’s the same position, shouldn’t be getting the same paycheck as the loyal worker who’s been there for all those years. Worker turnover costs money, so why should the new guy get that same pay as the loyal employee?
Basically, the kids working today have little, if any, work ethic. They demand more and more, and as their narcissism isn’t being answered, they do the bare minimum … and then complain that they don’t get “paid enough” to do their actual jobs. They put themselves into a corner, and it’s only going to hurt them.
The sad thing is that people like me, who do have a work ethic, are being punished by systems put in place that make sure we don’t get compensated fairly, like NJ’s “equal pay for equal work” bullshit. “Progressives” are not really progressing anything.
Basically, if you want a better paycheck, work for it, show initiative, and stop complaining because you actually have to earn something for once. Yes, we all need shelter, food, clothes…but someone has to get paid to provide it for you. So, get a job, and pay your way, instead of expecting the government to hand out everything for you. It only works in Germany an Scandinavia because if you don’t work, they don’t provide for you, and because they think collectively, rather than selfishly.
