Five Job Truths that Have Everything to Do with Federal Minimum Wage

 

     Like many of America's working class, I began my work history in a restaurant.  Unlike those who found work as a fry cook at McDonald's or a food server at Chili's, I was born into the restaurant.  It wasn't a matter of "if" I'd work for the restaurant, it was "when" and "how much."  As early as nine years-old (no exaggeration), I recall being added to my father's payroll to clean toilets.  Against all modern perception, I thought it was cool to be in third grade and already have a job!  This, of course, is what I thought prior to cleaning restaurant toilets.  I would have to spend a lifetime coming to grips with the notion...

Job truth #1: ... not all work is cool, but cool people have jobs.

     My old-school father believed that employees should earn their position and prove themselves trustworthy of more responsibility.  Therefore, each of his children followed the same career path in his restaurant.  When we were young, we were hired to clean toilets.  When we had mastered this job and proven ourselves trustworthy in that duty, we were promoted to dishwasher.  From there, we became bus boys, food runners, waiters, cooks, and bartenders.  The pinnacle of our restaurant career would come when our father would hand us the keys to the store and bestow upon us the sacrosanct title, "shift manager."  Our job progression taught us that...

Job truth #2: ...when you work hard, prove yourself trustworthy, and gain workplace skills, you can promote. 

     We learned that we could become more.  The more we learned and the harder we worked, the greater the responsibilities we were given.  We could achieve anything.  This work-thing didn't seem so complicated after all.  We were kids with no financial responsibilities... clean slates to impress ethics upon... ideologues before our time.  Yet, as we readied ourselves for college, the veil slowly lifting, we came to understand...

Job truth #3: ...that what you know is critical in determining how much you can earn.

     A free-market society thrives in the constant ebb-and-flow of supply and demand.  High supply and low demand jobs tend to offer minimum wages.  It is not difficult to hire a new fry cook.  It is a low-skill, entry-level job with no education requirement.  Most high school teens already demonstrate the necessary competency to work this job.  And what about professional athletes... they don't always need prior education and yet they get paid so much?  Professional sports tend to carry large demand for skills (hitting home runs) while only supplying a small number of employees (athletes) capable of meeting that demand.  The competition is tremendously stiff for a skill that society deems extremely necessary.  Microeconomics prevails.  Supply and demand sets wages.
     Therefore, your potential for income growth relies heavily on your ability to learn a high-demand skill.  Obtaining a college degree in Psychology, Golf Course Management, or Prehistoric Literature doesn't entitle you to a high-paying job.  If your education and accompanying skill set are not in high demand, expect to assume a low-wage, entry-level job.  It's all about what you know.  And even when you work your butt off, commit to arduous education in a lucrative field of employment, you still have to know...

Job truth #4: ...that high-paying, cool jobs go to the hard-working, well-qualified applicants that relentlessly work hard and prove themselves qualified. 

     Education and pedigree alone will not earn you a high-paying job.  The free market does not work off of charity.  It is driven by performance.  So, be a performer... a hard-working, ever-qualified performer... and make sure others know that.  You are your own best advocate.  Life in the real world requires continued education, relentless work ethic, and persistent pursuit of employment opportunities.  After all, living as a productive member of society in the U.S. continues to reinforce the most central and important socio-economic privilege of our country...

Job truth #5: ... that it's not about where you start, but where you end.

     The federal minimum wage dispute in America continues to overlook and condescend the achievements of the working class.  Mistaking minimum wage as an ultimate end for some Americans, blue politicians patronize hard-working Americans.  Instead of empowering working Americans with these five job truths, they convince them that they are only worth minimum wage.  It's a cheap parlor trick, smoke-and-mirrors, obvious straw man.  As real, hard-working Americans know, working folks don't champion minimum wage, they seek the American dream.      
     Brought up in a highly impoverished home, my father was the oldest of six children.  No luxury.  No inheritance.  No entitlement.  He worked dozens of jobs paying nothing more than minimum wage... onion fields, construction, restaurant service.  After completing three years of college, he returned home to tend to his brothers and sisters when his mother had passed away.  Despite not graduating from college, he worked countless restaurant management jobs.  After spending two decades shadowing other restaurant leaders, he ventured out on his own and began his own restaurant.  A self-made man who returned to college in his early 50's to finish what he'd started three and half decades earlier, he always knew that hard work was the gateway to the American Dream.  He never let his beginnings define him.  Instead, he remained steadfast in his vision of where he wanted to be.  A father, an entrepreneur, a life coach.
     So, if you want to earn more than federal minimum wage, then get off your duff and start living these five job truths!