How do people survive on minimum wage?

[thereisnospoon]

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

"Some" parents...Like the Chinese Tiger Moms?
Obviously it is the choice of the overbearing parent living vicariously through their little cupcake which is the issue. Not the criteria by which college entrance is granted.
You're an idiot. Stop posting.
You could not out smart a garden gnome.

 

[Noomi]

What does "kicking a ball around" have to do with making 95% vs 96%?

Nothing! You have been misunderstanding what I am saying, obviously.

Your country gives scholarships to people who play football in High School, yes? I question why this is when playing a game isn't going to get you anywhere.

We don't give out such scholarships which is my point.

I was simply saying how hard it is to get accepted into college, even though you may get great grades on your exams.

 

[Noomi]

"Some" parents...Like the Chinese Tiger Moms?
Obviously it is the choice of the overbearing parent living vicariously through their little cupcake which is the issue. Not the criteria by which college entrance is granted.
You're an idiot. Stop posting.
You could not out smart a garden gnome.

I wish such 'Tiger Mums' didn't exist, but sadly, they do.

And please do not insult me, I have been rather respectful to you thus far and I would prefer you to remain respectful to me. As to your last post, accusing me of 'America bashing' I do not believe I have done any such thing.

I will now simply cease to respond to you, as it is clear that we cannot have a decent discussion without insults getting in the way.

Good day to you.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Skill level sets the wage. The more skills you have that are in demand the more $ you make.
Minimum wage earners have little, few or no skills. "Do you want fries with that" is not a skill.
I value my workers, all of them because they value their work ethic.
Australia is not America.
Delta is ready when you are.

There will always be people needed to do those minimum wage jobs, but if people can barely pay their rent with what little money they earn, why can't the employer pay them more?

Would you really object to paying an extra $2 for a pizza if it meant the delivery boy was paid more? I sure wouldn't.

I have news for you, Sparkles. I pick my pizza up instead of having it delivered because I don't want to pay the one-dollar delivery fee. So yeah, if the pizza place starts thinking it's a frigging charity, and that I'm buying pizza from them to be a charity myself, I'm going to start ordering from their competitor.

I guess this sort of stupidity is why Australia's never been an economic superpower, huh?

 

[Cecilie1200]

I think a better question would be, how many people in here started out on minimum wage and used that experience to eventually work their way up the ladder to a better job. Minimum wage is not there for you to earn a living off of, it is there to get you started. If you are 25 or older and still working minimum wage, maybe you should look in the mirror, not blame everyone else.

I am in a minimum wage job as a casual worker, and have been for more than five years. If I left, I could get a job anywhere else in the food industry. All I would need is my Food Handling Certificate and I'd be all set.

Well, that explains a lot about why you think your cost of living is other people's problem. Unfortunately, it says next to nothing in actual response to anything said in the post you're putatively answering. Pretty sure no one asked you whether you'd be able to get other crap jobs like the one you have now. The point was how many, MANY other people are just as capable of doing your crap job as you are.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I wouldn't, maybe the delivery boy should go to college, or heres a good idea, how about he deliver pizzas while in college, and then when he graduates he can then step up and make good money, Instead of working the bottom of the pit jobs and expecting everybody else to make up the difference due to his lack of ambition. Why dont you just go ahead and tip the pizza boy the extra $2 and leave the rest of us the hell alone.

If the delivery boy goes to college, he will need to study. Why would he deliver pizzas when he could be studying for his exams?

Conservatives just don't get it. They think people can go to college and work a full time job at the same time. No wonder kids get so stressed and suffer burnout, the pressure on them is too much.

Sweet cheeks, lots of people work and go to college at the same time and manage just fine. Why don't you stop being full of excuses and fail, pull on your big-girl panties, and accept some freaking responsibility for yourself?

 

[Cecilie1200]

I wouldn't, maybe the delivery boy should go to college, or heres a good idea, how about he deliver pizzas while in college, and then when he graduates he can then step up and make good money, Instead of working the bottom of the pit jobs and expecting everybody else to make up the difference due to his lack of ambition. Why dont you just go ahead and tip the pizza boy the extra $2 and leave the rest of us the hell alone.

If the delivery boy goes to college, he will need to study. Why would he deliver pizzas when he could be studying for his exams?

Conservatives just don't get it. They think people can go to college and work a full time job at the same time. No wonder kids get so stressed and suffer burnout, the pressure on them is too much.

Please give me a break! The pressure is too high? If kids are suffering from pressure it's not from having to work or study, but from the huge amount of expensive junk they get.

And if the poor little dears can't handle THAT level of stress and pressure, how in the Hell are they going to manage any job OTHER than crap, minimum-wage gigs after they graduate?

Jesus, get some Prozac and stop whining.

 

[Cecilie1200]

How much time do they spend on facebook, twitter, cell-phones, etc?

Children should be grateful that they have the opportunity to study.

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

We wouldn't know, sweetie. Our country doesn't do that.

 

[Artevelde]

Please give me a break! The pressure is too high? If kids are suffering from pressure it's not from having to work or study, but from the huge amount of expensive junk they get.

The pressure IS high. Our kids go to senior school (years 11 and 12) and after coming home from a 6 hour day at school, they get lumped with up to 5 hours of homework - EVERY night. 11 hours pouring over those books. They need to study because if they don't get excellent marks on their exams, they won't be eligible for university. Most of the students study hard but don't get a chance to go to Uni and study their chosen careers.

Well, I guess you're pretty happy with your minimum wage then.

Not exactly. I live at home, so I can manage okay, but I am on the lookout for something different.

Not everyone is cut out for higher education. That's why schools are selective in the application process. So what. College is not an entitlement.

True.

 

[Artevelde]

California Girl said:



So cheap prices are more important than paying employees a wage they can survive on? That's ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with paying an extra few dollars if it means the employes are paid a decent wage.

Over here, our prices are more expensive, but our employees are paid generously. The minimum wage here is around $650 a week. Yet the article mentions you would have to work 80 hours a week (I assume the author means an 80 hour working week) to earn two hundred dollars LESS. That is just wrong no matter how you look at it.

A casual worker at McDonalds, over 21, will make close to $17 an hour. You can work just 20 hours for the week and take home the same, if not more, than the same person working 80 hours at McDonalds in America.

America needs to raise its minimum wage. The cost of living goes up every year, yet the minimum wage doesn't go up enough to cover this - why not?

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

And there is your problem. We have people who want to turn up for work because they earn a decent wage. If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Our prices are more expensive, but each store will still bring in customers. Whenever I visit my local McDonalds, I don't see any fewer customers there, in fact, I probably see more!

A restaurant is per definition a local business, which only has to compete with other local businesses in the same market. The same does not go for industry and a host of other sectors.

People who don't want to work for minimum wage should also not be entitled to welfare.

 

[FA_Q2]

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

First - performance is the natural way to select who is going to go to college and who is not. How would you prefer the seats selected? Maybe draw straws? Pick a number between 1 and 100? Of course such is asinine. If 96 is the damn standard then that is what they need to score. There are limited seats and many more applicants than there are position. This really is not that hard to figure out.
Second - football in the context you are referring it to is NOT a game. It very much is a job, and a HUGE business at that. Please do not be dense and actually put some thought in this statement. You ever wonder where that cash is coming from or why the colleges offer those scholarships? It is simple: the college makes the cost of tuition and then some off the sales of TV rights and seats in the actual games. That's right, the colleges are making money off the football teams and as such they need to offer competitive benefits to the prospective students (aka EMPLOYEES). Just because YOU don't see it as a job does not make it so. There is no difference between athletes and, say, actors.

The problem here, it seems, is that you are not looking at the fact that college costs MONEY. That money is required to hire the teachers and run the campus. Football funds much of that. Tuition funds much of that. College is not a right in America.

 

[Skull Pilot]

California Girl said:



So cheap prices are more important than paying employees a wage they can survive on? That's ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with paying an extra few dollars if it means the employes are paid a decent wage.

Over here, our prices are more expensive, but our employees are paid generously. The minimum wage here is around $650 a week. Yet the article mentions you would have to work 80 hours a week (I assume the author means an 80 hour working week) to earn two hundred dollars LESS. That is just wrong no matter how you look at it.

A casual worker at McDonalds, over 21, will make close to $17 an hour. You can work just 20 hours for the week and take home the same, if not more, than the same person working 80 hours at McDonalds in America.

America needs to raise its minimum wage. The cost of living goes up every year, yet the minimum wage doesn't go up enough to cover this - why not?

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

And there is your problem. We have people who want to turn up for work because they earn a decent wage. If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Our prices are more expensive, but each store will still bring in customers. Whenever I visit my local McDonalds, I don't see any fewer customers there, in fact, I probably see more!

That's a shitty attitude. I would never hire anyone who felt so entitled or would so easily leech off the system.

I would be ashamed to go on the dole and would rather pick up dog shit for a penny a pile than collect a welfare check.

 

[Mac1958]

If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Ouch, yeah, this one bugged me.

What bugs me about it is the number of Americans who probably feel this way. "I haven't bothered to improve my skills or education or attitude or responsibility, but if you don't pay me some arbitrary number I think I'm worth, I'm gonna just take free money."

In general, we're paid what we're worth. If our skills are more scarce, we're paid more. If our skills are less scarce, we're paid less. Make your skills more scarce and you'll make more.

Ugh, I wish I hadn't seen that.

.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I wouldn't, maybe the delivery boy should go to college, or heres a good idea, how about he deliver pizzas while in college, and then when he graduates he can then step up and make good money, Instead of working the bottom of the pit jobs and expecting everybody else to make up the difference due to his lack of ambition. Why dont you just go ahead and tip the pizza boy the extra $2 and leave the rest of us the hell alone.

If the delivery boy goes to college, he will need to study. Why would he deliver pizzas when he could be studying for his exams?

Conservatives just don't get it. They think people can go to college and work a full time job at the same time. No wonder kids get so stressed and suffer burnout, the pressure on them is too much.

Here in the States we call that whining. Too much pressure.
Please.
And yes, lots of people work full time and get 4 year degrees.
Perfect example. Had a friend who's Dad was an iron worker. In that job he made very good wages. But he wanted more. So for 8 years, he went to work and went to school at night. Taking credits toward an engineering degree with a minor in metallurgy, in the building trades. After he graduated, he applied and finally became employed by one of New York City's most prominent constructors of high rise buildings. When he retired he was making in excess of $250,000 per year as a Vice President of Structural Engineering.
Instead of carping about pizza delivery and fast food workers not making enough money, you should be focused on improving one's self to make it beyond those menial jobs.

They have freaking schools DESIGNED for students who have full-time day jobs, for Christ's sake! I am so frigging tired of these Negative Nellies telling us how ::boo hoo:: it's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to EVER improve their lives! No, no, whatever the suggestion is, it JUST CAN'T BE DONE!

 

[Cecilie1200]

California Girl said:



So cheap prices are more important than paying employees a wage they can survive on? That's ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with paying an extra few dollars if it means the employes are paid a decent wage.

Over here, our prices are more expensive, but our employees are paid generously. The minimum wage here is around $650 a week. Yet the article mentions you would have to work 80 hours a week (I assume the author means an 80 hour working week) to earn two hundred dollars LESS. That is just wrong no matter how you look at it.

A casual worker at McDonalds, over 21, will make close to $17 an hour. You can work just 20 hours for the week and take home the same, if not more, than the same person working 80 hours at McDonalds in America.

America needs to raise its minimum wage. The cost of living goes up every year, yet the minimum wage doesn't go up enough to cover this - why not?

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

And there is your problem. We have people who want to turn up for work because they earn a decent wage. If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Our prices are more expensive, but each store will still bring in customers. Whenever I visit my local McDonalds, I don't see any fewer customers there, in fact, I probably see more!

And there is your problem: you're a lazy, whiny little snot who wouldn't last a day outside the hothouse environment of Australia. And because you've mistaken your pissant little country for the real world, you can't understand anything outside your kindergarten-level reflex of "Take care of me, Mommy Government", certainly not the fact that the United States isn't your pissant little country.

 

[Cecilie1200]

They probably spend more time on Facebook now than they used to. And of course people should be happy they have the opportunity to study, but is it fair to prevent someone from persuing their chosen career simply because they scored 95% on their exams instead of 96%?

Ok...Stop making up stuff. It's tiresome.

Nothing is being made up. That is how it works over here. We have some parents forcing their children to repeat Year 12 because they only scored 95% on their exams instead of that 96%. Those kids sit the year again hoping to do better on their exams so they get into college, even though they did perfectly well the first time!

I don't know how it works in the US, but I do think that giving kids scholarships for kicking a ball around is ridiculous. Playing football is not a job, its a game.

And why, may I ask, is entertaining people not a job, in your omniscient pronouncement upon how the world is allowed to be? Because YOU can't do it?

 

[uscitizen]

Skill level sets the wage. The more skills you have that are in demand the more $ you make.
Minimum wage earners have little, few or no skills. "Do you want fries with that" is not a skill.
I value my workers, all of them because they value their work ethic.
Australia is not America.
Delta is ready when you are.

There will always be people needed to do those minimum wage jobs, but if people can barely pay their rent with what little money they earn, why can't the employer pay them more?

Would you really object to paying an extra $2 for a pizza if it meant the delivery boy was paid more? I sure wouldn't.

I have news for you, Sparkles. I pick my pizza up instead of having it delivered because I don't want to pay the one-dollar delivery fee. So yeah, if the pizza place starts thinking it's a frigging charity, and that I'm buying pizza from them to be a charity myself, I'm going to start ordering from their competitor.

I guess this sort of stupidity is why Australia's never been an economic superpower, huh?

I just make my own pizza.
People try to get me to make em for them....

 

[Cecilie1200]

What does "kicking a ball around" have to do with making 95% vs 96%?

Nothing! You have been misunderstanding what I am saying, obviously.

Your country gives scholarships to people who play football in High School, yes? I question why this is when playing a game isn't going to get you anywhere.

We don't give out such scholarships which is my point.

I was simply saying how hard it is to get accepted into college, even though you may get great grades on your exams.

Of course you question why. You have no idea how the world works, other than to say, "I need it, so people who hardly know me should care about me enough to give it to me, because I can't be bothered earning it."

Because I like doing charity work with the underprivileged from less-advance countries, I'll be nice and explain it to you. See, people like to watch football games. It entertains them. For REAL colleges, like the ones we have in the United States, the ticket sales for those football games bring enough money into the school to provide funding for many other programs which cannot support themselves financially, PLUS being a huge draw of alumni donations into ALL the programs of the school.

Furthermore, the time spent playing college football allows those players with professional-quality talent to hone their skills and attract the attention of professional football teams. And whatever you might think, entertaining people IS a job, and professional football is a business industry, same as any other business industry. It generates millions of dollars in revenue every year.

For those people who play football well enough to get a college scholarship, doing the JOB of entertaining people allows them to pay for a college education on which they can then acquire jobs after college football is over. No different, really, from the work-study programs available to students with less-marketable talents and skills, except that THEY don't do nearly as much to help the university as the football program does. Or do you have some sort of problem with people working their way through school?

 

[Cecilie1200]

$17 an hour for an unskilled worker at Mc D's? Excuse me but I think you people are over cooking your shrimp on the barbie....Or your brains are clogged up with Vegemite.
Now way in hell would a fast food joint pay those wages. The prices for the food would match or even exceed those at sit down eateries. People would stop going to Mickey D's.
In this country, That kind of money is paid to skilled labor and educated people.

And there is your problem. We have people who want to turn up for work because they earn a decent wage. If I was in the US and couldn't find a job that paid me more than $10 an hour, I wouldn't bother working. I'd live off welfare because there is no way I am working for a couple of bucks an hour.

Our prices are more expensive, but each store will still bring in customers. Whenever I visit my local McDonalds, I don't see any fewer customers there, in fact, I probably see more!

That's a shitty attitude. I would never hire anyone who felt so entitled or would so easily leech off the system.

I would be ashamed to go on the dole and would rather pick up dog shit for a penny a pile than collect a welfare check.

How hard do you think such a spoiled little troll actually works for the money she mistakenly believes she's entitled to?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Awww, looks like little Miss "My minimum wage should be $17 an hour" got her wittle feewings hurt that no one cares how idiots in Australia are paid and went away to cry.

Good freaking riddance. We have enough trouble with homegrown fools, without adding fools from other countries.