After hearing the continuing, and emotional debate on whether they should raise minimum wages, I want to share my opinion –
Don’t raise it, GET RID OF IT!
Here’s why….
Have you ever noticed that you rarely ever see any Walmart workers going on strike? We do see some random people hired to stand on the streets and shame the company for exploiting its workers.
I remember in 2006 when Chicago tried to force legislation where Walmart had to pay its workers $10 an hour minimum by 2010 because the wages were too unfair. To make matters worse, the law only applied to companies with more than $1 Billion in sales AND stores at least 90,000 square feet.
What’s fascinating is the minimum wage was $7.25 an hour at the time and over 15,000 still applied for the 400 jobs available!
Did Walmart executives hold a gun to these people’s heads coercing them to apply?
Were these people just dumb?
Of course not! These applicants knew what the potential wages were, and were okay with it! They were willing to accept those wages. By the way, only 2 of those employees received the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour when the store opened.
Key Point – Walmart obviously valued their employees’ time more than the wage. Otherwise, they wouldn’t pay that much. The employee valued the wage more than their time, or they wouldn’t take the job. When we agree to our pay, it is a win-win transaction!
However, there are activists, unions, struggling competitors, and other self-interested organizations that want you to believe that we are victims to businesses that provide us jobs. They want you to believe that you “deserve better.” They try to convince you that someone doing a simple job should be paid a fair, living wage. What they fail to realize is when that happens, prices will inflate and push those same people back into poverty again.
I don’t know about you, but their assumptions insults my intelligence, and it should insult yours too. That’s like someone telling us, “Because you don’t know any better and you are helpless, I’m going to fight for you to get paid more.”
If I want to be paid more, I’ll ask for it! If they won’t give me the wage I want, I’ll find someone who will pay me that. If no one wants to pay me that, it’s probably because I’m delusional and need a reality check.
As a business owner myself, I have never hired someone at minimum wage. I pay more because I want better quality people working with me. In fact, I fear that if I don’t offer enough, I won’t get the talent I desire. When they say “yes” to the wage, with their own free will and choice to accept or decline, they obviously value the cost of their time at least a little less than that wage. Otherwise, they wouldn’t take it.
When I worked in corporate America, my final wage was $11.62 an hour. Of course I wanted more money and thought I was worth more than that. But you never saw me tear up the check and throw it in their faces either. I accepted the pay every pay period.
Each of us have the freedom to choose what we feel our value or time is worth. Don’t insult us by calling us victims!
My Solution – Trust our intelligence, stop wasting our tax dollars debating this ridiculous topic, and eliminate the minimum wage. As employees, we’ll determine what we want to be paid. As employers, we’ll offer employees what they are willing to work for to make it a win-win for both of us.
Is that “fair” enough?