#minimum wages

Where I live our McDonalds is paying $18 an hour.

They're still understaffed.

Why are they understaffed?

Because the cost of living is quite literally insane. Anywhere you want to rent here is at least $2100 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. That means, if you have a roommate who evenly splits rent with you, it's gonna be $1050 a month. Before utilities. And thats if you can actually sign a lease with you.

The median cost of a house is roughly $750k.

Now let's say that you have a person with no children. They don't want anything else in life except to buy a house to live in. They work working class job here and don't take any time off.

They live in a studio apartment and pay $1550 a month for rent. They live in an apartment that pays for many of their utilities, but they get meter charged on their water and electric. They pay about $40 a month, showering twice a week and using their phones as little as possible.

They were gifted their phone and pay $30 a month for their phone plan.

They live on ramen for basically every meal. Roughly works out to $60 a month.

They never go out. They have no hobbies, they work, they come home, they rest. Repeat.

They don't have laundry in unit, so to wash their work clothes, they go do their laundry at the laundry mat approximately once a week. Roughly $10 a month.

They only have one car and never visit family or friends. They bought this car with a loan and are paying about $270 month for it. For the sake of this example, this person is very lucky and their car never breaks down. They do, however, have to insure their vehicle. They pay $30 a month to BogCompany Insurance. Their commute to their work costs them about $50 every two weeks for gas. So about $100 a month.

They get their health insurance from MedicAid and see their doctor once a year for checkups. They have no major medical issues (aside from malnourishment).

They purchase renters insurance for $10 a month at BogCompany.

Put together, this makes their cost of living about $2100

After taxes they make $1121 every 2 weeks. He makes about $2300.

After cost of living, that comes out to a net gain of -$22 a month.

They are working full-time and doing nothing except eat ramen, sleep and work and they are net lossing.

To survive, they have to find $22 dollars a month.

To survive.

When talking about things like higher wages and the ability to take more time off for sick leave or maternity leave, there’s inevitably going to be the argument that Americans will lazy and that they will abuse these opportunities. 

However, I find this argument to be inherently flawed. 

This is a word that’s often used against people that seem to not be doing as much work as they’re expected to be able to do, regardless of what they may be dealing with. The US is ranked among the highest in the amount of hours in the average work week and among the lowest in paid time off. 

Being forced to work so much with little break inevitably leads to mental exhaustion, and surely we all know what the feels like– an inability to be productive. People need to be able to rest when so much is being demanded of them, but they’re not able to. It’s no surprise that they’re going to take any opportunity to take time off. That’s not laziness, it’s desperation.

If you are looking for a specific item and see a person stocking shelves in the area your item might be, ask them, they will know.

If you see an employee quickly walking past you, especially if they have items in their hands, do not ask them. They are most likely already running a task and are just passing through an area that is not their department.

if you feel that you must ask the employee walking fast w items in their hands, do not be a persistent asshole when they gently explain to you that they do not know where the item is and direct you on how to find someone who would.

And for the love of god, If you see an employee with a backpack on, clearly done working and shopping for themselves, DO NOT ASK THEM TO HELP YOU ?!?!?