I'm a classified developmentally disabled person who can barely afford an apartment as is. So, raising the minimum wage would really help me because then, I could potentially afford an apartment. I also agree that keeping the minimum wage for teenagers at 8.25. But for people like myself, increasing the minimum wage to 10.10 an hr would help tremendously.
I have a problem with this, and perhaps it's just in the language of which it's written, so forgive me if that is the case. But as we stand, an 18 year old is as much an adult as a 21 year old. I don't know what benefits there are with regards to disclosure of developmental disabilities to employers and such, and if those benefits outweigh the cost of disclosure.
But I also live in a realistic world, and I know of plenty of 18 year olds who need money for an apartment as well. What if that 18 year old grossly outperforms that 21 year old on the job? Even worse, what if that 18 year old has the exact same developmental disability as the 21 year old? Should the 18 year old still be paid less then the 21 year old, having the same needs, just because the system around it demands it to be so? To me, that encourages the 21 year old to do the least possible amount of work to get by, knowing that no matter what, that extra money an hour is going to be sitting there for them.
As for the 18 year old, it creates a situation known as learned helplessness. For that 18 year old, they learn that no matter what they do, it's not going to be enough. Come raise time, they may get a pat on the back or a "Nice job kid" or even their picture on the wall as employee of the month or even the year, but when it comes down to us, the biggest motivating factor in minimum wage jobs isn't pride in what we do. It's cash, homey, and that kid is learning that simply because they're not a certain age, they can't make as much money as the kid they're vastly outperforming, but is 3 years older than them.
While I don't know the laws on those things, I do know of the programs available. For the developmentally delayed, there are plenty of programs, should they have the drive to seek them out, that help them overcome their disability in the most functional way to help them be as productive as they can on the job. Because, and I have a great deal of empathy for the developmentally delayed, I really do, payment shouldn't be by age or disability, it should be by productivity. And if those with developmental disorders don't seek out every resource available to become as productive as they possibly can, even if that means partial disability, which pays, then they are doing a disservice to both themselves, and to the rest of those people who are developmentally delayed.
Does it all balance out in the end? Maybe so.....but you won't think so if you've suddenly found yourself out of work. Plus, if the employer can't afford to stay in business because he has to pay so much more for his work force (and he can't put across a price increase to help him pay these wages), you'll see companies go out of business, which puts everyone on the payroll out of work.
Ayn Rand would have had a field day writing about this.
Darwin would as well, in a sense. It's
Survival of The Fittest, in the truest sense. Think of how many bosses, supervising slacker kids in low paying jobs, would suddenly have to weed out the bad from the good? If he has to cut a few people from his work force, say, the bottom 3 in productivity a month, productivity would go up, as would production as well. The threat of being out of a job, even for the kid who's only working to keep his WWE Network and XBox Live subscription, can be a powerful motivator.
I once had a friend, one I lost touch with, who was a so-so worker. The man, for the most part, did group therapy, so he could bring up a subject, then have the group talk about it. Less work for him, many-a-time. Some days, he cared about the patients he worked with, other days, he was too tired to do a proper group, so he mailed it in.
He once told me, "I'd do anything to provide for my family. I'd even work at McDonald's."
Ok, you would work at McDonald's, but how did it get to the point where you lost your job? And if you can't keep a job in the field you willingly went to school for, what would make you work much harder, or even as hard, in a field you consider beneath you?
I would never motivate by fear, but if it came time to fire the least productive person at my place of employment, I know exactly who that would be. Some of the issues that have plagued them haven't been their fault, I'd venture to say most haven't. But it's those self-inflicted ones that would put them over the top, and approaching them with a "Take less money or none at all" would be a difficult thing to do, but one that I
could.
I wouldn't want an entire workforce to suffer for the inequities of the one. And if you want to raise wages somewhere, they have to be cut as well, and until production got us out of the red, I'd either take less money in a way agreed upon with my partner, or, if my pride couldn't handle it or my work continued to slip, I would willingly go. My workplace isn't such where it would come to that, thankfully, but if it did, it would be my responsibility to go or pay myself much less until tangible results were shown.
My alternative is this. Raise minimum wage, but for workers over the age of, let's say 25 years old. This way those who are forced to work multiple jobs to support their families get a little more income, and by that age if you're still in a job that pays you minimum wage you will want to move up the ladder and into a bigger position. Anyone under the age is normally just working to have some money to throw around. Most of those kids are in college, or even High School, and at that age the current minimum wage is more than acceptable. If by the age of 25 you are still working at a fast food joint and not on a career path, then you've clearly made a mistake somewhere along the way.
Not the case. When I was 22 and in my second year of graduate school, for instance, I was working a minimum waged internship for 15 hours a week where the rest of the employees, regardless of age, were salaried. This forced me to stay in my college job as well, working there on the nights I didn't have class, as my internship was in the morning.
I worked with people at both jobs above the age of 25, in a so-called "bad job" that people needed little training to do, and a job where people needed years of training, and I worked harder then people over 25 there as well.
It's why I believe
production, in
any line of work,
not age or seniority, should determine raises.
Oh hell. Sally, as is the case almost 90% of the time, is right. Ayn Rand would have a field day here. Read
The Fountainhead, which I'm assuming she's referring to, if you haven't, to understand the perspective she's talking about. Even if the philosophy, especially as it has evolved, is horse dung.
