In this day and age, almost everything we do revolves around money. It impacts our everyday lives. People are even divided socially and economically by how much money we make. We constantly hear the phrase "overworked and underpaid." That is very true. Yet, when it comes to retail workers, our attitude changes. Suddenly, they don't deserve to make over $7.25 an hour because their job is "easy." I can tell you from personal experience that retail jobs are anything but.
So I already know what y'all are going to say. "Well, back in my day, I only made [x dollars] an hour!" Wow, so insightful. Let me remind you that inflation is a thing and the cost of living increases faster than minimum wage does. Just to give you an example, $5 in 1980 was worth a little over $16. I'm so tired of everyone saying that they only made so much. It was worth more and things were cheaper.
I get it, you had to work to pay your way through college. Chances are, you worked fewer hours and were able to have your college paid off. Now, being able to pay for college on a minimum wage is literally impossible. Some people work two or even three jobs and average full-time hours while only being paid minimum wage for each job. "Get another job!" you scream. People need to eat and sleep, you know. These people deserve to have a life. They are not worthless because they can't get a salaried job.
Now, time to get to the point. Almost every business in the US makes plenty to be able to give their employees. As an example of just how much money businesses have, Sears is going bankrupt while giving $19 MILLION to execs. Tell me again paying more than minimum wage will make a store go out of business.
Anyone who works or has worked in retail knows that the work you are forced to do is worth more than $7.25. You basically have to do all these extra duties no one told you how to do (and you weren't able to ask because, you know, you were doing the job you were supposed to do) and then get berated when you don't know how to do them although it wasn't in the job description that you HAD to do these tasks. Retail workers constantly face the brunt end of inpatient and inconsiderate customers and still expected to work hard and with a smile. I remember the days of getting in trouble because I wasn't "nice enough." And don't even get me started on having to act as a janitor while you're supposed to be doing your job. I can't tell you how many times I got in trouble for sweeping and mopping (because it was asked of me) instead of doing my ACTUAL job even though I was told to clean right now.
Bottom line, if businesses can't afford to pay minimum wage and expect their workers to put in $15 effort, then they shouldn't be in business. It's not a matter of laziness, it's a matter of being worked to the limit and expected to be happy about it. If businesses only pay minimum wage, then they shouldn't expect more than minimum effort.
