Don't Protest. Just Quit And Find A Better Job

Fast food and other low wage workers are up in arms here in the United States.  They think their wages should be substantially increased, doubled in some cases from the minimum wage scale allowed in a state. They want the the U.S. government to intercede and do it because they are paid a scale that is barely a living one. It is sad that a hard working person can't make ends on his or her salary. But in a capitalist system the employer decides what wages to pay the worker, not the workers or the government.

The latest case for more pay came from Detroit fast food workers who walked off their jobs in protest, as did workers in several other large cities last week. Supporters of the protesters say this has a broad implication for the low wage workforce in the U.S. (which is a huge segment of it).  The reason...it's the decline of once high paying but low skilled jobs that did not require education and have since been sent overseas as manufacturing declined in the U.S. in favor of service employment. Being uneducated or low skilled no longer is a free pass to high pay in the U.S. or other wealthy industrial nations.  Education is now more the driving element to success for the average worker.

The future looks more of the same for the lowest paid workers in the U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor the projection is that seven of 10 of the fastest growing occupations over the next decade will be in low wage jobs. Good luck to those poor workers with low skills/educational attainment walking their picket lines. The fact is that they can be easily replaced, given the skill level of their work is so low replacements would not be difficult to find.  Too, the fast food restaurant owners counter the protesters by saying that their profit margins are low and do not make it possible to raise pay dramatically. Most fast food jobs they declare are designed to be temporary pursuits, just entrance to the work field and not permanent occupations.

I say to those fast food workers that if they feel they are treated unfairly in their pay and benefits they have an option. They can quit and educate themselves for better paying jobs. Working and study at night was once a common path to providing workers with a higher paying job. It seems to be used less and less now.  The fact is that low skill jobs are held more often by workers who rejected the idea that education is the avenue to higher wages and more job satisfaction.  In other words, if one doesn't like working at Mc Donald's the option is to quit and work elsewhere or work their while attending educational training that will allow more employment options. It may be a struggle to upgrade one's ability but it's less of s struggle than the fantasy that a low wage worker in a capitalist economy "ought to be paid more because it is fair to do so".