My advise to people under thirty.

The Eight Dollars an hour was all moving some boxes (These are not heavy) was worth.
My mill pays up to 10 cents per board foot to the help. That is not me as the sawyer figured in. I run a LT70 has ran up to 4000 feet per day. That is 400 dollars for the off bearer in a eight hour day.
I have had good workers and have recomended them for better paying jobs. Being a business owner I get ask about people and have a loyalty for those loyal to me. I have bankrolled employees to work on the side using my equipment in building projects that they could not do without my equipment.
My bottom line is just that if you take a job any job work it as if that is the most important thing in your life. I you are honest and a hard worker if I don't take care of you someone else will scoop you up in a heart beat. If your employer isn't great be so valuable that he will fall if you leave and then you will have clout.
Some people that I have seen can't get it through their head that if I don't make X amount I can't pay them X+y just because they are a warm body. I am not the government.

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While you are busy waxing philosophical about the new economic paradigm, praising China(of all places), and telling people they need to contribute to the global marketplace, others are doing whatever they have to do to feed their families, and if working more than 1 jobs at $8.00/hr makes that happen, they do it. They also don't complain or have to be dragged out of bed by their boss, not if they have any character.

And, if one did so, the tree might fall off a ship while crossing the Pacific in a storm, slam into a submarine, and almost cause World War III (see The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy).

There is an old Russian saying - "the more you beat your wife, the tastier the cabbage soup".

Not that I am advocating anyone beat their wife...

I would double like that if I could!

THat's the way I was raised, and the way I raised my boys...Whatever you do, even if you don't like it, do it the best of your ability. And be proud of what you have done!

Several people have employed my sons during their youth. Some have come up to me, and told me what a pleasure it was having them work. THat they knew how to work, and how to think.

There will always be jobs for those types of people. THe demand is huge!!!

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I'm a herd quitter, born and bred! Never been curried below the knees!

LMAO, I can't wait to pull that one out at the saloon some night. There's a crazy lady known as "mindless Myrna" she'd be the best target. A real crank with a chip on her shoulder when it comes to men. I'll be the talk of the town if I can pull this off without getting killed. The lady has a serious alcohol problem and anger issues. I think I'm talking myself out of it. I kind of like breathing.

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Cause you know I'll only kick you out the door.

Homesteading involves building value for yourself. The work that I do on my homestead is for me, and it is substantially more valuable than $8/hr. I could not pay someone to do what I do for $8/hr. I will concede that everyone's situation is different and that geography plays a significant role in the value of $8/hr, but when I imagine someone living on $8/hr I don't imagine much of a life at all. I imagine a dilapidated trailer that hasn't been maintained in years, stacks upon stacks of ramen noodles and frozen corn, and a family without decent health insurance where if someone develops a severe or chronic illness they're done for.

I'll work as hard as I have to, to get a job done, but that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't accept a dangerous, heavy labor job for $8/hr in the first place. I understand the concept of starting at the bottom and working your way up, but there's nowhere to work your way up to in that situation. What are you going to do? Use the experience to open up your own saw mill with the savings that you don't have? No, you're going to do that job, experience no progression, and then eventually leave that field and start climbing the ladder all over again from the bottom somewhere else. Best to avoid that situation altogether.

Lets be real about it, $8/hr is more or less poverty. How is someone supposed to lower their standard of living and downsize to the point where that is livable? You might be able to survive and just barely scrape by on that, but you're certainly not going to establish any savings/economic security with it and life will be a constant struggle. That doesn't sound like something to be grateful for. I know I would feel really bad if my family was in that situation.

I figure that to be $1,920 a month. Im making $1,350 a month on SS.

I had a job once that required a fair amount of skill, was very dangerous, and was extremely physically demanding. It required lots of training and was a job that few want to do. It was the worst paying job I ever had. I was in the US Army.
With that being said, the OP could pay $50 per hour and get a better pool of employees. But he will not turn a profit, and even at $50 per hour, most of those hires will move on because the work is hard. I think his original thought he was trying to bring up was a guy accepting a job and then not showing up. That is becoming more common in today's society.

Sure, a good example of trickle down, still.

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Herein lies the problem. Why would anyone be living in a home, buying groceries & STILL working at entry level?
Why would that be?
B/c we have left out important parts of raising this generation. I seem to remember at least 1 post about #1-get an education. Here's where the entry level employment comes in.
#2 Do not have children b/4 marriage or b/4 your education.
#3 IF you've done things backwards, you'll have a tough row to hoe. And may have to work for $8/hr occasionally.

When my DH was in college, we were married. Had DD & it was very difficult. I babysat for others who were in college and working. I made $2.25 per child per day! NOT an HOUR but ALL day. If I fed those kids I got an extra .25 day. Sometimes on Fri, b/4 they paid me for the week, I only had the leftovers that the kids did not eat for lunch.
DH worked in a grocery store & had started out min. wage-I can't remember what that was. But he was parttime & a college student, albeit married w/child. Showed his employer he was willing to work, never late,& I guarantee if he failed to show up that woulda been the end of the job. Instead he advanced & got raises.

Min wage jobs are there for min skilled folks. No one OWES anyone anything.

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Post of the day award.

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So, are you speaking of youth who have never had a job? Those w/no experience at all? Or a college grad 'youth'. H.S. grad youth?
Should NO ONE have to take a min wage job?

I went to college at a 'late' age + I had 3 kids. I had THREE min wage jobs. They all turned into more than minimum in the couple yrs I worked those jobs. But, I was happy to get the pay, so I could get thru college & make a "LIVING wage".

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Very good point!

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Yay! Yay!
Sister Mary John would be so proud.

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People aren't supposed to downsize to the point where $8/hr is livable. The are supposed to improve themselves so that they can make more than $8 because they are worth more than that. Unfortunately, some people choose to not make those improvements. That is not the fault or responsibility of the employer.

And every time I have a small job that lasts a day or two, am I supposed to provide a "living wage"? If I could find a kid to mow my lawn, am I supposed to pay him enough that he can afford a wife and 3 kids and house in the burbs?

All you living wage folks are conveniently forgetting that the job was to move boxes, doesn't sound to dangerous to me, and that higher paying jobs were coming, but the worker had to prove himself first.

My son works putting up fence and when he first started he made only $80.00 per day. His days were from 7 to 5 and then he would work at taco bell from 9pm to 2 or 3 in the morning for a couple months because he has a wife and daughter to support. When that got to be too much he quit the fast food and my daughter-in-law went to work too to pay bills but not once did they go try to get government assistance. He has been at this very physically demanding job for three years now and he is making $100.00 per day.

I told you all this to say that it is all subjective my son loves the hard work he would be a basket case if he had nothing to do all day. Those people who see 8/per hour beneath them will still find 10 and 12 dollars beneath them because they want something for nothing.

I work with someone who has been offered full time work at 10/per hour at a desk job answering phones and transferring calls throughout the office. This is not physically taxing at all. Anyway, she told me that she would rather stay at part time because she gets more money from the government than she would make working full time.

That is a sad commentary on our society because honestly I would rather work for 8/per hour full time than get a hand out that is slowly sucking my country dry. Basically, those willing to work are paying for the existence of people that don't appreciate what they have and who I believe has no respect for themselves or the rest of the people around them, people that support their very way of life. They refuse to work but when they want something they have no money to buy they cry about how hard their life is or they take it (read steal).

The grunt jobs around here are: picking strawberries, picking blueberries, picking apples, tying grapevines, pruning apples. Solution: hire migrants and pay piecework. Hope the strawboss finds enough fill in jobs for your workers. Hope they stay through the apple season. Let Texas worry about them in the wintertime...

geo

As an employer with two separate businesses, I fully understand the frustration with today's workfarce, er, workforce. We own a large, multimillion dollar construction outfit, our top guys are taking home well into 6 figures, our low guys are averaging 40-75 thousand a year. We offer incentives, percentage bonuses, paid time off/vacation/sick/personal time off, etc. We give brand new computers and company trucks to our top men, fuel cards, charge cards, etc. We have an employee manual, multiple interviews, and background checks for everyone we hire. Sadly we still have guys who fall off the planet that can't get to work on time, won't call to let us know they are running late, or don't show up at all. One of our top guys we have been nursing along for nearly 3 years, he can't turn in a one receipt expense report, a daily report, or a change order to save his life, but expects his paycheck every week no matter what. We recently found out (why that client didn't tell us sooner, we don't know), that the guy was sleeping in his truck in the middle of the day while supposedly running a large project for us. Seriously!? We are firing him, but we have to wait until he finishes his current project out of town before we run that news past him, we want our truck, computers, phone, and paperwork back before he leaves or we may not see most of those things again.

On my ranch I had two employees that worked. An older man and woman team. The man was a decent worker, though he spoke no English. The woman...well...she showed up when she wanted, didn't bother calling to let me know she wouldn't be here for days at a time, or weeks at a time, borrowed money repeatedly with some sob story or another, offered to let us adopt a grandchild that the parents didn't want, then reneged when I stopped giving her money every time she ran out mid week. The last time I saw her, she asked to borrow money again, though she still owed me from the last "draw". Since I had just had their vehicle repaired at my expense for 1600 bucks to help them out, I told her no. She never came back. I finally made the hard decision to toss them both, and now I am back to ranching a 213 acre, 24 horse ranch on my own and still try to be involved in our construction company daily until I find someone who is still humble and hardworking enough to help me clean stalls without thinking it is beneath them. I paid the ranch hands 12.00 and 9.50 hourly, he made more, she less. They drove my ranch truck while here, got lunch and rest breaks, and didn't have to come in on rainy, snowy, etc days or any weekends. The work is easy, but time consuming. But no matter what I did for them, I couldn't get the woman to show up consistently. What do you do with someone like that? You can't MAKE them want to work.

Employees...some will excel, some will fall off. We offer a lot of incentives, we do a 90 day review and generally give a raise at that time for new hires, we give company wide raises yearly, etc. It is very, very difficult to find good young people willing to work hard for what they want, they all have come asking for draws, loans, whatever, but still won't give an honest day's work. I don't know where this country thinks it's going with all of the government handouts, but I can tell you it's hot where it's headed:-(

Funny...I was thinking the same thing about this little tidbit:

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