Low-Wage Jobs are Often Referred

Paying ones rent while stuck working a dead-end job, or a job with low pay can be tough, especially if one has family they need to take care of. People who struggle with paying rent are usually the kind of people who work terrible jobs, or struggle to hold down a job for a number of reasons, (terrible working conditions, terrible bosses, etc.). People in these kinds of situations may choose to quit their jobs due to not being able to handle the stress and pressure that comes with these jobs. People may choose to rely on welfare because they were no better off than when they were working and would rather avoid working a bad job.

Because of this, dependency on welfare has only increased throughout the years. A lot of unexpected things may happen in life, and you never know when you may need money for an unexpected situation. You may get sick and have to go to a doctor, you might need to buy more food because you ran out, or your kids may need school supplies. Depending on welfare is understandable if the person is disabled or unable to work because of some other reason. People who are perfectly capable of working and have a desire to work, should be allowed to work in a job that pays them enough and treats them well. In order to solve the issue of employees not being paid enough, a program of some sort should be developed that would help unemployed people who are capable of working and living on welfare get jobs as soon as possible.

But a problem that would come from a program like this, Hernandez 2is that there arent always enough jobs for everyone who wants or needs one. If jobs were easy to find and also paid well, homelessness and poverty wouldnt be as bad as they are in the U.S. Attempting to start a program like would also require solving other problems with working minimum-wage jobs. Some of these problems include a lack of benefits and sick days, being forced to work fewer hours, terrible working conditions, and employers who mistreat their employees.

Low-wage jobs are often referred to as dead-end jobs because they are the kind of jobs where you will have little, if any chance of moving up in the world. People who work in these kinds of jobs will also have a hard time starting a career, because they are at the bottom of the barrel. These are the kind of people who work in retail, fast-food, on the fields, or in factories. They work long hours and make very little in return. For example, someone who works at a McDonalds will earn roughly $9-$10 an hour, which might be enough for one to pay off bills or to take care of ones family depending on how tight money is.

But college on the other hand is expensive, in 2017-2018, college pricing can reach up to $25,290 (collegedata.com). One would never be able to afford college on their own while working a low-wage job. Finding work is hard, especially if one doesnt have a high school diploma, or chooses not to go college. If one manages to find a job without a high school diploma or college degree, it will for sure be a dead-end job where they will earn minimum-wage at the very least.

Working a job that pays one minimum-wage or less while living with their parents or going to college is different than working a minimum-wage job while trying to support their family. In a census conducted in 2012, 1278 men, and 854 women said that they dont work because they couldnt find jobs. There are three unemployed Americans for every job opening, which means that one Hernandez 3will get hired, while the other two will be out of luck (Weissmann, theatlantic.com). People with little or no education have a higher chance of being unemployed. Workers with no high school diploma have a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, workers with diplomas have 6.5 percent rate, and college graduates have a 3.2 percent rate.

A worker earning minimum-wage will earn roughly $14,500 a year, which may be enough for someone living on their own, but it wont be enough for someone taking care of a family (Covert, thinkprogress.org). This makes it hard to establish a sort of program to get unemployed people into work. As the years have gone by, it is getting harder and harder for people to find work, and people with little to no education have a higher chance of losing their jobs if they find one. If a program like this was established now with more and more people struggling to find work, or struggling to keep it, it would most likely fall apart. In order for an idea like this to work, there would need to be an ample amount of jobs available for unemployed people to be able to be put into, people cant be put to work if there is no work available. Helping unemployed people living on welfare find work is one thing, helping them find a stable job is another challenge. Attempting to establish a program to help the unemployed find work would be a waste of time and effort if the jobs people get are ones where they are stuck earning minimum-wage and struggling to make ends meet.

There are people who live in poverty who hope that they can have a career one day and make something of themselves, which would be impossible working a dead-end job and not having enough money for college. Welfare will pay roughly $650, and minimum-wage is around $7.25 an hour, depending on the state. Even if someone living on welfare manages to find a job, they would be no better off than when they were on welfare, because what theyre earning would barely be enough to support one person, let Hernandez 4alone a family. People on welfare looking for work will most likely be stuck working a minimum-wage job for the rest of their lives because theyll never be able to afford to go to college (Semuels, theatlantic.com).

In a survey conducted by Huffington Post, 53 percent of people agreed that a college education is important is you want to have a good life, and 54 percent said it is important to be able to pay for college, 62 percent said that they believe most people cant afford to pay for college (Kingkade, huffingtonpost.com). If a program were established to help people on welfare find work, it should also help them find work that will pay them enough for their families and help them go back to school if they want. Not everyone who works minimum-wage jobs after high school does it by choice, some of them may way want to go to college but dont have the money for it. The low pay that minimum-wage workers receive is simply not enough for someone who wants to move up in life. A possible solution for minimum-wage workers who dont earn enough money, would be to increase the amount of money they make. The minimum-wage for most places is about $7.25 an hour, some states have already started to increase their hourly wages. For example, New York City plans to raise its hourly wages to $15 an hour this year.

According to research, raising the minimum-wage to $15 an hour in California would increase state earnings by 38 percent, and more people would get to keep their jobs and not risk losing them (Dixon, talenteconomy.io). Raising the amount of money that minimum-wage workers earn can be a huge help, since the biggest problem for them is that $7.25 is not considered a livable wage today. Because low-wage workers dont get enough money to make ends meet, they may be forced to take on second job, or even a third one, making their already stressful life even more stressful.Hernandez 5 Raising the minimum-wage for workers sounds simple but doing so would also bring on some challenges of its own.

While some states and workplaces have experimented with raising minimum-wage, others refuse to because of the possible consequences it could have to their business. For example, raising wages means that employees earn more money, it also means that the place they work for runs the risk of losing money that they need to keep their business running. This also raises the concern that raising wages will cause business to lose so much money, that they will have be forced to let people go in order to save money, people will end up losing their jobs as a result (Dixon, talenteconomy.io). When the point is to make things better for people who work low-wage jobs, it would be more detrimental than helpful to raise the minimum-wage if people are let go because the people they work for cant afford to keep them on. Helping people on welfare get jobs would also require helping them get a job that will pay them enough so that wont be worse off than when they were on welfare.

An issue that minimum-wage workers have to deal with is being treated unfairly by their bosses. People who work minimum-wage are already forced to deal with working inconsistent hours for a small amount of pay, and for a job that will more than likely get them nowhere in life, dealing with terrible bosses and working conditions makes it worse. Some of the issues these workers are forced to deal with include working with an inconsistent schedule, lack of benefits, lack of sick days, and the fact that at any moment you could be replaced by someone else whos looking for a job if youre not performing your job adequately.

As an excuse to not have to give benefits to employees, bosses will have their employees work fewer hours, and the employees will also be paid less as a result, some making as little as $2 a day (Cepeda, columbiatribune.com). Companies that mistreat their employees include Family Dollar, which Hernandez 6forces their employees to work unpaid overtime and do the hardest jobs. Target, who in the past has threatened any employees who express a desire to unionize. Microsoft, who in 2013 decided to stack rank their employees, which meant that any low-ranking employees were fired. Walmart has a reputation of paying their employees exceptionally low wages and is considered one of the most degrading jobs one could possibly have. Alternet published an article where they interviewed Victoria Alvarez, a Walmart employee at the time, asking her about her experiences working there.

She started working for $9 an hour, then started receiving $11 an hour, she was forced to borrow money from friends because she and her husband couldnt afford to pay for their mobile home. She and several other employees were forced to do the work of three or four employees. When she developed carpal tunnel syndrome and was given a doctors note saying she needed modified work, they moved her into pushing cars despite having a bad knee. When Alvarez developed appendicitis, she was left with a $22,000 bill because her health insurance with Walmart wouldnt cover it (Figueroa, alternet.org). Being forced to work fewer hours and making $2 a day can also make it even harder for someone who is struggling to make rent or has a family to care for.

There are people out there who do not want to rely on welfare to take care of themselves or their family and want to work to earn their money. These people do not deserve to be treated unfairly like this when they go out of their way to work long hours in jobs that do not pay enough.The thought of employers mistreating employees is a common concern for people looking for work. Working in a job where ones boss, coworkers, and customers (if youre working in retail or fast-food) are mistreating them, that may kill the employees morale and desire to keep working. Even without being treated unfairly, these employees are stuck working Hernandez 7long hours for very little pay and working a job where theyll most likely never get an opportunity to start a career or move up in life.

Some examples of companies that treat their employees right include Wellstar Health System, which offers their employees pension plans, concierge services, and the ability to make their own schedule. ROCA is a company that hires people with substance abuse and criminal records, and have a hard time finding a job, and if someone gets fired they always have an option to get rehired and see what they did wrong the first time. Wist Office Productions allows their employees to switch jobs around temporarily or permanently, they do this so of all their employees can work happily. Point B Consulting is a company that requires its employees to travel and working for them can be demanding as a result, they allow their employees to work their own schedule, and dont force them to travel farther than they are comfortable with to avoid burnout (Johnson, theatlantic.com).

Employers should remember that these are not slaves, or servants, they are people who are working long hours because if they dont, they will have no way to pay their rent, or care for their families, these people deserve better. More employers should follow the example of these companies. Just by giving employees sick days, giving them second chances when making mistakes, or letting them work around their schedule would be enough for them to consider working for an employer.The idea of establishing a program to help people living on welfare get jobs sounds simple, but it is easier said than done.

There are several obstacles that would have to be gone through in order to start this kind of program. Not only would there have to be enough jobs for people to get work, they would also have to pay a livable wage, so people wouldnt be worse off Hernandez 8than when they were on welfare. They would also have to be jobs that treat their employees well and have good working conditions. Works CitedWeissmann, Jordan. Why the Poor Dont Work, According to the Poor Few say its because they cant find jobs. But is that a reason to take away their food stamps? 23 Sep. 2013. Accessed 19 Mar. 2018.Covert, Bryce. No, the Poor Arent Poor Because They Refuse to Work 17 Jun. 2014. Accessed 19 Mar. 2018.Semuels, Alana.

The Near Impossibility of Moving up After Welfare In the Wake of Welfare Reform, Unemployed People are Pushed to Quickly Find Work. But too Often Those Jobs Lead Nowhere, 11 Jul. 2016. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018Dixon, Lauren. How Does The Minimum Wage Impact The Economy? 14 Jun. 2017. Accessed 29 Mar. 2018.Cepeda, Esther. Minimum-Wage Jobs Use, Abuse Workers. 11 Oct. 2015. Accessed 31 Mar. 2018.M., Morris. 10 Companies That Treat Their Employees Even Worse Than Amazon 24 Aug. 2015. Accessed 1 Apr. 2018.Johnson, Fawn. These Companies Know How To Treat Employees Right Its possible to make workers lives easier without losing money even in industries with shift workers or manual laborers, 9 Dec. 2014. Accessed 2 Apr. 2018.Figueroa, Alyssa. Working For Walmart Is Worse Than You Think 26 Nov. 2014. Accessed 9 Apr. 2018.Kingkade, Tyler. Most Americans Say They Cant Afford Public College 27 Aug. 2013. Accessed 9 Apr. 2018.Whats The Price Tag For A College Education? Accessed 11 Apr. 2018.

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