Since 2009, the federal minimum wage in the United States has been set at $7.25 an hour. Assuming you work full time, this adds up to about $15,000 a year before taxes, which is not a lot to live on.
So we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the misconceptions and misunderstandings about minimum wage jobs that they are fed up with hearing. Here's what they had to say:
1. "That essential workers making minimum wage during the pandemic are 'lucky to be working' and shouldn’t complain. Many workers I know would’ve made more money on the COVID benefits than they did at their jobs. Their hours got cut, but since they still had a job they didn’t qualify for any government assistance. They make peanuts and get berated, yelled at, and in some cases even spat on or shot for following guidelines. Allll while making $9 an hour. It’s sick, and they’re more often than not very unlucky to have to put their health and their families' health at risk to continue to put food on the table."
2. "Minimum wage isn't supposed to be for teenagers; it's supposed to at least be a living wage. Most people think it's just for high schoolers, when in reality employers are using it to underpay people who need to pay bills, pay rent, buy food, etc."
"The idea that only teens should have these jobs is so bizarre because it seems to ignore that these businesses are almost all open during school hours, often 24/7. Is it just people with bad object permanence who think they can get fast food for lunch on a Tuesday and all the workers will be running out of class from the high school to serve them?"
3. "My biggest frustration is when people say, 'If you raise wages 30%, the price of everything goes up 30%!' That is very much not how it works."
"As a highly simplified example, say a restaurant makes $5,000 revenue a month with expenses being $1,000 for rent, $2,000 for supplies/food, and $1,000 for salaries, leaving $1,000 profit. If salaries go up 30% to $1,300, and the restaurant still wants to make $1,000 profit, they need to bring in $5,300 revenue. That’s not a 30% increase, but a 6% increase ($300/$5000).
Now that I’ve been taking business/accounting courses, it’s become increasingly obvious that the actual cost of labor is a much smaller element of most companies’ expenses than we believe."
4. "That those jobs are 'easy.' It is literally hard, back-breaking work, but it's compensated in such a way that it makes it impossible to live without another minimum-wage job."
5. "I hate the misconception that people are only in these jobs temporarily or as a last resort. There are loads of people, including me, who really enjoy the service industry and make a career of it. Someone has to, or no one would be there to serve people. People want to be involved in service, but the large amount of work for the small amount of money leads to burnout and high turnover."
6. "That they are for lazy people, or for people with little to no ambition. All of my minimum-wage jobs were HARD LABOR, from dealing with customers (checking, cashier) to cleaning, or cooking and ordering, folding, straightening, running go backs, taking inventory, all on your feet. You also have to be good at math, which is something people don't realize a lot of the time. You don't get to sit down at these jobs. They are not for lazy people at all."
7. "I’m sick of people perpetuating the notion that those who work minimum-wage jobs should be PERFECT at what they do at all times because their job is 'not that hard.' I just unfriended someone on Facebook complaining about how Taco Bell got their order wrong and the people who work there have the audacity to ask for $15 an hour. HOW DARE YOU BE HUMAN! No livable wage for you!"
8. "I'm tired of people telling me about how they were paying off their cars and mortgages when they were working for minimum wage. The minimum wage has in no way kept up with the rate of inflation in this country. Your minimum wage is equivalent to $20+ an hour in today’s money, Karen!!!"
9. "The misconception that minimum-wage workers are lazy people who don’t want anything better. They totally do. Some people can’t drop their paying job to go work an unpaid internship at full-time hours just for the possibility of a position."
"Just the general disdain for poorer people wanting to enjoy things. Hearing some of my family say, 'These people want $15 an hour so they can buy new cars/go on vacation.' Basic life things. I often say, 'Yeah, I would like to go on a vacation!' Then all of a sudden when it’s a person they know, they back pedal. I don’t know what kind of vacations they think people are going on at $15 an hour. Everyone deserves to enjoy their life, and not be worked into the ground every single day."
10. "That companies can’t afford to pay more. Many employers with high numbers of minimum-wage workers are large, publicly traded companies making substantial profit. Also, the same companies have high numbers of their full-time, low-wage employees receiving federal aid via food assistance, Medicaid, or both. We are paying public money directly to shareholder and executive pay, while treating the full-time workers we all depend on as charity cases."
11. "That people who work full time in minimum-wage jobs are not smart or capable. When I worked in minimum-wage jobs, the 'lifers' were some of the hardest-working, most capable people I ever met. These people knew every aspect of the job inside and out, and did it perfectly every day."
"But instead of promoting them, they'd hire management from outside because the workers weren't seen as 'qualified' on paper. They might not have high school or post-secondary 'qualifications,' but they know 10,000 times more about what makes things work than Joe Asshole off the street."
12. "The idea that you can lift yourself up at every job is such a lie. I thought if I worked hard, had open availability, and made my bosses happy, I would eventually succeed. There are people and businesses that will chew you up, spit you out, and forget you ever existed in the blink of an eye. They will never understand loyalty or sacrifice. And they will never ever ever pay you what you deserve."
13. "I’m tired of hearing, 'Just get another job' — like it’s so easy. How many times have you seen articles and social media job posts for people with degrees paying a non-livable wage? I’ve seen posts wanting a bachelor's degree and X years of experience that want to pay $10 an hour. Too many employers care about how much money their CEOs and other bigwigs are making to pay a livable wage because when they were young you could survive off $8/hour jobs. Well, the cost of living keeps going up, and the dollar doesn’t go as far as it did back then."
14. "That they’re easy. People always talk about 'flipping burgers' and how it’s so easy. People who work in fast-food restaurants and other minimum-wage jobs do a lot more than you think. Yes, they flip burgers, but they also clean the store, lift heavy boxes, deal with customers, etc."
15. "That we aren't allowed to be tired. When I was working in retail, I'd wind up working all sorts of hours — some midday shifts, but more opens and closes than midday shifts. And often these would be scheduled in the dreaded 'clopen' format. So I'd be getting home at 10:30 at night and have to be back at the store at 7:30 a.m."
"That left me just over eight hours to eat dinner, clean up dinner, shower, and unwind while trying to get something resembling sleep before my alarm went off the next morning. Sleep deprivation was not worth the low pay I got back then. Nor were the abusive customers or the customers who would treat me and the rest of the staff as unpaid babysitters."
16. "I think people forget how much work we actually do. We are working far harder than people in office jobs and have more to do. We don't get to sit down, like, ever, and hours can be random. I worked 45 minutes away and was once scheduled a 3 hour and 45 minute shift so they wouldn't have to give me a break. It wasn't worth the gas, but I had to go because that was what I was scheduled."
17. "That people who work minimum-wage jobs are dumb and unskilled and don’t have 'real jobs.'"
18. And finally, "Think about how hard life would be without the jobs they do for us. We take convenience for granted, but there are lots of hardworking people who make it happen and get no thanks."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.