Amazon Raises made big news a few weeks ago announcing they’re increasing wages to $15 across the company, impacting up to 350,000 workers.
This is a continuation of the “Fight for $15” campaign that’s been attempting to get minimum wage up to $15 in America.
People have made protests in cities around the nation in recent years looking to change minimum wages to $15.
If you do the math, working 52 weeks at $15 an hour is just $31,200 annually.
The problem is, that is still not enough money!
What most people aren’t realizing is that raising the minimum wage is not a solution to their problem.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and there are currently 29 states with a minimum wage higher than that.
Several cities have already put, or are in the process of legislation that will increase their minimum wage to $15 over the next few years, including San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. On July 1 of this year, San Francisco became the first official place to reach $15 an hour.
Arizona, Colorado, and Maine will also incrementally increase their minimum wages to $12 an hour by 2020.
The reality is that the first thing you get when you raise minimum wage is more people on minimum wage.
If you want a whole country on minimum wage just raise it to $20.
Why don’t we go to $30? What does it matter?
Prices will skyrocket. That hamburger you eat, that milkshake you get at Wendy’s, your dry cleaning — all those things will get much more expensive when you raise the price of the hourly person.
The truth is minimum wage is not a solution to anybody’s problem.
The only solution to a person’s problem is their own productivity, their creativity, and their ability to separate themselves in the marketplace and be great so that nobody would want to pay them minimum wage.
No government, no congress, no senate, and no president can help you if you’re on minimum wage.
Even at $15 you need more money.
I know how tough it is for people on minimum wage. I worked at McDonalds, and I didn’t deliver. I wasn’t worth the $7 they paid me — or I guess it was $3 back then. I wasn’t great so they fired me and replaced me with someone else willing to work for $3 who would do a better job.
That’s why you have to get great. Get great at the job you have. If you can’t get great at a job you hate, you’ll never get great at a job you love.
Whether you are a fast-food restaurant worker, child-care worker, a driver, a shipper, or a cashier, your minimum wage job is not the problem. Raising things to $15 an hour will result in lost jobs, reduced hours and business closures.
Instead of focusing on what others must give you, set your mind on what you can give others. Minimum wage is not the solution — whether it’s $15 or even $20 an hour — the solution to your financial problems is to get great, learn new skills, and became more valuable in the marketplace!
If you want more than the hourly wage you get paid, invest in Rea Capital.
