Would you work for minimum wage?

[XJ-linux]

It appears to me that people are considering an either/or situation here - either work minimum wage or don't work. What about being industrious and creating a third alternative - freelance. Even freelance labor will pay double minimum wage for jobs folks don't want to do themselves. Yard work, painting, washing cars, typing papers, walking pets, babysitting - the list goes on and on. If there's a job someone doesn't want to do, there are people who are willing to do it for a price. We hired four men from a local non-profit day-labor organization to help us move from our apartment to our new home. We paid about $11/hour per man for about four hours work. That's when minimum wage was about $5.15.

I haven't worked minimum wage in more than 15 years. Every job I've had since then has increased my pay by 33-50%. I don't have a degree, but I do have a strong grasp of Macs and networking. Two things that are required - never stop learning, and don't be afraid to move if the job requires it. The only way to move up in some cases is to move out.

Excellent post and excellent point. In my second year of college, I ended up selling a pistol and used the money to buy a used lawn mower, a trailer for my Jeep and a few other tools to start a lawn care business. After 3 years of that, I had 3 employees and an actual landscaping business which sold to one of them so I could work in my field of study. I did the same again later in life when my industry started laying people off. That time it was a security guard business which evolved into an insurance fraud PI business which I also sold a few years later to an employee to go back to school for an IT degree. Digging holes and fighting with people pays better and is more rewarding when you do it for yourself. If I did it again I probably wouldn't be able to afford to hire legitimate employees due to new regulations, so I'd imagine the scale would be much smaller. Still, not a bad way to go none the less.

 

[the8thark]

It appears to me that people are considering an either/or situation here - either work minimum wage or don't work. What about being industrious and creating a third alternative - freelance. Even freelance labor will pay double minimum wage for jobs folks don't want to do themselves. Yard work, painting, washing cars, typing papers, walking pets, babysitting - the list goes on and on. If there's a job someone doesn't want to do, there are people who are willing to do it for a price. We hired four men from a local non-profit day-labor organization to help us move from our apartment to our new home. We paid about $11/hour per man for about four hours work. That's when minimum wage was about $5.15.

I haven't worked minimum wage in more than 15 years. Every job I've had since then has increased my pay by 33-50%. I don't have a degree, but I do have a strong grasp of Macs and networking. Two things that are required - never stop learning, and don't be afraid to move if the job requires it. The only way to move up in some cases is to move out.

That is very risky. Some people don't have the money to start up their own business. And for others to have just enough money can't risk loosing it if the business fails. Cause they need the money saved up just incase times get even worse. So in short your idea is good for those who have the money to start up a business and not so good for those that do not.