Labor Day and Minimum Wage

So today is Labor Day, and for the first time in a few years there is a serious debate going on regarding minimum wage and discussions of a living wage.  This is all thanks to fast food workers across the United States.

Checkout Denny’s CEO explain how his company generally pays workers.

There are millions of workers that are still living in a bubble that just don’t understand the sudden rise of fast food workers looking for $15 per hour wages.  It comes at a time that the labor participate rate is at a startling 34 year low.

Adding to this very low labor participation rate we have the makings of a lost generation.

The people that feel fast food workers are disgruntled and entitled Millennials looking for $15 an hour are missing the point of this labor market; since the Great Recession took place teenage employment has been met with record lows.  In 1999 52 percent of teens 16 to 19 worked a summer job, in 2013 about 32.25 percent of 16-19 year olds had jobs. It means that slightly more than three in 10 teens actually worked a summer job, out of a universe of roughly 16.8 million U.S. teens.

Employment is so competitive that teenagers can’t get jobs at places like fast food restaurants because even some Franchises are (or were) looking for Bachelors Degrees to work in fast food.  In 2013 about half of college graduates do not work in jobs that require a college degree.  Types of jobs these people may be working according to data from 2012:

— Customers service reps 22% (481,206)
— Secretaries/admin assistants 16.8% (341,410)
— Waiters/waitresses 14.3% (323,223)
— Executive secretaries 16.8% (207,665)
— Receptionist/info clerks 13.0% (136,305)
— Janitors 5.0% (115,520)
— Laborers 5.2% (107,546)
— Bartenders 16.5% (83,028)
— Heavy truck drivers 5.0% (80,240)
— Grounds-keeping workers 6.8% (78,302)
— Carpenters 7.3% (73,124)
— Amusement/recreation attendants 23.5% (61,406)
— Food preparation workers 7.0% (56,959)
— Construction laborers 5.6% (55,933)
— Telemarketers 18.0% (52,326)
— Mail carriers 13.5 (42,755)
— Electricians 7.1% (40,967)
— Hotel/motel clerks 17.1% (38,903)
— Flight attendants 29.7% (26,879)
–Parking lot attendants 12.9% (16,138)

This is how we get to an environment with fast food workers aged 18-29 and even older demanding a living wage of $15 an hour, in fact recent research suggests that 88% of all fast food workers are 20 years old or older. Job creation is just too low to support the coming waves of newly minted college graduates with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.

Don’t forget to take a look at Detroit’s own Michigan Labor Legacy Landmark Monument.