Living a low wage life

It is no surprise that there are many low wage workers in the United States. There are many different types of people that work for low wage jobs. There are poor families that live paycheck to paycheck, immigrants that have come with nothing looking for the “American dream”, single mothers or fathers working to support their children, or even individuals just entering the real world working to eventually live a richer life. The “American Dream” is the reason for so many immigrants (legal or illegal), and citizens work or come to the United States. It is difficult but possible to raise from the very bottom to the richer life, and low wage jobs are where it starts- some people just never make it past that point. The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler brings to view many of the reasons for so many people working low wage jobs and the problems that come along with it. Living in poverty, poor education, and unemployment are three reasons why people are forced into low wage jobs. Once people get low wage jobs they spend all of their time working to get as much money as possible from those jobs-even though many of them have to work multiple jobs just to make it through the week with enough money for a home and some food. Everyone can relate to low wage jobs whether they have worked for one or not, and I am no exception.

working in restaurants are extremely common low wage jobs that countless numbers of teens and adults have had in their life. Although I have never worked as a waitress in a restaurant myself, I have known many people who have and I have used the services of waitresses countless numbers of times. The minimum wage in the United States as of July 2009 is $7.25, however many waitresses are still paid lower wages that even that. Waitresses and all employees in restaurants work very hard for countless hours and get paid barely enough to live. Many waitresses get more tips than they get from their salary, but they don’t even receive all of their tips because their bosses and supervisors control them. Many teenagers who work in restaurants are not working for a living because they are still living with their parents and are saving all of the money they were working for. Many adults who work in restaurants are only barely getting by with the small amounts of money they earn from working in a restaurant. They are also forced to work multiple jobs in order to get by, so they end up working starting in the early morning until the very late hours of the night. Not only are the hours difficult for both young teens and adults, the work included in their jobs aren’t a walk in the park either. Nothing makes me angrier than seeing anyone working hard only to be criticized or humiliated by grumpy customers who are being waited on. These people are barely paying to be waited on and served only to be rude and ruin working people’s days. These people are already working for low wages which adds enough trouble and stress to their lives-they do not need any more. These people deserve to be rewarded for their efforts for a better life, and I hope that with this project, people will see the difficulty of working low wage jobs, especially those in restaurants, and see them differently than they do now.