Raising the minimum wage won't help

[Brian37]

That side of the economic argument loves to falsely call liberals "elitists". Truth is the opposite. If one thinks a dishwasher or garbage collector are less worthy of dignity or survival because they didn't move up, they are a holes. 

I worked as a dishwasher at a breakfast place for over 7 years. That was longer than even most of the cooks at that same joint. When I hear OLB's stupid arguments, I know damned well he wouldn't last a month at the position I held. People who argue like that, forget that there is a huge difference between "easy to learn" and "easy to do".  OLB if he had attempted my position on an Easter Sunday when the traffic made "running with the bulls" look like walking a dachshund, he'd cry to his mommy.

Every job takes skill, especially in high traffic. That does not mean everyone should earn the same. He keeps missing that point. It is about stability so that when that worker shows up, they can have the financial survival and equally importantly the mental and physical health to care enough about the job to want to be there. If you give workers stability they are far more likely to care about the job they do when they are there. But if all you do is pay them crappy wages, and treat them like tools and not humans, you are going to have a higher turnover rate.

As a dietitian in a nursing home, my office was right in the middle of the kitchen; the same kitchen I did my food service management rotation in during my internship. Dishwashing is a hard fucking job, and they make dirt for it. It’s really sad.

Thank you. It is not an easy job. Especially when you have pockets of time over time, where the owner wants to save money on supplies, and dishes get broken, and knives and forks get thrown out, and on a slam busy Sunday, you have wait staff dumping their dishes and plates on you, without sorting. But because of the shortage of plates and silverware, you have the cooks shouting at you for this plate or that plate, and still get mad when you explain to them nothing has come off the floor that they need yet.

And especially holidays. We closed at 2pm. But damn, the piles of pots and dishes made Mt Everest blush. 

That job didn't pay well for sure. But I stuck with it because the original owners, when I first started working there, eventually got to the point where they figured out if they let me do my own thing, and didn't micromanage me, I got more done. I think most people value dignity as much as pay. I felt valued there, and that meant a lot to me.