Why is it the employer's responsibility to provide a living wage?

[jesus_wept]

Then why should employees strive their very best for someone who won't pay them a fair wage?

To advance to a higher paying job. It's called work ethic. It's what I did and it works.

I've always found the exact opposite. In my experience it was always the work-shy brown-nosers who got promoted because they wouldn't be missed compared to the people who do the work. Basically if you're the best shelf stacker in the store (or whatever you do) you'll never get promoted.

Maybe it's different where you work but this is the main reason I got sick of working for companies and became self employed.