Minimum wage has been a very controversial topic. Nowadays people just can’t survive on minimum wage. Prices are rising but yet the pay is still the same. How do they expect us to survive on eight dollars and twenty five cents? Minimum wage workers in Chicago land locations had joined others across the country for a one-day strike, which was held August 29, 2013 outside the ROCK N ROLL McDonalds in the River North neighborhood, demanding their wage to be at least $15.00 an hour. There was a worker there named Tyree Johnson who said he has been working on McDonalds for a total of 21 years and still earning a total of eight dollars and twenty five cents an hour.
He states “Every time I would ask for a raise they would just tell me you shouldn’t have joined that union, were not giving you any raise”. The workers who had gathered up there said that they were tired on choosing between paying the rent or paying the groceries. Another minimum wage worker named Dejun Jackson says it takes him three jobs to raise a family. He gets up at 4:30am to start his shift at 5:45am. He ends his first job around 1 O’clock and has to be in his second job around 1:15. He does not end his second shift until 9 or 9:30pm. He states he has no time to see his kids except the weekends for the same reason that he has two jobs. Between his two jobs he works a total of 70 hours a week. Within a year he makes an average of $50,000. Dejun Jackson is also in school hoping one day he would be able to work just one shift and spend more time with his family. But just by having just one job he wouldn’t be able to make it through since one job helps him pay the pills and the other the cost of his school. I agree that people cannot live on minimum wage since the cost of living has gone up drastically. This has always been a conflict and will continue to be unless they raise minimum wage. The type of life we are living now days won’t simply just get us through by working on minimum wage. People have things to pay for example rent, food transportation, clothes, bills; school etc. People that get pay minimum wage are usually on government assistance which means everybody who is paying taxes are actually paying for the food stamps or any type of services that they are receiving from the government. It would be better if the companies would just pay their workers a decent amount of salary instead of other people having to pay for whatever the company is not paying them. The authors’ argument is very logical since it states why people can’t survive on minimum wage. This makes people have two jobs just too sustain a family. People wouldn’t be able to make through just by having one job, since the cost of living has gone up drastically.
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