Minimum Rage

There’s a big cry these days from non-business owners for the government to raise the minimum wage.

• The town of SeaTac, Washington recently voted to require that over 6,000 workers in and around the nation’s 15th-busiest airport be paid $15.00 per hour – more than double the national minimum wage.
• Fast-food workers all across the country have been marching and protesting to try to get the government to increase the minimum wage.
• Wal-Mart has been the subject of much publicity about its “inhumane” treatment of its workers, including the low wages it pays its lowest-value workers.

What has happened to our country, that people now aspire to the “minimum”?

I’ve interviewed, hired and trained thousands of salespeople over the past 30+ years, and the kiss of death in any interview has always been when the job applicant asked me, “What does your average salesperson make?”

I never was and never will be looking for someone interested in being “average” – I’m always on the lookout for superstars.

And from what I see lately, millions of Americans are no longer even looking to be average – all the buzz is about the “minimum!”

Can you imagine if someone ever walked into your office looking for a sales position and said, “Hey, I want to know one thing before I take this job: What’s the minimum amount of money that your worst salesperson makes, because that’s how much I demand to make?”

No adult should be concerned with what the minimum wage is. We’ve all had minimum-wage jobs, but we’re supposed to grow out of them.

When I was 16 years old, my response to being dissatisfied with the minimum wage (which was then $2.30 per hour) was to work TWO full-time minimum wage jobs at the same time over the summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school.

The way I figured it, not only was I earning double what any of my friends were making (a whopping $184/week), but since I was working so much, I didn’t have a lot of time to waste going out and spending all of my money! So I was actually able to save a bunch of money that summer, which I spent on a kick-butt stereo system (you know, back in the days where the bigger the speakers, the better) and my first car (a 1973 Ford Pinto, thank you very much).

If I had not planned on going to college, I would have performed so well at both of those jobs that I would practically have forced one or both of my bosses to promote me and give me raises.

But I would NOT EVER have simply done whatever was the bare minimum required just to get by for years on end and then just complained that the government should mandate an increase in the minimum wage.

(*As it turns out, I got a pure-commission job hustling around Madison Square Garden hawking peanuts and popcorn during my junior year in high school, and was able to earn A LOT more money – and basically on my terms – for over a year-and-a-half before I went away to college.)

As the late, great business philosopher Jim Rohn said: “Life is a ladder – not a bed.”

The idea is not just to lay in one spot forever – it’s to move up.

That’s the attitude that made America great – but sadly it’s becoming increasingly rare.

It’s outrageous that millions of Americans aspire to work a crappy job for their whole adult lives, and then complain for the government to mandate that they get better pay instead of dedicating themselves to do whatever it takes to provide more value to society and therefore earn more money.

Remember the movies, “Rudy” or “Urban Cowboy” or “An Officer And A Gentleman”? They’re all about the fact that people HATE the very idea of having to work in factories and how they’ll do just about anything to escape the life of being a factory worker. I don’t recall anyone ever saying, “Those movies make no sense. Factory jobs are great!”

So why is it that we let politicians get away with proclaiming pure nonsense like “We need more manufacturing jobs,” and brainwashing Americans into believing that?

Of course the politicians themselves don’t even believe that. Show me one politician who wants his or her own children to work in a factory their whole lives, or to make the minimum wage as an adult.

When you artificially raise the wage level, that causes a problem for business owners. And business owners are resourceful people. Our job is to solve problems. It’s what we do.

Make no mistake: If the government decides to drastically increase the minimum wage, we WILL find a way around the problem of having to pay an artificially-higher wage for the lowest-level, least-value workers. Some of our solutions might include:

• Raising prices
• Charging additional fees
• Providing fewer services
• Making each current employee handle more tasks
• Cutting staff
• Using lower-quality ingredients
• Using lower-quality equipment
• Cutting corners in production
• Providing smaller portions
• Staying open for less hours
• Some combination of one or more of the above
• and more – basically, whatever it takes.

Some business owners may even decide to re-locate their business to somewhere that doesn’t require them to pay artificially-high wages, leaving that area without their business producing value for that community by providing goods and services, hiring employees, paying suppliers, paying utilities, taxes, etc.

But make no mistake: Business owners will find a way around the problem of being forced to pay artificially-inflated salaries. That’s their job. It’s what they do.

There’s no such thing as “something for nothing.” In a perfect, fairy-tale world, everyone would get high pay, great healthcare and other benefits – and no one would have to pay the price for any of them.

However, of course that’s not how things work in the real world – at least not in a capitalist system.

Here’s a fun video that demonstrates the difference between claiming to want to help everyone and actually carrying out the action necessary to do so:

Personally, this whole topic doesn’t affect any of my businesses, because I’m never looking to hire low-value workers or pay anyone low wages.

How about you?

Do you want Wal-Mart to continue to guarantee low prices?

Do you want fast-food restaurants to continue to have 99-cent menus?

Do you want the free market to determine how much employees get paid, based on the value they provide?

Or would you rather live in a society where the government artificially inflates wages and therefore forces business owners to raise prices and/or cut costs as a result?