We hear from employers, employees and certain members of the buying public who are overjoyed to pay more money so workers making the minimum wage take home more money. Well, I am a bit skeptical that people want to pay more money.
So the unemployed are not at the table. How do they feel about raising the minimum wage? Many cheer because they do not equate an increase in the cost of labor for employers with a diminished job market for no and low-skilled workers.
And the most important people not sitting at the table when we discuss what it takes to support a family of four are the unemployed who have not found their first job. Know this: everyone is worth a certain amount to an employer. Skilled workers trade productivity for wages and both the worker and employer are made better by the transaction.
For most people their first job is the most important job they will ever get since without that they cannot get better jobs. We are seeing young people reaching thirty without a first job. The valuable lessons of the first job are best applied in their teens.
That first job often in high school usually is a "no brainer" sort of happy hands job where the drill is to do exactly what the boss says and be on time. The most important thing young people must learn is be on time and do what the boss says.
In those first several jobs employers find diamonds in the rough, young employees who can be encouraged and turned into skilled workers. All workers are not the same and the first job reveals this for better or worse with those employees.
Those making the minimum wage are tasked with increasing their skills so they get the next round of raises. Often they move jobs a couple times. At some point most realize what they certainly do not want to do and move in a different direction. Being employed, even at the minimum wage is infinitely better than being unemployed.
There is a bad job for first time job seekers: government. In my experience working for the government does not always give the same feedback for first time workers. This is especially true when government is just doing stuff to get money and employ people. When you work in the business world you know if you are being productive because the boss cannot stay in business while employees are slacking.
The lessons learned will stay with you forever. I had a job while in college at White Sands Missile Range on a swing shift from three in the afternoon to midnight. My job was in a long-roll photo processing lab where cameras had run film of missile launches at ninety feet per second.
These processors handled a mile of film at a time and everything had to work correctly. Riding back into town the first week I commented to another worker that he had made a holster for his stapler and oiled it every day.
He said, "When you take someone's dollar you have to work the best you know how to work. No one on this crew wants to be here but I am giving a hundred percent until I leave." He was a professional worker and I copied his dedication.
I got no more pay but had few problems because the stapler was key to splicing in the dark. It was one of my first jobs and left me more professional. Over the years I might make a note to myself to find another job but I gave all I had.
Which brings us to the unemployed who have never had a job. Maybe they should be allowed to work for whatever wage someone will pay in their first job. Or would you rather keep them unemployed the rest of their life?
Dr. Michael Swickard is co-host of radio talk show News New Mexico 6 to 9 a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
