Why are low-paid jobs viewed so negatively when they still allow people to survive?

[YourWaryPlumBalonz]

This is something I've never quite understood.
A lot of people spend years getting degrees, professional qualifications and chasing promotions to avoid jobs such as cleaning, care work, retail, warehouse work, etc. Yet many people in those roles still manage to pay their bills, put food on the table and live their lives. They may never be wealthy, but neither are most professionals.
I understand wanting more money, but some discussions make it sound as though earning £25k-£30k is a disaster and anything less than a professional career is failure. Realistically, most people aren't becoming footballers, CEOs or David Beckham.
Is it mainly about:
Money and financial security?
Social status?
Working conditions?
Having more choices and opportunities?
Fear of struggling if costs rise unexpectedly?
Interested in hearing from people who actively worked hard to avoid lower-paid work. Was it the money itself, or something else?
Not judging anyone's choices. I'm genuinely curious why some jobs are viewed as something to escape from rather than simply another way of earning a living.

I don’t enjoy cleaning, dealing with people or lugging stuff around. All those things bore me. In fact the only things that don’t bore me are doing Hard Sums and watching Death in Paradise. (I love DiP.) Sadly I do not have the skills to be a scriptwriter and definitely don’t have the talent to be an actor. So I got the qualifications needed so I could spend my days happily doing Hard Sums and then come home and watch DiP.

The circumstances of people who are in NMW are a lot more complex than didn't work hard enough to do better in life.
And all those menial job workers are absolutely needed and should be valued more within society.
Someone very close to me has worked as a cleaner for 42yrs due to learning issues so she done the one thing she could even through immense pain she kept going
Alas due to failing health issues she's had to call time as she's broken.
All for nmw.

I was a hospital porter on NMW. I could afford to live alone in a flat.
Cost of living went up etc. People like me could not afford to live the way they were anymore. Was that their fault?

NMW was enough years ago. Now it is not. Yet the people on NMW are being blamed for their own circumstances.

I have 2 different jobs, both involve people. One of them is setting up tech for those who cant( like hardware field tech)

I'd hate working sat alone at home or even in an office on my own all day every day. Like to be out and about

Because life is more than survival?

I want to be able to enjoy myself and have choices, like switching on the heating when it’s chilly, being able to a variety of fruit everyday, have meat based meals at least once a day, hobbies that don’t involve only free library books or walking outdoors, saving for my pension, buying a property (because there are no council flats or houses), being able to drive a car instead of walking and taking public transport.

More money = more choice, more fun than just getting by and pinching pennies to pay the next bill.

If other roles paid more I’d happily do them instead of my current role - I don’t need a high status job or an office or fancy job title but I do need financial security so I sought a role with exactly that.

A family with one parent working full time in a typical working class job (like I was brought up in) could afford to buy a house.
There was also the opportunity to work your way up as well as a certain amount of loyalty shown by employers and employees.

The world is completely different now. As pointed out up thread businesses are now propped up by their workers being paid UC etc as wages aren’t enough to live a ‘normal’ life. Hard work isn’t rewarded by our society and we see graduates being paid 30 pence more an hour than basic entry positions in a lot of jobs with the added benefit of uni debt.

Should people who aren’t intellectual or not in a position of privilege be plunged into poverty just because their (essential to the running of the country) full time job doesn’t pay enough to afford a basic living?

It always seems to be women suffering the most too as they’re, by a large, the cohort who end up going part time to care for elderly parents/children with disabilities etc.

I’ve friends who started their working lives with good degrees and qualifications who’ve had to live hand to mouth due to their situations as well as whole swathes of careers becoming obsolescent. They planned their future, invested in their careers only for life to fuck them and have ended up skint whilst propping up society by caring for the vulnerable.

I would have enjoyed that sort of job in the past but would find it too tiring now (health issues). I have a reasonable mix of dealing/working with people and working on my own (academic) which is perfect for me. I'm a sociable introvert so need some engagement but also need time on my own.

Oh I definitely need alone time aswell. But get that at home or when travelling

Good thing is that the people I see through work are different ones each time so not stuck with same ones every day

I didn’t choose my career to avoid lower paid work, I followed my interests which took me into the field I’m in. I progressed my career because opportunities were open to me and I enjoyed the challenge. If everything fell apart I’d go into lower paid work to keep food on the table if I couldn’t get work in my area of training.

I don’t think it unusual for people to find work in their areas of interest, and to want to progress. Not everyone is suited to care work, it’s highly skilled and not regarded highly enough, and certainly not paid in a way that reflects the skill involved, same with cleaning.

Those people often aren’t making 25-30k.

And keep the country running when a global pandemic hits

Definitely a plus. If you hate them you never have to see them again 😁

Agree with you. These jobs are always so looked down on by posters …and god forbid they get any benefits to cover their shit pay !

What a privileged little bubble you must live in. I don't live in the UK, plenty of people here work in low wage jobs and the majority don't look upon this as "peculiar". Anyone who is working and paying taxes is living life the right way in my opinion. You sound like a real snob - "class expectations" tells me all I need to know.

I'm a senior carer and proud.

This.

Also those low paid jobs are usually more important to society than the majority of lawyers, bankers and accountants.

Teaching assistant, carers, cleaners, social workers, supermarket workers, postmen, delivery drivers, charity workers and so on keep society going and anyone doing these jobs should still be able to afford a decent standard of living.

But they are given poverty wage because we have decided that parasitic bankers, lawyers, business consultants and the likes matter more.

Covid did remind us briefly of the type of jobs that really matter when there is a crisis but now it is back to looking down at the people who kept things going.

Anyway with AI a lot of office middle managers, civil servants, academics and various professionals will end up on the scrap heap faster than essential workers and tradespeople.

So you should be!

Thank you, it's a thankless job at times.

Yes. And when someone running a beauty parlour looks down on a nurse or carer. Seen this twice recently!

This is a thing on MN. People looking down on low earners. Saying if their money does not pay their rent etc, then they should just get a better job.. like that is something that everyone can do.
The shittiest and lowest paid jobs should still be enough to live on.

Don't underestimate the physical toll a lot of those NMW jobs can take. Retirement age keeps going up and up, and even with mod cons like glide sheets and hoists your shoulders, back, hips, knees and wrists aren't going to last forever in a manual job.

Throw in night shifts, cause havoc with your body clock.

I grew up in a low income household. It wasn’t how I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

I wanted to be able to buy nice things, not worry about having enough money for essentials, not have to borrow money to feed my family, and ensure DC had opportunities I never had.

I think this is a bit of an MN phenomenon. In real life, none of my friends think like this. Most of us have teenagers/young adults and we will be delighted if they are in any sort of steady job. Lots of my 50-something friends/acquaintances/neighbours do low paid jobs (working for a charity, school roles, non-uniformed work in the police, working for the council) - maybe not NMW but certainly earning around the £30k mark. I've just left a well-paid prestigious sort of career to take a job with a starting salary of £28k. I don't think it's that unusual.

Im a care assistant full time and dont earn enough to live on. I get topped up by the government every month on UC. So YABU