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.

Childhood poverty leaves a long shadow.

Thank you! One of the most sensible things I have read on MN. Period!

It absolutely does. Unfortunately, especially on MN, many will dismiss that long shadow as luck whilst falling over themselves to justify you being dispossessed of anything you have earned above the bare minimum. Apparently, lifting yourself out of poverty is only commendable if you have nothing to show for your labour or still require top-ups.

Does it? I’m 38. We were poor as hell. Truly. But it didn’t leave a long shadow. We were loved. None of us have been particularly scarred by it. Poverty, plus neglect and abuse leaves a long shadow….. but when your childhood was still full of attention and love, then it’s not a shadow, just a fact of one’s own upbringing. My mother had a hard life from her own circs, but she wasn’t a victim. She’s in her 60s now and living comfortably.

Childhood poverty leaves a long shadow.

Being shaped by your childhood does not automatically mean victim.

Obviously.

I have a degree in English Literature (thirty five years ago)

Never used it, got pregnant straight out of uni and have stayed in cleaning jobs, factory work ever since.

I ended up being the main carer for 3 ND kids, my ex left me for someone else, after I sacrificed my career to look after them,
Every time I’ve tried to get other jobs something happens to me like my husband dying, my own ill health and so I’ve stayed where I am.

I wish I’d never gone to uni to be honest, I wish I’d waited until I was much older to go to uni as I really didn’t have a clue at 18, I just chose the one thing I could do and that was English and it was what my parents wanted.

im 49, a council cleaner now, yeah it’s not great money but too late, my health isn’t great either so im stuck and no I can’t retrain, its not that simple, you need money to retrain. I quite like it though

All 4 of my kids have done well though, only one went to uni and she’s doing great in a job she loves, ones in a managerial role ina factory, ones a nursery nurse and my youngest is in college.

cleaners and low paid workers will always be seen as thick or stupid but they are often the hardest physical jobs out there.

cleaners and low paid workers will always be seen as thick or stupid but they are often the hardest physical jobs out there.

I am sure some people see it like that but I don’t see low paid workers as necessarily thick. I do agree cleaning and certain other low paid jobs are hard physically and it’s for exactly that reason (among others) many people don’t want to do them. Not for NMW anyway.

While we would all like to earn more, be able to buy the house we want, the reality is we need the lower paid jobs filled and in many cases without them society would collapse. They were soon 'essential' during the pandemic.
My pet peeve is calling then 'entry level' jobs. An 'entry level' job is a paper round aged 14, not a 40 hour week heaving stock in a warehouse, a supermarket, serving in a shop, caring for the elderly/ disabled and the other myriad of low pay jobs. It's not a 'career' but its a job.
What we do need is properly affordable housing for those in those jobs.

👏💯
Full time in a low paid job should be enough to live on.

I have seen comments on here about low paid being "entry level" too.. people saying that those jobs are for young people living with their parents, or retired people wanting "a little job"... and that someone in their 40s who has been years in a low paid job is some sort of failure. They must have been bad workers because they didn't get promoted etc. I was a porter in a hospital. For starters, there is no promotion in the NHS... a job opening comes up and you apply for it. Secondly, some jobs, like you rightly said, are just jobs. There is no ladder to climb. There was nowhere for me to go.

A lot of people seem to see progressing at work as the default and I agree, a lot of jobs don't have this unless you apply for another job. It's also never going to be possible for every single worker to climb the career ladder.

All those dilemmas where posters suggest just getting a better paid job as a universal solution make me laugh now.

You think ????? With the welfare bill as big as it is ???

Yes. I think most people have a higher bar than survival. In the UK I would say even the poverty definition is set higher than basic survival. As it should be.

I mean you need the motivation to get out of bed and go to work. If your job is paid so badly that you're not better off than on benefits that motivation has to come from something else. Some people may love their jobs and that motivates them but if you don't then I can see why it's too much effort for too little gain.

Well said. I’ve also been in a role with no natural progression for over 20 years, earning slightly above minimum wage, but still not enough to manage without UC top up. To earn more would’ve meant giving up work to completely retrain from scratch, not something I could do with declining health and two children to raise as a lone parent. The idea that everyone can just ‘get a better job’ is laughable.

These low pay roles tend to have a high turnover of staff too, so they rely heavily on the reliability of those who for various reasons cant just 'get a better job' to run the ship without the rewards. Limited promotional opportunities, make lots of noise about 'learning and development ' whilst then not promoting from within but externally then expecting the reliable staff to train their own management in the nuts and bolts of the job. Promotion isn't usually financially attractive either, offering maybe a 1- 2k uplift on wages but not disclosing external hires wages for a huge pile of shit, lots of back stabbing, blame game and stress.