To think people these days are very entitled?

[Poptart4]

I keep reading about people demanding high wages for jobs that require little or no skills or education. AIBU to think if you want more money than improve your skill set to get a higher paying job?

I've worked my fair share of shop and bar jobs, so I'm not putting people down who do these jobs. But when I wanted more money I did night courses (along side my shop work and looking after my kids) and used those qualifications to get an admin job which then led to promotions until I eventually worked my way up to a decent salary. It took years.

Demanding higher wages for jobs that are low paid because literally anyone could do them is an insult to people who have spent years in college to get a degree or years learning a trade or years working their way up the ladder.

Electricians, plumbers, lawyers, accountants etc are paid more because they have a certain skill set. Not just anyone can re-wire your house or defend you in court.

I just feel like people dont want to spend years putting time and effort into improving themselves, and that's fine but to then demand loads of money when they can't be arsed to put the effort in it takes to get a high paying job is the hight of entitlement.

The thing is as well a lot of the higher paid jobs aren't even really necessary to life

We do need people to look after children and the elderly (whether that's family members or paid carers)
We need medical personnel like nurses and doctors
We need people in shops to sell us food, or a way of getting food from the farms to our kitchens, therefore we need delivery drivers/lorry drivers etc

We don't technically need software engineers, data analysts, (I say this as a data analyst), project managers, risk managers, customer excellence managers etc. True companies do better with them, but the reality is they aren't actually contributing something that directly impacts being able to live.

If we paid relative to the amount of need we have for a role then nurses, carers, shop assistants and delivery drivers would be paid higher than software engineers and graduate recruitment consultants.

Sure a financial advisor might make the most of my money, but I wont die without them, I might die without a paramedic.

That salary of £20,000 according to the inflation calculator is equivalent of £30, 320. I suspect she was a qualified social worker or manager. Not the equivalent of a care worker.

OP you give me the rage 👹Anyone with half a brain and a bit of compassion should be able to see how WRONG your sentiment is. Sadly our government is of your ilk.
Im glad a lot of other posters have set you straight, doubt you will see the error of your ignorant opinions though.

A person working full time hours should be able to afford somewhere to live, their utilities and food without taxpayer topups like UC and charities like food banks. I don't think this is an entitled sentiment.

Many jobs that require lots of study do not pay well eg social work and I wouldn't blame them for striking if that should happen.

In your utopia where nobody is paid minimum wage, who cleans and serves food in restaurants? As a result of Brexit we no longer have European workers who will take these low paying jobs any more and the demand for baristas and caters are as high as ever.

Nope. No qualifications at all. She worked in a nursing home in her forties then went and worked in the children’s home through her fifties. It was a hard job and dangerous at times so they paid a good wage. The job is now more difficult and much more dangerous but not paid anything close.

Demanding higher wages for jobs that are low paid because literally anyone could do them is an insult to people who have spent years in college to get a degree or years learning a trade or years working their way up the ladder.

A lot of these jobs most people don’t want to do but they are still vital and our lives would be much less pleasant if no one would do them. Don’t you think those who do them deserve a respectable wage?

If a role in a business is not worth paying someone for, the role should not exist.

If you need someone to do something for a service to function, the that person doing it deserves to be paid for their time and labour so they can live in comfort and security.

The massive disparity in wages harms our society.

While we're on the subject. There similar ' work harder' myth perpetuated that gets my goat. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Doesn't happen in real life as most work places have a 'dead man's shoes' culture, or nepotism.

I also don’t think it’s entitled to want to be able to feed your family and keep them warm when working your arse off for 40+ hours a week, it’s not like most people are wanting glitzy lifestyles, porches and yachts…

I completely agree, refuse workers are worth their wait in gold.

Mate, you need to pack it in. Stop judging people by your shitty standards.

Or they have an ingrained belief that recruiting externally is always better than recruiting internally.

There’s something bizarre about these responses, OP. Jobs pay more for the responsibility involved. The more you are paid - the more responsibility involved.

A TA isn’t responsible for building the resources for a dept, assessing and evaluating the structure of the content and delivery of the curriculum and all the planning - that’s the teacher’s job hence the higher rate of pay. That’s not to say that the TA doesn’t have some responsibility in their job, just not as much as the teacher - it’s where the buck stops.

Trying to make all these equal just lowers the wages for everyone. Also you did put in the effort and were rewarded with a better job (for you) so it works.

It is no longer that people are 'not happy' on minimum wage, it is that they cannot eat , keep warm, or actually live, so what are people who are not capable of improving their qualifications, or be capable of getting a better job, supposed to do? Just die? If some one is willing to work hard, and do long hours, they should be able to keep a roof over their head and eat. That is how it has been in the past, in fact just one person in a family working could often keep a family, then in the 70s and 80s housing and food costs inflated, so that both parents in a family had to work but now, even with 2 parents working many small families cannot live decently. You have done well to improve your situation, and have been able to take the opportunities offered but some people haven't the intelligence or good health to succeed as you have. They are not being entitled, they just want to live decently.

But if everyone who would do all the other jobs? How would there be enough jobs at the higher wage if everyone wanted one?

When you say anyone can - well, for a start everyone doesn't have the childcare you clearly had to do your courses.

By this argument then doctors, nurses, paramedics and childcare workers should be paid loads. But I have doctor friends who are underpaid struggling with the cost of living crisis. Teachers don't get paid enough. Childcare workers get paid shit, no wonder why childcare in the UK is struggling.

But I guess society has decided jobs like data analysts/scientitsts etc should be paid loads because they make companies money

On the assumption that this isn't a wind up: loads of jobs that are skilled are underpaid at minimum wage. Also the cost of living rising means that salaries that were once adequate no longer are.

No, but everyone who sticks at stacking shelves and never even tries to do more is guaranteed to spend a lifetime on minimum wage. They also forego any right to complain about their situation.

Exactly. As a data analyst/scientist I'm literally useless outside a work scenario. I make the company I work for more money, I make it more efficient, I lower costs, but I don't really positively contribute to society the way that nurses, teachers and carers do.

In my case I do it because I am disabled, I can easily get a remote job doing it and I have a logical brain that works well at it.

But I am treated with more respect and expected to work less hard than when I worked in a call centre or in a retail job. I have less responsibility than a TA because I am not expected to keep children in line, learning things and still alive at the end of the day. There is literally no logical reason for me to be paid more other than I make a company more profit.

So lets not pretend that some jobs are worth more because of greater responsibility or better skills. Some jobs are worth more because they generate more income for private corporations who exist to make profits. Its a ridiculous situation when you think about it, but we are stuck with it for the time being and there's no easy, successful alternative.

@FemmeNatal what about those with disabilities that prevent them from furthering themselves? Do they just have to put up with shitty pay for something that is completely out of their control? Everyone deserves to be on a comfortable living wage.
We live in a society where doctors are paid pennies but footballers are millionaires. It’s all down to greed and nothing to do with skillsets. There are jobs that require a lot of responsibility that most people wouldn’t cope with but the pay most certainly doesn’t reflect that.

They absolutely do not forego the right to complain about their situation, if their situation means that they can't live on their full time wages.

And it certainly doesn't mean that people like you and the OP have the right to sneer at them.

Ahh so you want a dictatorship not a democracy?

Because in a democracy everyone has the right to complain about anything they want without having to jump through some weird hoops you have suddenly dreamt up.

You still haven't answered how you are going to cope with life when suddenly the supermarkets in more expensive areas have no one to stock their shelves...

Do you know what would stop people moaning about their NMW not being enough? Make the NMW higher so people can actually afford to pay bills, eat and not have to rely on UC top ups. But no, it's much more "fun" to call those people "lazy", "uneducated" or a whole host of other names rather than to support a change in the system.

People with disabilities should be well looked after by the state, supported into work where it’s the best thing for them, and supported by generous benefits.