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.

That’s a fair example of entitlement

Hmm I see both sides on this thread. Some young people today are very entitled and don't want to work hard, this is true however I also think a person working full-time in a min wage job should be able to afford to live. You couldn't afford to live on min wage at the moment, that's all wrong. Anyone who is willing to get up and go to work 37+ hours a week should not be struggling to eat/afford basic things. You might see low skill jobs as not important but actually many low paid, low skill jobs keep places turning, granted you could replace someone easily but that doesn't mean there is no value in the job they do, people who work hard in such jobs should be paid enough to live.

Point is I wasn't happy in the low paid job so I worked my way out of it. Instead of moaning about how unfair the pay is, work your way out of it. If I can do it, anyone can

Bollox. We are all individuals with different starting points and different restrictions on our lives. We can't all just go to night school - some of us have jobs that incorporate night shifts and increasingly, night school barely exists. We can't all afford the cost of additional qualifications, particularly when we already have qualifications that aren't really working for us. Plenty of people work incredibly hard but don't ever get the breaks - because they can't move to a different area where their might be more opportunities because of housing costs, leaving support networks, or having children in critical years in school. And some people simply don't have the brain power (I mean that in the nicest possible way) to climb any kind of ladder, whatever the sector.

Aside from all that, people should be able to feel pride in a job well done - whatever that job may be - and be recognised for the part they play in the whole. I'm a teacher - I couldn't do the Head's job so I have reached my personal ceiling, I got frustrated being a TA so I trained as a teacher, and I absolutely value the cleaners and the work they put in because frankly, I couldn't do that job either.

If those cleaners work their way out of the job, who is going to follow behind them? Why shouldn't they be able to afford a decent life - food, a few new clothes, to be able to pay insurances, transport costs, and keep warm? We can't all be rocket scientists because we dont' need that many. We do need cleaners, baristas, etc etc etc.

Wages are too low and cost of living is too high.

There is too wide a gap between rich and poor. Low paid workers should be paid considerably more in my opinion - a living wage.

In fact my son's respite centre is desperately short of staff and they are having to cut access hours because they cannot find enough staff. The LA won't pay higher wages because they don't get enough government funding to do that because society doesn't care about supporting the most vulnerable. Nothing to do with a great deal of skill not being required for the role.

Agree. People don’t want to work anymore, too much free covid money, excuses on why they can’t and endless benefits.

Many people on minimum wage continued to work in shops, clean and serve people food and got no covid money. 3m self employed were also excluded and included low earners beauty therapists, hairdressers...

You've clearly not thought about benefits properly. Higher wages means less benefits paid by taxpayers because benefits depends on income. In work benefits are a subsidy to employers (many who could afford to pay more).

I think Covid should have opened peoples eyes to how some “low skilled” jobs are absolutely key to our society functioning and therefore why shouldn’t they push for higher wages?

A crappy admin job has a 'ladder'

Really?

Why are young people being blamed for being entitled?

The levels of unemployment are drastically lower than say the 1990s.

The levels of lower wage earners are dropping, and again is lower than the 1990s.

Which means statistically speaking younger people are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to not be a lower wage earner.

Which would actually make people around 50 years old plus in the more entitled workshy stuck on minimum wage generation...

With your 'free' worth nothing on paper little 'courses'...hmm

And you say you are still not well off!

You'd think! We should be eternally grateful to shelf stackers, delivery drivers, cleaners, porters etc that kept it all going.

Wages where they are people are working full time and skipping meals. That's not right not right at all.

And as you know, people with disabilities are often overlooked and forced into unsuitable working conditions despite their physical and/or mental health issues and left with very little money to survive on.
My aunt is disabled, she can barely walk and doesn’t have any qualifications, she was deemed fit for work and had her pip removed. She is now on UC but she still receives less than minimum wage and due to the rising costs of living going up so much she struggling to survive.
The problem with the UK is that benefits and the national minimum wage have been capped for so long that they don’t reflect the constant rises in living costs. There is nothing wrong with anyone wanting to have a living wage and they have every right to complain about it.

I worked for minimum wage went to college then uni
I paid for it through loans had a good income but I think not everyone has the confidence to try something new or the time
I believe everyone should get a decent wage no matter what their job
Op you have come across as thinking you are superior

I came across a statement years ago, and it stuck in my brain -

When you blame a poor person for not getting a better job, you accept that while their job is necessary, whoever does it should be poor.

@Poptart4, have a good think about what you believe, and see if you can find some shame in that.

There's a depressingly large section of society in this country that are only happy when the working poor are on their fucking knees.

People want to earn £50k+ but don’t want to put any effort in. Personally I think unless you’re on disability benefit, you should have your benefit entitlement reduced or paid in food and housing vouchers, so it’s not spent on designer nails and shopping for Nike Trainers

There is so much wrong with this it is hard to know where to begin. I earn considerably less than £50k as a bog standard teacher with just a full timetable to teach and responsibility for a subject in a primary school. I am out of the house at 7:30am and usually return around 530. I tutor in the evenings, when tutoring work is availiable - so at the moment not at all, but by September I usually have at least a couple of students in tow and by January, 4 or 5 through to May/June. On top of that, I mark exams twice a year - January and June, usually 2 papers for each which takes up 3 weeks of my time in the evenings and weekends solidly. I mark and plan, in the evenings as well. I attend parent's evenings, open days and anything else my school demands of me. I am also a single parent with 3 children, one of whom has a disability and regular hospital appointments and care which takes up at least an hour a day. I ferry my kids to activities and facilitate play dates, clean my house etc etc etc. I mean, what part of that suggests to you that I am not trying?

I get Tax Credits. I own my own home and I need a car. On what basis should I not be allowed to spend the money I earn on what I want to spend it on? Why do I deserve to be treated like some kind of second class citizen paid in food vouchers?

When you blame a poor person for not getting a better job, you accept that while their job is necessary, whoever does it should be poor.

This is a very good quote.

Also, covid surely shows us that supermarket workers, caters etc are the essential workers but the pay and conditions are not commensurate.

My point (which I thought was the OP’s point) was that if you are not happy with the wages at that level take the resources available to get something better but that only applies to those who can (young/mobile, etc).

i absolutely do not think those with mental health issues/learning difficulties/caring duties should have to live on less than minimum wage and be grateful for it - we are a wealthy society. In Ireland carers are paid more than double the amount to here and valued in the community.

It’s fair enough to pay people for taking on responsibility and stress. And I do agree that you should be rewarded for passing exams and learning new skills. If the rewards weren’t there, and a completely unqualified individual could earn as much as a PhD, everything would stagnate. The better trained and educated a society is, the better it will function.

But, as someone pointed out, people should also be rewarded for doing the horrible jobs that no one else wants to do - cleaning out bed pans in a care home, collecting bags of rubbish, etc. They often contribute more to society than an estate agent (who’d sell a crack den to an old blind woman if he got commission).

For me, the most entitled groups are people on disability benefits (especially when there is virtually nothing wrong with them), people who raise loads of kids on welfare, graduates with worthless degrees in meaningless subjects, and people who earn a fortune in so-called ‘bullshit jobs’. Another group with a sense of entitlement are middle managers. My sister works for the NHS and often complains about managers who do nothing but invent new schemes to justify their job, making things harder for those who actually type the letters, arrange the appointments and heal the sick.

There are useless, entitled people at all levels of society, from benefit cheats to Prince Andrew and Katie Price. The real questions are how hard do you work and what do you contribute. The people who tarmac the roads, collect the bins, drive the food lorries, mend split pipes, etc, contribute much more to society than ‘diversity officers’ and hedge fund managers.

@Kris02

but those middle managers contribute tax that circulates back to society. Not everyone can be a doctor or computer tech. We created jobs so that people come into systems, contribute tax, buy things with their wages, support other industries such as insurance. It all circulated in an economy where people expect a pension in old age.

and I am on low wages in London in comparison to my qualifications and age.

It’s also pretty much nothing to do with the op, who is more of the ‘look at the stupid Asda workers who want to have enough for a decent lifestyle. Why would a peasant need money for luxuries? Idiots.’

I think some people genuinely feel disgusted by people they think are ‘less than’ and can’t conceptualise that people on minimum wage (the ones who care for your kids, deliver your food, and clean your homes) might want to live a life that isn’t utterly miserable. They see these people as an underclass. But they aren’t. It’s your child’s key worker. The woman you hand your baby to every morning while you head off to your ‘better than’ job with the people who deserve a good life. It’s the carer who helps your nan (and one day you) to have a shower. The delivery drivers who deliver your bread and milk. All those people who facilitate your lifestyle deserve their own too.

YABU

People don't want "high wages" they want a wage that allows them have a decent standard of living regardless of the job they do, and rightly so.

It's completely unacceptable that people in the 5th richest country in the world face poverty even when in full-time employment. It's even more outrageous that the taxpayer picks up the bill for multi-million/billion pound corporations failing to pay their staff an appropriate wage.

Just take First Group as an example (since rail strikes are front and centre just now). They were able to pay their shareholders £500m in 2021 and their CEO £593,000 (rising to £635,000 this year) yet wanted their workers to take a pay cut to "remain afloat". Even worse the government aka taxpayers, who already subsidise them in general and even more so through Covid, have to cover the shortfall between what their lowest paid workers earn and what they need to live through various in work benefits. The rich are fucking us left, right, and centre and yet people like the OP blame the poor for not wanting to be fucked anymore.

It’s so so sad. I’ve seen the same thing in nurseries & caring all over my area. People leaving constantly. One chain nursery I used to work at literally always has ads up on indeed and every other site because they literally cannot retain staff whatsoever. Because every member of staff who has been there longer than three months eventually thinks ‘hang on, I could nip down to McDonald’s and work for more than this, with more flexible shifts so I don’t have to pay a bomb in childcare, and get free meals on shift to boot.’ It’s sad but understandable. Why would anyone do these stressful and difficult jobs to be treated like shit and paid a wage so pathetically low that you can’t even live decently?

You’re frothing at the wrong person.
I said that is one example showed entitlement. All my other posts have been about adults, working full time should be able to live comfortably on their wages.

Not everyone wants to become a morally bankrupt banker raking it in on six figures in exchange for their soul, or an Instagram influencer, or an Only Fans 'model'.

Plenty of useless careers pay well when jobs of value don't, but that's disaster capitalism for you.