It does get tiresome hearing low-skill workers whose jobs can be done by the VAST majority of working age people, grossly over-estimating their value and contribution to an organization. Janitors want $30,000/year plus 12 sick days, plus better health coverage (why not go on the exchanges?), plus, plus, plus...
Exhibit A:
http://www.kare11.com/news/local/twin-cities-janitors-vote-to-strike/21581152
See they want everyone to just abandon the laws of supply and demand in favor of artificially inflated wages just because they say so, or just because they "work really hard", or because they "have to work overnights", or because it's "fair".
That should be motivation to do something else/better than being a janitor. Many people work very hard. Some worked harder in school, for example, and that, in part, is why they're not janitors now. And yeah, everyone's life circumstances take them down a different path. But you ended up as a janitor. That's how it worked out for you. That doesn't change the fact that your job qualifications could be fulfilled by the vast majority of people in America.
For a visual aid...let's fill TCF Bank Stadium with around 60,000 people.
It would look something like this
Now...let's remove all of the folks who are completely unqualified to be a janitor.
It would look something like this.
Now...just for comparison, let's subtract all of the people who are unqualified to be, oh, let's say, an accountant. It would look something like this.
And
that, dear janitors, is why you are paid what you are paid, and why accountants and others like them are paid what they are paid. Your skills are not at all uncommon, people able and willing to do what you do are not at all in low supply, it is not at all difficult to replace you when you depart. Your low pay is not because of evil rich people, or mean corporations "taking advantage of your hard work". It's because you do a job that 99% of the population could do. Therefore, its value is lower than jobs that only a small portion of the population can perform. It's that simple. The fact that you want it to be different doesn't make it different...it just exposes the fact that you grossly over-value what you do for a living, and then have to cloak your demands in the mantra of "fairness" and of course by affiliating with BLM, play the currently popular "trump card" of implying an undercurrent of racism.
A company loses a janitor...they have 194 people lined up to apply for that job the next day. A company loses a high-caliber accountant or operations manager or financial analyst or the like, and the pool of qualified and acceptable candidates with same/similar levels of experience and knowledge is much, MUCH smaller. It's the rarity of the skills that compels them to pay extra.
That's how the world works.
