"'Dead-end' jobs?"
- From: "Mike" <yard22192@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 10 Dec 2005 05:49:44 -0800
www.townhall.com
'Dead-end' jobs?
WALTER WILLIAMS
By Walter E. Williams
December 4, 2005
Certain jobs are derisively referred to as "burger flipper" or
"dead-end" jobs. I would like someone to define a dead-end job. For
example, I started out as a professor of economics at California State
University, Los Angeles, and then at Temple University and for the last
25 years at George Mason University. It seems as though my employment
might qualify as a dead-end job, for all I'll ever be is a professor of
economics.
Those who demean so-called dead-end jobs probably aren't talking
about my job. They're mockingly referring to jobs such as clerks at
Wal-Mart, hotel workers, and food handlers and counter clerks at
McDonald's. McJobs is the term applied to these positions. The term has
even found its way into Merriam- Webster and the encyclopedia
Wikipedia. Putting down so-called dead-end jobs is a destructive insult
to honest work.
How dead-end is a McDonald's job? Jim Glassman, an American
Enterprise Institute scholar, wrote an article in the Institute's June
2005 "On The Issues" bulletin titled "Even workers with 'McJobs'
deserve respect." He listed some well-known former McDonald's workers.
Among them: Andy Card, White House chief of staff; Jeff Bezos, founder
and chief executive officer of Amazon.com; Jay Leno, "Tonight Show"
host; Carl Lewis, Olympic gold medalist; Joe Kernan, former Indiana
governor; and Robert Cornog, retired CEO of Snap-On Tools.
According to Mr. Glassman, some 1,200 McDonald's restaurant owners
began as crew members, and so did 20 of McDonald's 50 top worldwide
managers. These people and millions of others hardly qualify as
dead-enders.
The primary beneficiaries of so-called McJobs are people who enter
the workforce with modest or no work skills in areas such as: being
able to show up on time, operating a machine, counting change, greeting
customers with decorum and courtesy, cooperating with fellow workers
and accepting orders from supervisors. Very often the people who need
these job skills, which some of us might trivialize, are youngsters who
grew up in dysfunctional homes and attended rotten schools.
This economic bottom rung provides them an opportunity to move up.
For many, the financial component of a low-pay, low-skill job is not
nearly as important as what they learn on the job that can make them
more valuable workers in the future.
Some demagogues claim jobs at Wal-Mart and McDonald's only pay the
minimum wage. That's plain wrong, as are many other things said about
jobs that start at the minimum wage. According to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics: Sixty-three percent of minimum wage workers receive
raises within a year of employment, and only 15 percent still earn the
minimum wage after three years. Moreover, only 3 percent of all hourly
workers and 2 percent of wage and salary earners earn minimum wages.
Most minimum wage earners are young -- 53 percent are between ages 16
and 24.
Furthermore, only 5.3 percent of minimum wage earners are from
households below the official poverty line; 40 percent of minimum wage
earners live in households with incomes of $60,000 and above and more
than 82 percent of minimum wage earners have no dependents.
My stepfather used to tell me any honest work was better than
begging and stealing. As a young person, I worked many jobs, from
shining shoes and picking blueberries to delivering packages and
washing dishes. The tragedy for many poor youngsters today is that the
opportunities I had for learning the world of work and advancing
economically have been destroyed through legislation or demeaned by
today's do-gooders.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason
University and a nationally syndicated columnist.
.
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