“McJob”; a colloquial term describing a low-paying or minimum wage job with few prospects for advancement.
Many workers on the minimum wage barely make ends meet and as Mandy discussed in her blogpost, they would welcome a wage increase. Concurring with her viewpoint, increasing the minimum wage would not solve the problems associated with it; rather it would increase cost pressures for employers. This would result in less employees being hired rather than improving the corporate culture problems linked with minimum wage jobs.
On Reddit and Alternet, ex-Walmart and Target employees share their common experiences of long, miserable hours of drudgery not worth the low pay. They also attribute their discontent to overbearing managers, harsh treatment, and lack of flexibility. Minimum-wage jobs are prevalent in the food and accommodation service sector, especially for companies where every single cent goes towards their profits. Economic theory states that the motive for every firm is to maximize profits; some firms take this to an extreme by sacrificing employee safety and engagement in order to increase profits.
However, this course of action is short-sighted and detrimental to the overall health of the company. Even though companies can use these savings to increase their stock prices and shareholder dividends, it would be a more worthwhile investment in the local community to have a positive and empowering corporate culture. The sense of fulfillment from work is priceless and cannot be assigned a dollar value. This investment would increase retention rates, employee morale, productivity and drive.
Enter Zappos, America’s leading online shoe retailer, paragon of employee engagement and happiness. As we learned in class, Zappos’ main objective was to “create a great environment where employees get so much out of it that they would do it for free.” (Tony Hsieh) Zappos has the model of employee engagement and happiness to the point where employees are willing to work for eleven dollars per hour. From this empirical evidence of “peppy, dedicated workers and a utopia of communal cheer and solicitude” (Alexandra Jacobs), it can be concluded that happy employees are the best workers.
I challenge Walmart and Target to revamp their corporate culture so that their minimum wage workers are fulfilled and engaged at their jobs. I understand that cost pressures can prevent increases in the minimum wage, but that is no excuse for not valuing and respecting their employees.
Word Count: 392
Photo Credit
Photo found at http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1628391,00.html – Credit to Mark Peterson/Corbis
References
Chau, Mandy. “The Not-So-Great Minimum Wage.” Mandy Chau’s Blog. UBC Blogs, 02 Oct. 2016. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/mandychau/2016/10/02/7/>.
Jacobs, Alexandra. “Happy Feet.” The New Yorker. Condé Nast, 14 Sept. 2009. Web. 09 Nov. 2016. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/14/happy-feet>.
Lydersen, Kari. “Target as Bad as Wal-Mart? You Decide.” Alternet. Alternet, 30 Apr. 2006. Web. 10 Nov. 2016. <http://www.alternet.org/story/35610/target_as_bad_as_wal-mart_you_decide>.
Osterndorf, Chris. “10 Reasons You Should Never, Ever Shop at Walmart.” The Daily Dot. The Daily Dot, 21 May 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2016. <http://www.dailydot.com/via/walmart-labor-unions-bad-company/>.