Ever seen someone doing their “unskilled job” all their life? It’s just fucking magic!
The truth is that capitalists hate skilled workers, because those workers have bargaining power. This is why they love the sort of automation which completely removes workers or thought from the equation, even if the ultimate solution is multiple times more expensive or less competent than before.
Nothing is more infuriating to a boss, than a worker that can talk back with experience.
Yes there are. You can be a trained retail worker in a few hours in most cases. Same with many farming jobs. Same with working the line at fast food. They still work hard and it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a living wage.
There is more to it than that. You may be able to be trained in a few hours, but mastery and efficiency come with time. Someone who works in retail or farming can output more productivity in a shorter amount of time than an average person. It’s not about how long it takes to train someone to start the job, it’s the mastery you learn over time. As you do a job longer, your productivity increases, as you move deeper and develop more skill at the job.
There is no such thing as unskilled labor.
Of course people tend to get better with experience. But the retail worker who gets trained in 2 days can be reasonably good at the job within a few weeks and an expert in a few months.
Compare that to the years of training required prior to the first day on the job for an engineer or a doctor, who also get better with experience.
The thing is, “unskilled” jobs have a huge worker pool. Just about anyone can do it. Perhaps not that well, but it doesn’t matter much how well you do it for most of these jobs. Take a cashier. At best you might be twice as effective as the “normal worker”. Then compare that to what people call “skilled jobs”. Say a civil engineer. Here, your “normal worker” straight up can’t do it without years of training, and failure costs lives. For this reason, “skilled jobs” have a tiny worker pool and of those, only a few are adequate. It’s only natural that these few would ask for and receive a much larger pay. That’s not to say that “unskilled workers” shouldn’t be paid a living wage, but in a capitalist world, they will always be paid less.
Retail workers have to deal with irate customers, develop product knowledge, and how to sell items. Fast food workers need to learn how to work as a team, make the food at a consist quality, and juggle multiple orders at once.
As for farm workers, if they are working with animals: how to read the animals for their behavior, treat minor injuries of animals, and how to manage animals.
I will agree that all labor deserve a living wage.
So the job doesn’t require any skill but still needs training?
And all retail workers are equally good, there is no skill difference that makes some better at the job than others?
Yes, a few hours training. Easily replaced because it requires little skill. 10 year olds do this in mom and pop shops all the time. If your point is even a 10 year old has skills, then bravo, I can’t muster the energy to argue over pendantic linguistics.
And no, not all workers are equally good, and that’s why some companies hire these folks at higher rates and typically get reclassified as an industry subject matter expert or move on to more senior roles, again, which didn’t get classified as unskilled. Or they get fired for being slower than their peers
You gotta do it every day all day. Can eveyone do that? No.
No you don’t. The majority of retail and fast food is 40 a week. They probably have less hours than the managers because salary is cheaper than OT.
Under the aca a full time employee is 30 hours or more per week, so they’re going to give part time employees less than that to avoid giving them health insurance and other benefits. That’s why many people have to work multiple jobs.