Not every job is intended to support a family.
When I was a teenager it was rare to see an adult working at McDonalds who was not a manager. Occasionally they would hire someone in their 20’s or 30’s, but everyone knew that they were only on the grill until a spot opened up in management.
Most cashier jobs in grocery stores were teenagers as well. Girls ran the registers, boys bagged the groceries or were stock boys. Adults were the managers.
I don’t know if the job market has changed, or the level of education has changed - probably both - but adults are now filling positions that were below them 40 years ago.
Because of this unnatural situation, low skill jobs are now under artificial (as opposed to market) pressure to pay a “living” wage. The job hasn’t changed, just the expectation of compensation.
Worse, it trickles down to the youth. I hire part time young people who hear talk of $15 minimum wages in other parts of the country and they feel justified in expecting $11 - $12 an hour to fold t-shirts! After all, I “should” be paying them $15 an hour!
It is going to take an economic upheaval or cataclysmic proportions to set this ship right again.
Re: “It is going to take an economic upheaval of cataclysmic proportions to set this ship right again.”
More likely, it will just take better robots, better software, and universal high speed, high definition Internet connections.
And more government subsidies for the billions of people who lack the intellect or the passion to adapt.
Raising wages for retail workers hardly changes the dynamic. the retail price would hardly go up at all.