The solution: get training in areas that business or the health-care industries desire. Work hard for it, stay out of trouble, don't have kids when you're a teen, and don't be deterred by failures here and there.
THe minimum wage was pushed by a commie, Frances Perkins, a truly evil woman in the equally evil FDR administration. America did quite well for decades without it. In short, the very concept of the minimum wage is the vilest form of slavery for it prevents an employee from setting an honest value on his labor with the employer.
Hate to burst your bubble, mate, but "College Degrees" in actuality mean little more than someone found a way to get paid for at least four years of "schooling" for a piece of paper worth barely more than the equivalent one from Russia, India, or Mexico, in declining comparison.
When I got out of the service, I worked me arse off on several projects run by "Engineers" and learned what a joke that was. When I attempted to explain to the higher-ups that I was actually the one doing all the work I was politely thanked for the input and then pointedly ignored.
When I mentioned it to a more senior Tech, he just looked bemused for a moment and then asked: "Didn't you notice the college degree in the manager's office? It's a scam. They all go to college for that piece of paper that gives them the right to lord it over the rest of us who do the actual work."
"It's kind of like being in the military: the Officers have all the titles and fancy geegaws and get all the credit for anything we do. The MasterChiefs and Sargent-Majors are the ones that actually know what is going on and make things happen, and us regular folk that in actuality WORK for a living are the ones that get the job done."
"They ALL went to college, kid. They're all part of the same social circle. If you don't have a college degree, well that's what a business has to show to anyone that is considering doing business with them. You make a product, there better bloody well be some "college degree" person you can point to, even if he is a total sodding git. You and I really design and build it, and we're the ones they rely on to make it work and keep it working, and that's it then."
"Welcome to the real world."P