Absolutely they are. I had a few jobs when I got started. One only lasted a day. (I quit. It was a restaurant that observed very shoddy cleanliness practices) Another I had for four years. My first job was doing janitorial maintenance at a racquetball club.
It’s amazing how much you learn and retain. The job that lasted four years was working at a small sporting goods shop. I even had a key to the shop and often opened or closed. Once, I stopped by on my day off to get may paycheck after closing the night before. My boss was furious at me. I forgot to lock the door when I left. He didn’t speak to me for a few days but I kept my job.
I’m still paranoid about locking doors. Just last night, I left an event at church, got in the car, got out of the car and doublechecked to make sure I locked up.
First jobs are meant to be more valuable than what you get paid. Personally I believe minimum wage should be zero.
My actual first job was a paper route. I was paid $3.00 for five afternoons of work. It was the Joplin Missouri News Herald.
My second job was at a religious boarding academy. I was paid $0.48 cents an hour.
When I joined McDonalds as a teenager, I was paid $1.25 an hour and considered it moving up. LOL
I’m not convinced that minimum wages are good. We have essentially created a black market of workers. Employers should be able to price their pay at whatever the market will bear.
If a guy is only paying $2.50 an hour, he won’t have many takers. They will only work for a short period and move on to a place that pays more. There they will stay longer, moving on again when an opportunity arises.
Citizens who play by the rules, don’t work for under the table wages. This screws with their Social Security quarters. Granted Social Security needs to be revamped, but we still need to play by the rules until it is.
I won’t be surprised at all if Trump addresses Social Security and Medicare during his first term.