"Minimum wage is for low skill workers to gain job experience, usually kids still living at home. It was never meant to be a living wage."

This has been my stance forever and many people just don't seem to get it.

My first job was at 16 working at a movie theater for minimum wage in the late 90s. I kept the job throughout college, it was enough for a student living at home and I'm a film buff so the perks were great too.

Once I finished college I went into my real career and haven't made minimum wage since. Having worked a service job for years gave me a great foundation for navigating interpersonal relationships, dealing with clients or customers and other situations you encounter in a workplace environment.

This is how low skill minimum wage jobs should work. You should not be looking to feed a family of 4 working cashier at a Wal-Mart. You should use the job as a stepping stone or stop-gap while you acquire skills or knowledge and raise your value in the job market and move on to something better.

What's sad is many are NOT moving on and you have middle aged and older sitting in these jobs for the long haul as if they are a career and complaining about not having a "living wage". Young people are having a harder time getting these minimum wage entry level jobs to build experience because of these kinds of job squatters.