Quote Originally Posted by Carnage View Post
Their wages are that low because their job doesn't require skills worth paying more for.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/22...gers-per-hour/

America should be worried about educating its work force so that it doesn't need to fast food jobs, not complaining about how little they're paid. If they were worth more than the wage they are getting then they could strike or walk out, but the problem is that the job is so unskilled there's probably a vast number of people ready to take their jobs. Walmart has an acceptance rate of ~3% for its jobs.
Exactly. I learned the problem is especially bad in the inner cities, where fast food jobs (the only jobs really available to the unskilled) are high demand and high stress because there are so many applicants who want the job. With that kind of demand, the economics of paying them more doesn't add up for the companies. Only public opinion will sway them, and public opinion is often flawed and uneducated.

Quote Originally Posted by Ryllharu View Post
Countries that can't staff those businesses end up hiring foreign workers. That sends money out of the country. Look at the UAE or Qatar. Something like 90% of the country aren't citizens. Kuwait isn't so bad, they're at 60%. Good article in National Geographic about that disparity.
With our laws as they are I don't see that being a major problem here in the US, though there are plenty of non-citizens being paid off the books. UAE is ridiculous. I don't think it's quite 90% but maybe 75% are foreign nationals who are there to work. The problem is that the 25% who are citizens are oil rich and it is beneath them (and their sons and daughters) to work the menial jobs that they hire foreigners for.