Why is manual labor undervalued in terms of pay?
Is manual labor unfairly paid because it is considered a low skill job? Or maybe because it is physically demanding? Despite being arguably the most crucial form of labor, encompassing roles like trash collectors, tradesmen, construction workers, and sewer workers. Shouldn’t those willing to work hard physically full time be able to cover basic living expenses without worry?
#ManualLabor #FairPay #UndervaluedJobs #PhysicalLabor #LivingExpenses #SocietalImpact
because capitalism demands someone be exploited. why wouldn’t it be the low skill, easily replaced worker?
it sucks, but it’s the nature of the beast, someone MUST be exploited.
It’s the easiest category to convince people “deserves” to be underpaid; it’s easy to say “oh unskilled labor is for teenagers who don’t need their jobs so why should they be paid a living wage” even though that’s complete BS, and middle class people will believe it because their teenagers take those jobs just for pocket money to spend on frivolous shit, not realizing that their teenagers are working with older people who need those jobs.
It’s supply and demand. Just about everyone can perform manual labor with little to no training. So you’re competing against a large pool of workers. If the work is so demanding or dangerous that workers shy away from it, then you’d see that pay go up to attract more people.
If you’re asking why minimum wage is so low that’s another topic.
because you are selling your youth, health and strong back.
It’s also associated with people who are disposable.
I worked for a year-ish after undergrad as a manual labourer, for two bucks above minimum wage. We did, however, have to provide all of our own tools, including batteries and nails (sometimes they would be generous and throw in a box of nails or screws from a wholesaler). There was no insurance and we certainly didn’t have construction papers. We were a bunch of guys who had done this before but needed the money. One was a set designer for movies, two or three were trade apprentices waiting for whatever it was to open up so they could actually have one of those high paid trade jobs we keep hearing about, and then me, who had built a house in the past. It was fine, mostly, but that pay was horrendous and you were always a bad day from a visit to the hospital.
Towards the end, the subcontractors I was working for started hiring more guys for less money. I hope it was minimum wage, but I can only hope. You’d go down to those sites and they would reek of pot and booze. They were all in great moods all the time, because they were out of their faces while working.
Then they told our group they were cutting pay to minimum wage and they’d be putting us on the projects the newer guys were working on. Thanks, I said, and quit.
But if you assume your workers are an expendable and replacable resource – there’s always going to be people stuck for cash after university, or guys trying to break into the higher levels of trade, or just stoners with strong backs – there’s no reason to pay them more.
Something happens to them? oh well, there is more where they came from.
Your question ignores basic supply and demand. Manual labor jobs are supremely important as you correctly state however offsetting this importance is the vast hordes of available supply of qualified humans who have the skill and frankly compete with one another by effectively lowering their rates (i.e. the young student willing to flip burgers for less than the adult with kids)
Well since you’re bringing up the trades. Many tradespeople have been convinced to vote against their best interests. This includes the erosion of unions, which ultimately leads to lower pay, even for skilled work.
“Unskilled” labor is often anything but. Some of the most physically demanding jobs involve significant memory retention, spacial awareness and intuition, operation of expensive equipment around expensive materials and structures, working in hazardous and even life-threatening conditions, mitigating conflicts and other skills. But because it doesn’t require a college degree, aNyOne CaN dO It.
I earn more than any electrician, and I will never fuck with anything 110volt or over. Same with plumbers, and I won’t fuck with water short of fixing the toilet tank. I watch dudes maintain the corporate park’s landscaping when I can’t stand to even mow my own lawn.
I will admit that not everyone can (or wants) to do what I do either, but I didn’t need a college degree to learn how to do it.
I had some movers help me recently. They busted their asses doing things *I simply can’t do anymore*. So beyond what their company charged me, I gave the two of them each the equivalent of a $25/hr tip. At first they thought it was a mistake. I’m glad they were happy, but the fact that they thought this makes me bitter at things in general.
Modern day caste system.
People who do manual labor are seen as the “unwashed masses” who “deserve” to occupy society’s “lower rungs”.
Nevermind that a lot of manual labor is either highly skilled (see, trades) and/or highly necessary (see, anything else).
It’s no different than any other time in history where those who were considered to occupy either royalty or nobility looked down upon everyone else who wasn’t.
Today’s “shareholders” are yesteryear’s “nobility”.
its unfairly paid because they will hire anyone with a pulse to do it and overwork them until they leave.
you have felons who cant get a job anywhere else and have to take any job they can get, you got people on probation that have to have a job.
then you have people with no job experience and need their first job.
or someone is desperate from debt and has to take the first thing theyre offered until something else pops up.
the moment all of the workers who will do anything dry up is when wages will rise
Those jobs you listed are not low skilled or low paying. Skilled labor jobs like those pay well.
Skilled manual labor, like craftsmen, are paid pretty well.
Capitalism demands desperate people
> trash collectors, tradesmen, construction workers, and sewer workers.
Uhhhh those people get paid really good money. Trades professions can make big money.
What isn’t paid well are labour jobs like pallet stacking and cashiers. In these situations, the pay is low because the supply of unskilled willing workers is high high high. Also they tend to be entry level type transitory jobs designed for people in their teens/early 20s.
I mean, an actual skilled tradesman makes more than u do in software development.
And it makes sense. Someone doing basic construction – it’s not very complex. Sure it’s hard work, but there isn’t a barrier to entry like there is with a STEM career or something. Some people just aren’t built that way.
Now a skilled tradesman. Not only is it complex work but it requires years of practice. Same with STEM but I feel like the complexity is even higher depending on the role. Which is why the pay is great.
Your premise is flawed: Lots of those jobs pay quite well. Is there a specific situation you’re complaining about?
I do manual labor work and I make more than an “educated/indoctrined” person. Work 4 days a week and when I leave work, work stays at work. Some of my neighbors I know look down at me for the work I do. Yet, I constantly hear them complain about the long hours they put in and the work load they bring home. All the while being told I wouldn’t understand. I left non-profit corporate life due to stress and the constant crazy demands. I’ve have many years experience in IT / Social Work/ Facilities Management.
they know that desperate people do these jobs, so they take advantage of desperate people who will likely not complain. Tale as old as time…..
All thanks to Ronald Reagan. And trickle down economics. Do not trust rich people, or anyone. Ever. Who says they can promise you anything. Its a big fat fucking scam.
Your free to start your own manual labor company and charge as much as you want and pay your employees as little as possible to maximize profits
Because there’s lots of people willing and able to do it n
I agree with your statement and would expand it to anyone working any fulltime job period shouldn’t have to worry about basic living expenses.
The key with working manual labor jobs is to work in a licensed or sealed trade. If you’re working a job that requires no certifications, licenses, or qualifications employers know they can replace you with any 19 year old with a nicotine addiction and you’re hooped.
I’ve been in construction most of my life and before I joined the union my pay was absolute garbage. The fact is there are plenty of desperate folks with little to no education or investments (like me) who are willing to work for very little in unsafe conditions and are easily replaceable.
Union is the only real way to make a blue collar living.
And the farm workers, too!
If any job needs to be done, the person doing it deserves to earn a living.
Because we allow it to be
I absolutely love being a paramedic and watching the bumbling incompetent admins above me pull down much larger checks for doing fuck-all.
And I’m not gonna lie, I do get jealous seeing my dad work from home all day and on a busy day do a couple hours of work for almost triple my pay.