With an ongoing discussion as to the pros and cons of offering employees a living wage, one New York City Paramedic makes a strong case for offering the living wage to all workers. In his city, fast food workers stand to earn $15 an hour if a new minimum wage is offered.
This paramedic stated that his fellow coworkers have taken offense at the notion that people preparing hamburgers and French fries should earn the same wage as paramedics. After all, paramedics must get specialized training and education in order to perform their jobs. Often times, the work paramedics conduct saves lives. Naturally, some paramedics have taken offense at people with comparatively poor educations demanding what is the same wage they worked hard to earn.
Still, in a Facebook post, the paramedic explains that the wage envy is misdirected. He believes that anytime an employer looks to fill a job with a human being, that person should earn enough of a wage to subsist. In fact, he believes that bickering among employees is exactly what many company executives prefer to see. He points out that the anger should be directed not at fast food workers earning the same wage as paramedics, but rather CEOs earning 400x the average wage of their employees. The point he makes is important.
The Walton family, owners of Walmart, have a net worth in excess of $150 billion. Yet, they refuse to set a minimum salary of $30,000 or $15/hr. for their workers. The paramedic stated that bickering over wages by rank and file employees is tantamount to fighting over the crumbs of a small slice of cake while ignoring the fact that CEOs consume the majority of the cake.