BY DAVID DEACON
A menial job is a job that requires little skill or is associated with making someone into a servant. These jobs include being a waitress, a farmer, a child caretaker, or even a security guard. In our society people tend to look down on people that have these menial jobs. The question is, why? What’s the problem with having a menial job? Is there a problem with starting off a career with a not so glamorous job? According to society, there is a problem with these jobs. Because these jobs don’t have great pay and require hard work, society tends to have a negative connotation about menial jobs.
The main reason why people avoid a menial job is because the overall pay is not enough. When the term “menial job” is announced, the first thought is minimum wage; the barebones of what an employer can pay you. The myth about minimum wage is that people don’t think that they can live off it, even when millions of Americans do it every year. But, with minimum wage alone, the average American can still pay for an apartment, food, and utilities. These are all the basic essentials people need to live.
Another concern associated with menial jobs is that it is too demanding or difficult, or that they require an 80-hour workweek. With a menial job, the average workweek is 35 to 40 hours, the same average as almost any other worker. Then, comes the issue of workload. People automatically assume that people with menial jobs have more work to do. However, the definition of a menial job is something that includes low skill to do. If there’s no skill involved than how is the work stressful when maintaining a menial job?
The last reason why people tend to avoid menial jobs is that people look down on them. If you’re not on the higher end of the economic food chain, then the job that you currently have is deemed worthless. An example of this would be working in the fast food industry as a cashier. When people enter the restaurant, they see an employee at a register taking orders, giving change and giving out food. All these actions don’t require a lot of skill, but in the eyes of an average person, this job looks stressful and unappealing. Instead of people forming their own opinion about menial jobs and walking away, people want to force their opinion on other people. This creates a society that hates menial jobs and inherently causes people to look down upon them.
The idea that menial jobs are terrible needs to change, and the way that we do this is to entirely change the way that we look at menial jobs. Instead of looking down on people for having these jobs, we should honor them for having jobs in the first place instead of being unemployed and siphoning off social benefits. Besides, society needs menial jobs in order to adequately function. A garbage man is a “menial job” that is often looked down on, but the job they do is important to our society. Once we see an increase in appreciation for menial job workers, we will see menial jobs not being looked down upon and an improvement in our overall culture.
