“It’s a big country. The costs of living, especially housing, vary widely in America from state to state and city to city.”

“Private industry and the free market are already taking care of it.”

“It would eliminate jobs.”

“It would reduce the incentive for low-wage workers to get an education and move up to a higher-paying job.”

These are the talking points against raising the federal minimum wage and essentially, wages altogether…and they are absolutely retarded. Point in case: QuikTrip.

This wonderful article highlights a little company called QuikTrip and how they treat their employees as if they have to…wait for it…make a living! *GASP*

If you don’t live in one of the 12 states they operate at, QuikTrip is a gas station/convenience store, and it is the tits! Everything is clean, the food is decent (taquitos!), the inventory is plentiful and vast, and the employees are always nice and know what they are doing. If there is a convenience store in heaven, it is a QuikTrip.

Oh, and these gas station’s entry-level clerks make $40,000 a year! That’s twice as much as the $20,230 a year the average cashier earns. Add the benefits QT employees enjoy, and they are compensated well over double that of the 7-11 clerk.

While most companies live and die by the notion that the first thing you cut is staff and that low-level staff members do not deserve high wages, QT has done the exact opposite and has dominated the markets it is in. In fact, they were expanding while others were cutting staff during the recession.

I don’t know what the CEO of QT makes, but it’s probably a fraction of what he or she could make due to the high salaries of everyone below. If you’re a thriving corporation, there is absolutely no reason to underpay all of your employees, unless greed is your reason. The top 1% now earns almost 20% of all income. To say it is economically infeasible to raise wages is false. Sacrifices need to be made, and they need to start at the top.

“But this is America! CEOs earned that money! Git off yer ass and earn that money yourself!”

Kill yourself. Politicians and millionaires have been shoving that rhetoric down our throat like some gag porn film. They have manipulated into thinking that 1) they deserve all that money and 2) we do not. It is quite impressive and frightening.

The greatest thing about this country is our hard work mentality. The thing that is going to divide and tear this country apart is our hard work mentality.

UPDATE #1:

My girlfriend brought this home (see right). In a shitty city, QT is an oasis in the desert. If Westboro or whoever else tries to protest QuikTrip, I will bust out the fire hoses and German Shepherds. In fact, if QT came out as anti-gay/anti-abortion/pro-pedophilia and start playing Journey inside their stores, I might turn a blind eye and call it a wash.

 

UPDATE #2:

An anonymous tipster sent me the below email. Apparently, QuikTrip is no different than any other retail business. Granted, management probably still makes more than the average gas station manager. Also, they hire management strictly within the company, which I like. That aside, I should have known that those red velvet whoopie pies were coming from Satan himself.