Job description scam and minimum wage paradigm

Recently i was helping a friend look through the popular websites posting new job openings here in Canada. Personally I haven't applied for a job in a lot of years and when i did I found a job opening through word of mouth and just sent in a resume to get the interview.

Looking at some of the lingo used by the professional ad posters is rather unbelievable. Unbelievable is the most appropriate word one could use here because even the most mundane, low-skilled job has been sparkled up and turned in to something as if you were applying to give guided tours upon a fairy on the way to Never-never land.

A total scam

Reason i say that it's a total scam is because one of the jobs listed was with a company i use to work for. I'll give you a brief job description of the duty.
Sit in front of an automated injection molding machine that outputs parts every 10-30 seconds depending part being produced. Every 10-30 seconds one part could consist of 2 to 15 parts which in the remaining time you have to separate and place in to containers and discard the waste. The only reason this process is not fully automated is because the minimum wage paid for this position is still cheaper than the cost of the robot, programmer, and maintenance of the full automation process.

This is a slave job. In essence you are chained to this machine and have to constantly be working at a fast pace to keep up with the injection molding process. This machine doesn't stop so the only time you get to rest, have a sip of water, go to the bathroom, is when someone takes over for you temporarily. The people working in that environment are easily replaceable and they know it. Therefor instead of pushing for improvements around some of the conditions, they remain silent thankful they have a job. The capitalist brain in me says this is a perfect example paying the minimum for maximum profit. The Socialist heart inside of me says this is just plain wrong. Regardless what I as an individual think, the job is always filled with a minimum skill worker and that's a positive on the Canadian jobs report.

Let's look at the job description for such a job:

Looking for a high energy individual to ad to our amazing team!
Fast pace, fun work environment, real sense of belonging.
High attention to detail is important to maintain our happy customers.
Be able to work as a team, and also individually when necessary. Ample opportunity for team bonding
Willing to invest in yourself to constantly improve yourself and others around you
Able to perform under pressure and tight timelines
Ongoing mentor-ship and support

Ok..... This is one of the best false advertisements I've seen in quite some time. But the genius behind advertising this way is when someone quits because it is a fast paced harsh work environment that is very demanding physically and has little tolerance for mistakes, the position is filled the next day due to the piles of resumes of people with a desire to work in such a pleasant sounding environment.

People need to start investing in themselves to increase their skill to rise above minimum wage.

Here lies the case for NOT increasing minimum wage. Jobs like these are low skilled enough to be paid the bare minimum with a 2% inflation rate per year. As soon as minimum wage increases to the point where full automation becomes more affordable, which i might add with the government tax credits on R&D that employers can use is almost attainable to be par with the cost of employees. These low skill workers will have no job in that company. Robots don't need unions, take sick days, take maternity leave, go out and party, make mistakes... People who lobby for the increase of minimum wage or what they blanket as a "living wage" have no clue to the consequences they have or how they are actually going to INCREASE the gap between the upper and lower class. Before they work themselves out of a job, what will they do with the money they made? Will they pay down some debt? Will they save in their emergency fund? Hell no. They will do exactly what we expect them to do as consumers....Spend. Corporate profit will rise, thus affording to automate more processes to keep prices lower for consumers, laying off more employees and thus the gap increases between people in the lower class/unemployed and the capitalists.

This won't happen over night and will take a few years. But what also happens in those few years when those workers receive a 25% wage increase? They increase their lifestyle. They are able to borrow much more money on a mortgage, vehicle loan, or any other form of consumer debt. This is not investment advice, but if the majority of current minimum wage earners are able to take out more debt and spend, what sectors will you expect to see be artificially stimulated? Would you not expect the banking/financial industry to post record profits? Car dealerships to see an increase of new vehicle sales? Consumer goods and technology sector to produce more for the demanding consumer? This is like when the US did quantitative easing but on a slightly different scale. I'm going to call this the Canadian QE Lite.

My prediction going forward. When all of Canada has implemented this 25%-30% minimum wage increase, expect by 2021 for the Canadian economy to start rolling over directly related to this move if it is not drastically affected by the stock market correction that needs to happen in the US before that time. Until then enjoy the ride, make good choices, and have a plan.