What can you gain from a minimum wage job?

National minimum wage was introduced by the Labour Party in the 1990’s to protect low-paid workers. This ensured that all workers were receiving a pay that reflected the cost of the living and nothing less…however in this day and age minimum wage jobs are generally quite looked down upon.

This could be due to the terminology of a ‘minimum wage’, as if you stick ‘minimum’ in front of anything it makes us feel like we are getting the bare minimum.

But, how we can look at minimum wage jobs more positively?

Here’s 5 things that you can gain from a minimum wage job, aside from earning money…

It can be your first stepping stone to a better paid job

Many minimum wage jobs don’t require any previous experience or knowledge of certain skills…that’s generally why are they are paid at the minimum wage. But these jobs provide you with the opportunities to gain the experience and skillset to progress onto higher paid jobs.

For example, you join a factory as a Production Worker. You are then trained up on different machines, you learn how to run a production line and learn to work to deadlines and targets. You now have the foundations you need to apply for another job as a ‘Experienced Production Operative’, opening up career and salary progression.

Plus, there may be internal progression opportunities arise in the workplace you’re currently in where you can move up into new roles!

You learn responsibility inside the workplace

For most of us, having a job is the first time you properly gain responsibility for something, as most of us start our first job at school or college.

Immersing yourself into a work environment enables you to learn what is expected of you, how to act in a workplace and the consequences of you not performing to your best ability:

The company you work for is depending on you to achieve a certain task to the standard they require, you play your own part in the future success of the business
Having a job teaches you to be punctual as the company is relying on you to be on time to your shift
In most jobs you have multiple duties in your role, where you need to organise yourself to make sure everything is completed to a deadline

You gain responsibility in your personal life

As well as the workplace, we learn a lot of skills from a job that help us in our personal lives too:

Having a job leads to owning things in life that you need to upkeep and pay for, such as a car, mortgage, a pet etc.
By having financial responsibility you start to learn how to budget and spend your hard earned money. This is especially helpful when being paid monthly, as you need to learn how to make your wage spread out over the whole month until your next pay day
Having a job teaches you to be punctual as the company is relying on you to be on time to your shift. This also helps you outside of work as it puts you in the mindframe of being on time to appointments, events, family gatherings etc.
In most jobs you have multiple duties in your role, where you need to organise yourself to make sure everything is completed to a deadline. This also helps you to experience multi-tasking, which you will experience in your everyday life too. By learning how to organise yourself in a work setting, this will help you organise yourself in your personal life too.

It provides you with financial stability

Being employed gives you a better understanding of how much money you will have coming in each month and you know you are guaranteed to receive money each month.

You gain a different perspective on life

Working directly in the labour market, you become more aware of the issues people face in life like unemployability, financial struggles, consumer demand and much more which provides you with the opportunity to be more open minded and see world issues in a different light.

It can influence your political decisions, your empathy towards people and your views towards many issues and problems we face nationally and globally. You will become more aware of how one change in the world affects our lives so much.

Plus!

It gives you a routine
It gives you a purpose
It’ll boost your confidence

You’ll become more productive
You’ll take yourself out of your comfort zone
You learn about people

Don’t forget that it’s always easier to get a job when you’ve got a job. This is because when you are in a job it gives employers the impression that you’re reliable, you have a good work ethic and that you’re employable. So, even if you have to work a minimum wage job short term while you find another job, you’ll have more success being in a job than not in a job.