The premise for this argument is simple. Most hotel employees are paid too little for a lot of hard work.

And that’s really it. Yes, the web site has plenty of stories and anecdotes from hotel staff as well as well as campaign promises from prominent Democrats but the gist of this crusade is to dramatically raise the wages of hotel employees. Naturally, the best way to guarantee such a quest is to unionize the entire the workforce of the hotel industry.

From a Democrat’s perspective, that is a win-win situation. A well publicized class warfare struggle always earns them points at the polls and swelling up the ranks of the unions translates into more political power. In addition, an entire workforce of an industry can be coordinated and mobilized against their employers.

Admittedly, hotel workers do get paid very little for their hard work. But so what?

Am I a callous heartless Republican who only wants to exploit low wage employees?

That is a common accusation from left wing Democrats. Many Liberals see the only solution for low wage employment is for the government to intervene. However, I see a different answer.
 

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As a kid, I was a Hispanic who grew up in the barrio of a small South Texas town. Low paying jobs are the norm in rural communities, especially since seasonal agriculture work is the easiest form of employment. Under the hot Texas sun, anything involving farming and ranching is hard back-breaking work. And to top it off, my mother only had a second grade education, which was also fairly common in those days.

Back then, life was tough and it was much harsher when my parents were in their youth. Opportunities were severely limited and poverty was the typical outcome for most people of where I grew up.

Unless.

The word “unless” is an incredible turning point for any poor person’s life. That is, poverty was typical “unless” you do something about it.

My mother toiled in low paying grimy jobs for half of her life but then as a middle-aged woman she decided to get her GED. After a bit of encouragement, she decided to pursue some out of town college classes even though back then non-traditional students were not the norm.

When my sister graduated high school, my mom decided to pursue a college degree on a full time basis, which meant she had to live on campus in the nearby city of San Antonio for four years. Financially, it was a tough struggle but my dad did everything he could to help my mom. My father also helped my sister and subsequently my brother get through college during that time frame. It is amazing what an intact nuclear family can achieve when they put their minds to it, even if they are poor.

After my mother graduated college with two bachelor degrees, she never again had to toil in small town jobs. The entire family moved to San Antonio. My parents stepped into middle class America when I became a teenager. And at that stage of my life, I got to live next door to a white family (in the small town I lived in, white people lived on the other side of the railroad tracks).

So what did my family do to get out of poverty?

The answer was obvious to my mother. Get out of that low wage job and go on to something that pays more or at least has better working conditions.

But what if there aren’t any good paying jobs?

That too was a no-brainer for my mother. Go to where the jobs are at even if that means moving to a different city.

But what if you don’t have the skills to get into a better job?

Again, the answer was obvious to my mother. Go get the skills. And with the dedication and support of my dad, my mother earned two college degrees even though she was a middle-aged mother of three kids with a second grade education.

And the same can be said of hotel workers.

If you are not getting paid enough to live on, then go find another job. If there aren’t any good paying jobs in your immediate area, then go to where the jobs are at. And if you don’t have the skills for those types of jobs, get them.

I know that people can rattle off a list of obstacles and challenges that confront poor people. That doesn’t fly with me. When I was born, we were a family of poor Hispanics living in a rural Texas community. And my mom could tell you right off that only having a second grade education will not take you far.

Instead of remaining a poor family, my parents pursued the choices in life that took them out of the barrio and put them into a nice suburban middle class environment.

Poverty warriors and racial arsonists love to talk about class warfare and that we live in “two” Americas. The harsh reality is that we actually live in two economies. If you do not have the necessary skills and the fortitude, then yes, you are going to live in that second economy. But why stay there?

As my parents discovered for themselves, no one is forced to remain in the second economy. That may be your starting point in life, as it was with my parents, but it is up to you on how long you stay there.

But that insight in itself is the great tragic flaw of the activists and the poverty warriors. Instead of moving poor people out of poverty and into the great middle class, they want to bring the middle class to them. A free market society doesn’t work that way because employment solely operates on the laws of supply and demand.

The type of employment that most hotel workers have is unskilled labor. Washing sheets and vacuuming floors does not have the same earning power as other skilled professions have.

And even having a college education doesn’t guarantee you a good paying job.

My bachelor’s degree is in Accounting, yet I was shocked to discover happened to that trade. Even during the Clinton boom years, good paying Accounting and Finance jobs were scarce because those professions were saturated with too many people already in that field and with so many more college graduates on the way.

Even my college professors remarked that many entry-level jobs in the field were of low pay and required long hours.

During that time, I once worked at an operations center for a big commercial bank. Almost everyone there was a temporary employee who was making just under ten dollars an hour. Some of my co-workers had over 20 years of mortgage experience and there was even someone in my team who was once an assistant vice-president to a credit union. Most of the seasoned employees had worked at a number of different banks during the boom and bust 80’s and 90’s. And even many of the managers at that operations center were also temporary employees.

The laws of supply and demand worked against me.

But I didn’t demand that the government rescue me. Instead, I changed careers and became a Technical Writer. I then moved around in a few jobs until I found the right working environment with an enormously better pay scale. And switching careers dramatically changed my life because it brought me a much better income and better career opportunities.

I of all people can say that poverty isn’t fun. I’ve been there. But the choice is really up to you on how long you want to stay where you are at. As for hotel workers, your starting point in life is different but the decision to remain there is entirely up to you.

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