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Writing in LS & ER
America’s forgotten workforce

The American work ethic and culture has become outdated and stagnant. This

unchanging system has led the American workforce to be embroiled in a constant struggle that

has affected everyone. Minorities are stuck in a constant up-hill battle to find well paying jobs as

they are forced to apply to workplaces that refuse to build a diverse workplace. Minimum wage

workers struggle to make to ends meet as they work in fields that pays them below the average

wage and deal with an opposition that wants to keep it that way. White-collar workers are

entrapped in fields that employ carrot-and-stick tactics to their employees and are generally

given no freedom. The American workforce is in a constant struggle for change in all types of

fields.

As of this paper’s writing, the federal minimum wage in the United States is $7.35. The

purpose of the minimum wage was to create a minimum standard of living for employees to help

protect their health and well-being. On its creation, the starting minimum wage was $0.25 and

for 84 years it’s only increased by $7.10. The current minimum wage is unlivable by every living

standard and has put minimum wage workers in a constant struggle to make ends meet. Although

the minimum wage is currently $7.35 that’s not the case for tipped employees. Federal law has

allowed tipped employees to be paid as low as $2.13 an hour which requires these workers to

live solely off the generosity of customers. The stagnation of minimum wage increases, and the

ever-growing cost of living has caused minimum wage workers to fall below the poverty line3.

CBS documentary Surviving an Unlivable Wage gives us an insight on the everyday struggle

these workers must deal with. The documentary shows how unreliable tipping as primary source

of income is. Many of the families interviewed in the documentary work multiple jobs and yet
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still rely of food banks to survive. The minimum wage given to tipped workers is unlivable yet,

due to politics, it has remained unchanged. In an interview, waitress Nikki Books describes what

a typical paycheck looks like for her:

“You don’t see a paycheck, your paycheck literally says ‘This is not a check’ so zero
dollars, this is not a check… On average I walk out with 10 to 12 percent of my sales.”
(CBS, 7:45)3
In a study done by the Economic Policy Institute, in states that paid tipped workers $2.13, almost

1 out of 5 of them were in poverty3. Workers that rely on the minimum wage are stuck in a cycle

of poverty. Since the wage isn’t high enough, most of their money goes towards living essentials.

Once most of their money is gone, they get a second job for other expenses. Getting a second job

causes them to have no time to develop skills or further their education to get better jobs, leaving

them stuck in this manufactured minimum wage hell.

The struggles that face workers of diversity are ones that are deeply rooted in bias,

prejudice, and bigotry. A worker of diversity can fall under any range of characteristics such as

gender, religion, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, and other attributes that make

up a person. In the US, workers of diversity are treated as second class citizens that are expected

to work menial jobs, jobs people don’t want to do, and they’re expected to do so for unlivable

wages. The food industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the nation and women make

70% of the industries work force. Despite the industries growth, the minimum wage for these

women is $2.13 which forces these women to make their income off tips.

“The nation has valued these women at a $2 wage. Management and ownership is
overwhelmingly male, the workforce is overwhelmingly female and these are the lowest
income women in America.” (CBS, 18:56)3

3
Yamaguchi, Adam. Surviving an Unlivable Wage | Full Documentary. CBS. March 26, 2026.

Documentary, 27:14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvNhQ4lYLE.

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In minority groups, a large percentage of them make under less than the federal minimum wage.

Workers of diversity face many hurdles in America’s job market but the ones working in

minimum wage have simply been forgotten.

There is a lack of engagement in the American workforce. Employees are assigned a task

and are given a deadline to complete said task for a paycheck or else they may be fired; this is

called the Carrot-and-stick tactic. This tactic is employed in most US workplaces however this

tactic has led employees to become unengaged, unmotivated, and passionless. Dan Pink’s book,

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, offers a solution to this called

‘Motivation 3.0’. Motivation 3.0 allows for a heuristic workplace. A workplace in which

employees are autonomous in their work and allowed to create ideas, strategies, experiments, and

hypotheses for their projects without any management. Motivation 3.0 gives employees a

purpose for their job besides money.

Economists are finally realizing that we’re full-fledged human beings, not single-minded
economic robots. And perhaps most important, it’s hard to reconcile with much of what
we actually do at work—because for growing numbers of people, work is often creative,
interesting, and self-directed rather than unrelentingly routine, boring, and other-
directed.1 (Pink, 19)
This, however, cannot be applied to minimum wage workers. Pink’s idea of motivation-for work

is a luxury that only some can achieve. Motivation-for work implies that you have a job that pays

you well enough that you can work on things based on passion instead of payment. Motivation-

for-work implies that you can spare the time, money, and resources towards a passion project of

yours for possibly no pay or raise. Many of the workers trapped under minimum wage don’t

have such a luxury as they are stuck under a system that forces them to work low paying and

high management jobs all because they are considered “unskilled”. The concept of engagement

1
Dan Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York:

Riverhead Books, 2009), 110.

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and meaningful work is difficult for minimum wage workers as they are not valued for their

work and are looked down upon as working jobs that no one else wants. Motivation 3.0 is

concept that works well for white-collar workers, but a new system is needed for minimum wage

work.

Dan Pink’s ideas of a motivation-based work system is one that could be implemented in

most white-collar jobs across the country but only white-collar. Pink’s ‘Rules of engagement’

can only work in a system that pays in which its employees enjoy what they do and are paid well.

For minimum wage workers, especially those of diversity, this is far from the case. Many

minimum wage workers work these lower end jobs not because of passion but because of

survival. Minimum wage jobs are designed to be algorithmic, easy to follow, and boring. This

design has allowed companies to justify their low pay towards their workers and as the cost-of-

living increases every day the minimum wage stagnates. Meaningful and engaging work is

something that does not exist in minimum wage work and that is by design.

Although it may seem hopeless for change in minimum wage work, that is not the case

for the future of minimum wage. Many Americans are beginning fight against these low wages

and are demanding change. Many politicians as well are doing their best to intact changes to the

minimum wage at a federal level. The biggest change that could come to minimum wage is an

increase in pay, a simple increase to $15 an hour would help raise many of the workers out of

poverty and allow them to further their skills and education. Many states have already adopted to

this $15 change while others are slowly increasing towards that. Pink’s ideas of work

engagement is one that should be implemented in higher level jobs but cannot be applied to

minimum wage jobs. A bigger change must come to minimum wage workers and the first change

3
Yamaguchi, Adam. Surviving an Unlivable Wage | Full Documentary. CBS. March 26, 2026.

Documentary, 27:14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvNhQ4lYLE.

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must be an increase in pay. The American workforce is changing at all levels and both blue and

white collar jobs are fighting for a change in management and pay.

1
Dan Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York:

Riverhead Books, 2009), 110.

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Bibliography

1
Dan Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York:

Riverhead Books, 2009), 110.

2
Lee, Sophia. 2022. “Diversity in the Workplace.” Culture Amp. 2022.

https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/benefits-diversity-in-workplace.
3
Yamaguchi, Adam. Surviving an Unlivable Wage | Full Documentary. CBS. March 26, 2026.

Documentary, 27:14, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvNhQ4lYLE.