The problem is that the politicians and local governments have enacted strict building and zoning laws which disallow for new housing construction. This, in combination with market forces has driven up the price of housing artificially fast.
The domain of “starter jobs” is rapidly expanding. It used to just be fry cooks at burger chains as well as newspaper boys, and before that we had farmhands, but now everything is a “starter job” that barely pays enough for rent if it does at all.
Basically the entirety of retail is a starter job. Even retail management barely pays enough to live. Delivery jobs are starter jobs. Customer support jobs are starter jobs. Work at a retirement home? Starter job. Many repair jobs are starter jobs. And plenty more.
You’ll see people 30, 40, 50 years old working these jobs. Still struggling.
[citation needed]
The phrase 'starter job' may indicate where you're coming from, attitudinally. For many people, of all ages, there aren't starter jobs - they're the only attainable jobs. And I suspect many people bounce around between different similarly-poorly-paid jobs, without significant moves up. We're talking about people for whom 'the grind' is just surviving, and for whom the American dream of self-improvement through hard work has died - if it was ever alive in the first place.
Citation?
I have family members that weren’t very ambitious and they work in these jobs. However, they don’t make minimum wage because nearly every company offers some raises for people who just consistently show up for 6 months+ straight.
In order to be stuck at minimum you have to additionally have stability issues or issues in general that cause you to consistently get fired or pushed out. These habitual min wage earners are not even a meaningful portion of the people earning minimum wage at any given time.
I've worked at least a dozen jobs. Received exactly 2 raises: one for $0.25, the other $0.33.
> In order to be stuck at minimum you have to additionally have stability issues
Or just not be able to afford a bachelor's degree
But what kind of raises? Starting at minimum wage and grinding out a 25c/hr raise each year for a decade is still going to leave you in poverty. No one starts at $8/hr and is making $35/hr for the same position 6 months later.
> People move up from those starter jobs, they don't stay there forever.
Please explain to me how that's different from a serf paying off their ownership debt, or a slave winning his freedom by defeating 10 consecutive gladiators.
There's a hiccup somewhere in the "free market" of many countries that prevents it from providing cheap housing, even though there's clearly a huge business opportunity.
Some words that come to mind are "cartel", "regulatory capture", "lobbying", "government contracts", and "artifical scarcity".
This results in a cut-off point, below which you lose the security of a stable, regulated, lodging situation, and are instead forced to operate outside the protection of the law, into a variety of more or less precarious situations.
Everyone has different priorities and aspirations. I personally would have preferred securing a stable space, even if it's closet-sized, than carrying my luggage between temporary accommodations or sharing my living space with strangers. Some people prefer the later options. There's no fundamental reason the basic freedom of having agency over your living accommodations should be denied to those below a certain level of wealth.
The supply issue is very real. Per the article linked below, 1 housing unit is being created for every 6 new jobs. It’s absolutely unsustainable.
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/foreign-purchase...