Within our society, there is a dangerous philosophy that surrounds workers and the things that they are expected to endure. Work is often framed as something that is so personally fulfilling, that one must either do it for free or do it for the bare minimum, regardless of qualifications, experience or the amount of labour one expends.
There is a fierce clinging to the idea that “the struggle” should be a rite of passage for the underclass and working class. This struggle philosophy continues to set workers up for exploitation by the employing class. Their interests of course, lays in heightened productivity or the illusion of it, for minimal costs to themselves. The struggle it is said, is beneficial to our growth and will make the long pursued success that more rewarding. It’s an age-old lie that continues to be sold and bought into. One that tells us that if we work hard enough, live as law-abiding citizens, then the riches the world has to offer will soon be ours. What they don’t tell you is that success is not a given, it is a game of chance and luck.
We are always regaled with stories of individuals who have beaten the odds and made the best out of a dire situation. Through sacrifice and dedication it is said, these people would pull themselves up by their bootstraps and achieve lives of comfort and security. The issue with these stories is that they are by no means the standard; they are a part of an ever-dwindling minority. As motivating as these stories might seem, they are also very dangerous. They promote the idea that any and every situation can be overcome if one just tries hard enough. If there is continued failure, this is framed as being an individual fault rather than one that is systemically geared against the majority.
According to a 2017 Inter-American Development Bank assessment, Guyana’s estimated poverty rate stands at 41.2% based on a poverty line of US$5.50 per day. Employment is scarce, but even for those who are employed in the formal and informal sector; they daily struggle to feed themselves and loved ones. The scarcity of jobs and high living costs see many workers remaining in toxic and underpaid environments simply because they cannot afford to do otherwise.
Yet, they are expected to work miracles with the bare minimum, particularly if it is that they provide labour that is usually considered unskilled. There exists no such thing as unskilled labour though. This is a classist category that was meant to ensure that workers emerging from certain classes would stay within their ranks. They are not seen as being deserving of a living wage. There is the belief that if they tried hard enough, they would be in the class of those who could make it past the gatekeepers of gainful employment.
There exists this highly conceptualized idea of a meritocracy when it comes to the requirements needed to fill the most basic of roles. Yet, the compensation rarely ever matches this. Workers are painted as being greedy and opportunistic for daring to want more than the pittances that are given to them. Examples of this are most glaringly seen in the cases of teachers and nurses who are expected to do their jobs for the love of service rather than the realities of needed income. While many persons do perform labour due to their love or interest in it, money still serves as the undercurrent that keeps them tethered to the employment chain.
Workers’ rights have never been taken seriously; both government and the private sector today continue to trample on the rights of workers. There are persistent issues of low wages, unceremonious dismissals, violations of contracts and the expectation that employees must never question the decisions of leadership. Many workers also continue to work in unsafe and unhealthy environments that are detrimental to their physical and mental health.
Worker unions have had limited success in achieving improved pay and working conditions for their members. Many in the private sector actively block their employees’ rights to unionize and for those who try, they are often quickly sidelined and let go. Many workers already earn so little that the threat of dismissal is enough to keep them away from thoughts of unionizing, which ultimately results in poor success rates of unions. That’s why so many employers continue to get away with not paying their workers on time, not paying overtime, never giving raises to match cost of living and generally not caring about their workers outside of the labour they provide. While the minimum wage has been slowly moving upwards over the past few years, it is still dismally low, particularly in the private sector. Of course, living costs continue to climb making the marginal increases useless to the working class whose entire salaries are spent on survival.
Workers deserve to be paid livable wages that provide them with a comfortable life. Minimum wage was never intended to be one based on basic survival but rather one that ensures all workers had access to a healthy and decent quality of life. Now, minimum wage can barely make a dent into one’s monthly expenses of food, rent, transportation etc. Workers are continuously paid the bare minimum and are expected to have rainy day funds. The rain for many however, has always been pouring.