[dontbeevil1992]

> just a lot of people see those options as beneath them or as just too hard of work.

This might be true for some people, but don't forget that many of the available jobs are also very low-paying. People may not want to settle for the subpar quality of life that US minimum wage jobs afford them.

[peterwoerner]

One of the traps of minimum wage jobs is that they take up so much energy and time that it makes it difficult to go do things which improve your life (especially if you have a young family). Additionally, many give you unpredictable, inflexible and difficult hours which furthers the difficulty of improving your situation.

[dontbeevil1992]

I highly recommend to everyone who is curious about this to read Nickel and Dimed. I read it for a college course and it opened my eyes a lot to the reality of life for people who our society does not allocate enough resources to, and who we are encouraged to consider lazy and to blame for their own predicament even when it's not true.