There is no such thing as unskilled labor. But there is a difference between labor used to develop and labor used to perform.
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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Billionaires don’t actually work. The higher up the work chain the more you get paid, and the less you do.
That’s the dream they force onto us, go up in the ladder to work less, but then you have to crush the ones below you on your way up otherwise it does not work
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The oldest jobs, which are the most important, are in some sense paid what they were when the job was created, so mothers are paid nothing, while farm workers, cooks, homemakers are paid next to nothing.
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How quickly we threw those COVID hero's to the trash
in general we threw them in the trash as a parcel with calling them heroes. we gave them recognition of their value in lieu of due compensation
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People take offense to the "unskilled" part, and it's just a stupid nitpick. Unskilled doesn't mean that it's an unimportant doofus jobs, it means it's a job that almost anyone can do. That doesn't make it unimportant.
Everyone can help haul stuff at a construction site. Everyone can collect garbage bags around the city. Everyone can deliver mail and packages. These jobs require no special education, you can literally get hired and start tomorrow without any training. But that does not make the job unimportant.
This post just feels like the person looks for another wording to be mad about.
it means it's a job that almost anyone can do
Not exactly. Unskilled labor simply refers to jobs that do not require a formal certification. There are many economically unskilled jobs that require a high amount of expertise. One such example is often a chef (specifically, the ones which don't have formal culinary education).
Chefs need to have a deep understanding of food preparation techniques, flavor profiles, food safety, menu planning, and the ability to work quickly and efficiently in a high-pressure environment. It is a demanding job that few people can do. Yet, according to economics, these people would be unskilled.
Personally, part of me believes that people shouldn't nitpick the percieved inaccuracy of jargon based upon the usage of words in common parlance.
The other part of me wishes that the experts would have chosen a less polarizing term with more neutral connotations.
There's nothing special required to open a restaurant in Sweden, which I think most would agree is a developed country. You need a business license and a food license (unsure how to translate), neither of which requires an education or training, and you need a proper location for preparing and serving food. Employees can be literally anyone off the street. You have to pass health inspections, but the inspectors don't care much about details if nothing dangerous is going on.
I personally appreciate your example of chef and had to delete the rest of what I had to say because it got way too emotional. It's a frustrating situation when you're making people happy by providing a service and still not being rewarded because capitalism.
While I agree with your point, Chef is definitely a skilled labour job. Literally need qualifications in food safety, if you don't in whatever country you're from that is more horrifying than it not being classed as skilled tbh.
From the country I'm from, you can open your own small restaurant without any qualifications.
Yes, I'm afraid to dine out when I return there during vacations.
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Usually people use the term "unskilled labor" as justification that those working said jobs don't have any skills and therefore shouldn't earn a living wage.
The anger isn't in the denotation of the term, but the connotation.
Yeah you have to remember to look at it through the conservative lens where humanity is inherently hierarchical and social darwinism means the lesser tiers of society do not deserve your attention.
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I feel like that’s actually pretty logical. “Skilled labor” involves skills that not everyone must have. The things that (nearly) everyone needs to be at least okay at are the things that come up in people’s lives most frequently (things like basic cleaning, socializing, and administrative/organization tasks). Without people to do the things that come up most often, society is going to fall apart.
I’m split on the name though. I understand what it means and don’t take offense (I currently work at a bakery, but I’ve also been a waitress and worked in a call center, all unskilled jobs- I’ve also worked in litigation management for an insurance company and I currently teach German classes too, which are skilled jobs, fwiw), but I get how it rubs some people the wrong way.
SPRICH
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Anyone that calls any labor ‘unskilled’ is gonna get a black eye. It’s insulting and it only comes up when looking for excuses why people are underpaid.