Let's pay 16 year olds $31.2k to sweep floors!!!!

[haele]

124. Sure, if it's a full time requirement for me to do business.

Costco pay their lowest paid hourly workers (part time) $13.50 an hour + benefits in high cost of living locations now, and will be increasing everyone by around $2.00 nation wide soon. I suspect that's the janitorial/stocking staff in the stores.
In and Out Burgers start their workers out at $1.50 above minimum wage, and within a year, most of the non-management workers make around $13.00 - $16 an hour, depending on the hours and shifts they work and their seniority. They also promote from within.

Fun Fact - in airports and other "high risk" locations (including government facilities such as military bases), McDonalds and Starbucks both pay a premium on top of the normal wage; before the latest hike in the minimum wage, a neighbor's HS graduate started at $14.00 an hour training wage at the West Terminal McDonalds in Lindberg Field. The McDonalds at 32nd street pays their workers $2.00 an hour more than in town, because of the cost to maintain enough of a secure standard of living to maintain the security clearance to come on base.
They want employees that make a living wage that can concentrate on their job and be safe on the job, not an accident waiting to happen because the employee is dog tired and inconsistent due to the fact they're working three jobs and can only afford to be living in a sub-optimal housing situation.

If you can't afford to contract a living wage with any employee, you can't afford to employ. Doesn't matter if it's an adult supporting him or herself, a family member living under your roof, a housewife working for pin money, or a teenager who purportedly is living at home, they're employees.

Otherwise, you're basically stealing someone else's labor. Everyone has a right to request enough to provide for the basics to live on - and to build up enough cushion to save for unexpected or future planned expenses in exchange for their labor.
Might as well go back to the days of the Company Store, and throw in a little of that "Daddy knows Best" TV mythology, when only the strong Dad had a real job and the income that ran the house and provided for the important needs (like a vehicle, medical expenses, retirement, and college for kids), while everyone else was just a dependent that would spend any of their wages on frivolous trinkets and playthings.

On edit - Y'know, in my house and at my place of employment, I manage my "work" time so I can sweep and clean as part of the work that I'm doing, and don't have to depend on hired help to clean up after me. If I'm doing the neighbor's kid or a young family member "a solid" and letting him or her help out with the garden or if I need help completing some serious"two person" house cleaning or a minor repair, they get paid at least a $20 for every hour I need help, or $100 for the day (typically 5- 6 hours). Preparation, clean up and tool management, inventory and storage, are part of every task, skilled or not.

If I have to pay a professional handyman $15 - $25 an hour to come out for casual help, or a day labor company $150 a day to send someone out for 8 hours (plus breaks) unskilled labor, then ethically, I should be paying the neighbor's kid the equivalent in either cash or something that is a cost to me to provide in barter (housing, skills training, use of a workshop or vehicle for the employee's personal use that would otherwise need to be rented, a working vehicle or expensive tool, etc...) - just as if I would be should I have taken the time and effort to find and pay someone to come out and do the work.

Haele