by John Stevenson
Want a
job? The South Florida Water Management
District is paying people to hunt and kill Burmese pythons.
Everglades
National Park and its surroundings are overrun by the non-native snakes which
have decimated some and even eliminated other native species. Rabbit and fox populations have disappeared. Raccoons, opossums, and bobcats are nearly
gone.
At the top of
the food chain, the pythons have no predators.
They have upset the eco-system, depriving the native
predators---alligators and panthers---of their chow.
Over 1,000
people applied, of which 25 were selected to hunt the pythons. The hunters are given special access to
python infested publicly owned land. While
this work seems dangerous and even terrifying, it pays handsomely: $8.10 per
hour---which is Florida’s minimum wage.
But there are
bonuses. In addition to the extravagant minimum
wage, successful hunters get $50 for snakes up to four feet long. Longer snakes fetch an additional $25 per
foot. So a 10-foot python, for example,
would bring $350---provided the hunter survives to collect his check.
There is
periodically an effort to increase the national minimum wage (now $7.25). Raising the minimum wage was a rallying cry
in the 2016 presidential campaign. Fast
food workers even mounted a strike last year, demanding $15 an hour. A $15 national
“living” wage was central to Bernie Sanders’ candidacy.
California’s
minimum wage is now $10 ($10.50 if the employer has over 25 employees), and is
scheduled to rise to $15 in January 2022.
The argument
that minimum wage is not a living wage is probably correct. But minimum wage jobs typically are filled by
unskilled workers, by youngsters entering the workforce, or by students and
others working part-time. Hopefully they
will have moved on to better paying jobs before they buy a BMW and need a
living wage.
The argument
against an increase is that businesses employing low-skilled workers are
typically operating with very low profit margins. Forcing them to pay higher wages will in turn
make them raise their prices or hire fewer workers. Some will automate where possible, as is
happening in the fast food industry.
Either way, unskilled workers lose out because of fewer jobs, higher
prices, or both.
There is
certainly a wide range of low-paying jobs.
There are burgers to be flipped, hotel rooms to be cleaned, cars to be
washed, and crops to be picked. But in
the array of minimum wage jobs, we’ve probably found the toughest.
Regardless
where you stand on the issue of raising the minimum wage, it sure seems easier
to sympathize with the python hunters over the other typically low-wage
workers.
Would you
rather bus tables or hunt pythons in the Everglades? If I had to make the choice it would be
easy. I would chose anything rather than
be hunted by pythons. Especially pythons
large enough to earn bonus points.
