In a recent Funny or Die parody Kristen Bell touches on the subject of minimum wage. I was getting paid $8 dollars an hour back home which was barely enough to even survive off of. I was lucky that I was a waitress. I dealt with a lot of bull shit from complete strangers in order to make a living off of tips. I never really knew if I was going to make enough money to pay my bills and I never had a secure income. I say raise the wage limit.

I have been living in Australia where tipping is not what the society is known for and in hospitality you pull all the tips and split them among everyone. I am working and living on a livable wage here. The minimum wage here is around $16.87 an hour according to an article by the Sydney Morning Herald. Many restaurants will pay more than that, I have been offered $18 an hour to $22 an hour depending on the place, plus the weekend rate. Have I mentioned that I love weekend rates? I get paid more for working the weekend.

Not only am I living a happy life, I am not living pay check to pay check like I was back home in Cali. I am going to be doing this until I find my career job, you know the one that I am in debt with the US Gov. $33,000 with for a degree I haven’t been to use. Society tells you to go to Uni. because it builds a better society. Yeah they doesn’t really tell you that you will be having a hard time finding work, and to top it all off you have to pay back those student loans just six months after graduating. Did you know that a  student in Australia doesn’t have to pay back their student loans if they don’t make a certain wage, yep that’s right they get written off.

So let’s raise that minimum wage, so that the hard working American people can start having a life they deserve, stop making the rich richer, and grown that middle class.