The most significant thing about minimum-wage jobs is not where the minimum wage sits by Federal or state law at any moment, but the fact that the business owner or manager has decided to pay its employees the absolute rock-bottom that the law allows. That decision colors the employment relationship. In fact, it overwhelms any other aspect of the deal. Everyone working at a minimum-wage job knows that if the law allowed his manager to pay a penny less per hour, the manager would do it.
