We've taken actual slavery and replaced it with virtual slavery.

McDonalds Tells Workers To Budget By Getting A Second Job And Turning Off Their Heat

"McDonalds has partnered with Visa to launch a website to help its low-wage workers making an average $8.25 an hour to budget. But while the site is clearly meant to illustrate that McDonalds workers should be able to live on their meager wages, it actually underscores exactly how hard it is for a low-paid fast food worker to get by."

One comment stands out.

Daniel Lowe ·  Top Commenter · Works at Daniel Dragon Films · 145 subscribers

We've taken actual slavery and replaced it with virtual slavery. Congratulations, I'm sure the founding fathers would be pleased. After all, many of them WERE slave owners.

Even when a minimum wage exists, the situation is a virtual slavery.

This has led to the idea of a livable wage.

York strives to pay living wage as cuts bite and poverty spreads

"The city has a tradition of philanthropy dating back to the Rowntrees – and the council is determined that its workers will not bear the brunt of austerity."

"Today, New Earswick remains lavishly green and pleasant and is also home to a network of retirement bungalows and a care home in which Dawn Watson, 51, has worked as a general care assistant for 14 years. In January, her wage packet saw a dramatic and permanent increase of £200 a month, earned for the same job, and the same hours. The reason is that her employer, theJoseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), now pays its staff the voluntary living wage of £7.45 an hour (£8.55 in London)."

 Governments should take the lead and pay all its workers at least a livable wage.

The living wage should be the bottom rate of pay in local government

"Can councils continue to be bargain basement employers when they are asking for more from staff?"

At the other end, some countries have no minimum wages, and workers are paid at near destitute levels.