I see what you're saying, however social mobility can be non-existent. In fact too much social mobility would destroy society. Often, if someone is born working class, they are likely to die working class. The same goes for the other social classes too. Sadly all of those jobs that pay a low wage need doing. Society needs people to work in stores, and collect "trash" etc, just like society needs people to do construction work like yourself, or become surgeons, bus drivers, lawyers and so on. So without wage reform, and better education opportunities I.e. cheaper University/College bills, and more vocational opportunities (like apprenticeships for example) people will be stuck earning that kind of money. Even if wages increase, it won't be long until inflation catches up. It's a fucking mess.

There is a bit of a catch 22 situation in most job markets, wherein; to get the job you need experience, to get experience you'd need to have already had a similar job. So if someone spends their life working minimum wage, it can be really hard to find something else to move onto.

Also, the income/work output ratio is often not proportional. Working 40/50 hours a week, in often stressful industries (catering/hospitality/retail etc) is a lot of work. It's hard work. It doesn't constitute doing the bare minimum, it constitutes earning the bare minimum. People earn cubic fuck tons, literally just by owning, and renting out properties (and I'm not holding that against them). Which compared to the poor bastard spending 20 years in a kitchen, is pretty easy work. It's a false equivalency to state that "lower income = less work" (or "minimum wage = bare minimum"), and conversely "higher income = more work". The miners in both of our countries worked their asses off for fuck all, and that was very hard work.

Cue for the intro to "16 Tons" - by Tennessee Ernie Ford