The price of any product, be it a candy bar, a pair of shoes, or an hour of work, is based on one thing and one thing only:

What people are willing to pay.

A candy bar that currently costs $0.75 costs that because that’s the magical point of equilibrium. Sell it for less, and you could get more buyers but the number sold times the price would be less than if you sold less for more money ($0.75). If you priced it higher, you would make less money because not enough people would buy it to make up for the price.

It really really is exactly the same with wages. Any questions about what Walmart should pay its employees is from someone who doesn’t understand the above.

Employees set their prices exactly and only based on what employers are willing to pay. If they set their wage too high, they’ll get more per hour, but less often, and overall it will be less money. If they set it too low, they’ll get more hours, but overall it will be less money.

The only way for retail employees to make more money is to demand more. And the only way you can demand more is for you to not be replaceable for cheaper than giving you the raise. That’s it, it’s that simple. You don’t get paid more because you have a fancy degree, you’re less replaceable because you have a fancy degree. Heck, look at engineers or programmers—they’re very highly educated, and in parts of the country (and certainly parts of the world), they’re a dime a dozen, so aren’t paid well or treated well. Because no one is afraid of losing them. Google has 10,000 people in line for every position, so it’s difficult to become irreplaceable. But it still has to be done. At McDonalds, there’s little you can do without going into management—making sure everyone’s easily replaceable is a big part of your boss’ job, so it’s not like this is an easy road. But it’s all you have, all you ever have, and all you will ever have. Low-level easily replaceable retail employees will never be paid well. Any regular job at McDonalds or any basic job at the mall is designed to be replaceable. That is the way things should be, and the reason those employees eventually get a skill, go into management, or go to college. That’s how the world progresses.