[geofft]

My question was specifically about the rationality of offering these wages, not about accepting them. Whether or not companies deserve blame for the employees taking jobs with low pay, that wasn't my question at all. My question is whether it makes sense to entrust security to people with low pay.

By your argument, it doesn't; a single well-placed argument from you can have all the security guards from Google tomorrow and someone helpful in every aisle at Target.

And I can't tell you much about bananas but in my first tech job out of college my management sat me in a room one day and said, "We think you're doing a good job so we're going to pay you more." Apparently this is called a "raise" and is not uncommon? There must be some rationality behind it, even though I've never give a so-called "raise" to a banana.