President and First Lady Obama Want Their Daughters To Try a Minimum Wage Job

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President and Mrs. Obama are looking to pass along middle class values to their daughters by wanting them to try working a minimum wage job.

Transcript from Parade Magazine:

Is this about your daughters also, and their future?

PO: Absolutely. Every little girl I meet out there, I think about Malia and Sasha, and the notion that they’d be treated differently, trapped, not paid enough, having to settle for a raw deal on the job, having to scramble between taking care of kids, taking care of an aging parent, being single moms like my mom was and going to school and work at the same time, then having to come home and cook.

“Families happen because you have a society that is supportive of families,” says the president (with Mrs. Obama and Sasha, left, and Malia, right, in 2004). (Courtesy of Obama for America)
Do you want your daughters to work in the types of character-building minimum-wage jobs you had?

MO: Oh, yeah. I think every kid needs to get a taste of what it’s like to do that real hard work.

PO: We are looking for opportunities for them to feel as if going to work and getting a paycheck is not always fun, not always stimulating, not always fair. But that’s what most folks go through every single day.

MO: That’s what life is.

One of the main reasons that this president was reelected was that he understood the problems of regular people who are trying to go work and make ends meet. It is admirable that the President and First Lady are trying to pass that understanding on to their daughters.

Contrary to what Republicans believe, this country isn’t about the one percent at the top, or the makers versus the takers. What drives this country are the millions of folks who get out of bed everyday go to work, work hard, and try to do right by their own families. A lot of those hard working people have fallen behind because wages have not kept up with prices, and many families have not recovered from the Great Recession.

It would be easy to take the Republican view, and argue that we as a society aren’t responsible for those who have fallen behind, but those same people who Republicans dismiss with a shrug are the engine that drives the economy. No one is entitled to success, but this country is based on the notion of opportunity and a fair chance.

Democrats have become the only party fighting to protect opportunity, and the Obamas are trying to show their daughters why this fight is so important.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association