Could This Be Retail's Worst Song?

If you’ve ever worked a retail job, there’s likely a song that you have a personal vendetta against. A song that makes you groan every time you hear the opening beats through the store’s speakers. A song that you may consider to be the soundtrack of your own personal misery. A song that made you want to plug your ears or wish that the speakers were broken. 

Recently, I came across a post on Target’s subreddit where the employees were discussing the worst songs played in their stores. I am a former Target employee, so I know how diverse Target’s music selection is. Target seems to have a new selection of music for every holiday or national day (like National Coffee Lovers Day).  

I thought the list of annoying songs would be as diverse as the selection of them, but I was mistaken. An overwhelming amount of Target employees named one song as being selected to mock them while they worked, Blake Shelton’s tone death tune, ‘Minimum Wage’. I had never heard the song before working at Target and didn’t remember it until some of the workers chimed in with lyrics they found especially appalling. 

The song was released in 2021, during a pandemic that left many unemployed (including myself). It featured lyrics about renting a one-bedroom apartment which love turns into a house on a hill. There’s another lyric comparing his truck to a Cadillac. 

Shelton has a net worth of $130 million, while a minimum wage worker makes $15,000 annually. Target’s minimum wage is 15 dollars an hour, which means a full-time target worker would make $31,200 a year. The average American pays around $1499 to $1800 monthly rent, which is more than a minimum wage worker earns per year. This means someone making minimum wage can’t afford a one-bedroom apartment without roommates. 

The numbers listed above only apply to those who work forty hours a week. Many workers are considered part-time, so they do not get the opportunity to work forty hours a week. Some of them must resort to side hustles, such as working for DoorDash or Uber, where income isn’t guaranteed, and the work offers no insurance benefits. Many of these workers are merely one emergency away from homelessness.  

I make more than minimum wage and have recently begun looking for a car. I hadn’t looked for a car since the late 2000s when I was able to get a used 2004 for 5000 dollars. I was shocked to find that most of the cars in my current price range don’t even run or have issues that would require more money than I can put into it. No amount of ‘love’ could make that issue go away. 

Being in love doesn’t solve your financial issues, and in some cases, couples choose to end their relationships due to financial strain. Some couples are forced to split up because they can not qualify for the assistance (or disability) they may need to survive.              

It’s not difficult to see why Target employees are disgusted with Shelton’s song, but they aren’t the first group to criticize it. He was asked about it in an interview, where he stated that those who didn’t like the song didn’t understand its meaning. I would argue that the very workers who make minimum wage understand his song better than he does. I would also argue that no one feels rich on minimum wage, even if they are in love. 

As tone-death as Shelton’s song is, someone selected the song for a retail playlist. I can’t help but wonder why they chose this song for their playlist when there are billions of other songs they could have selected. The song seems to poke fun at workers who are struggling to get by, and it isn’t enjoyable to listen to. It isn’t a current release, and it isn’t old enough to be considered a classic. It wasn’t popular enough to go viral on TikTok and only charted at number 67 on the Billboard Top 100s. 

For the sake of current Target employees, I hope the song is quickly pulled from rotation.