Paul McKenna Music

The High, High Cost of Low Wages

Tune: “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks

Workin’ each day for minimum pay,

It’s all I can do to survive.

I want a good life for me and my wife,

But we’re barely stayin’ alive.

We’re frugal and yet we’re drownin’ in debt.

The landlord keeps raisin’ our rent

And to my dismay when I draw my pay,

I find that it’s already spent.

CHORUS: With the high, high cost of low wages,

Seems we spend our lives in steel cages,

Tryin’ to just get by

And get a glimpse of the sky.

I’ve been sinkin’ down in slow stages,

Cause the way they treat us is outrageous.

It’s the high, high cost of low wages.

I work day and night with no end in sight.

Retirement’s a fantasy.

I’m drivin’ a car that’s traveled to far.

It’s ready to give it out on me.

I wish to the Lord that I could afford

To pay for my kids’ school supplies,

And God only knows how I’ll buy them new clothes.

I can’t take the look in their eyes.

CHORUS

I’ve had it to here with livin’ in fear

As I wait for the next shoe to drop.

It’s time for a change, some genuine gains,

So this downward spiral can stop.

I need a real raise so work really pays.

Fifteen dollars isn’t a lot,

But then maybe I’ll see me and my family,