The idea that younger people just need "work experience" is a vestige of a bygone world, when just having that little bit of experience would make you qualified for the job -- THE job -- that you would continue to do forever, because companies paid for loyalty with loyalty. That isn't how the world works now and every job, entry level, dead end, or otherwise, is the job that you might need to do forever. That's why a living wage is more important now than perhaps it was in previous years.