Because they know that people who work in low pay - and presumably low-skilled - jobs probably ‘need’ the work, are easily replaceable, and will put up with it. Companies extort services for minimal pay since they know there are twenty Tom, Dick, and Harrys (o Tomás, Ricardo, y Geraldos) who would be happy to take the job if it opened up. Pay people at least something close to a living wage, increase the price of goods to support a meaningful percentage of their compensation, take the hit in your profits, and provide the citizenry with reasonably affordable skills training and education so that they don’t have to work three or four low-paying jobs to make ends meet. Western and Northern Europe seem pretty competent at these sorts of things. Beg, borrow, steal for ideas on how to make it work.
They're equating minimum wage labor, which is the lowest rung on the ladder, non-skilled and all manual, with skilled labor. They're wrong in that most jobs want to get the most efficient work out of people, but, not all jobs are manual labor. If you don't want to do manual labor the rest of your life, learn a skill, expand your abilities and market yourself to employers based on that. Otherwise, expect to be in a low paid, low skill position.
My job now pays twice what I made in the food business and I do half the work.