“In both of my shops, I look around — There aren’t high schoolers,” ,,, “There are people with families, trying to raise families. And so the whole notion that this is for high schoolers or someone trying to buy their first car or college students trying to get a little extra spending money, that’s all nonsense. We’re raising families. We’re doing hard work. And we deserve to get a living wage for what we do.”
- Terrance Wise, who works at both Pizza Hut and Burger King
While many give little thought to the employees of fast-food joints, others are trying to bring their plight to the public's attention. One of them is Terrance Wise who, in an interview with Amy Goodman, told the Democracy Now host that he sometimes goes days at a time without seeing his fiancee or their three children on account of working 50 to 60 hours a week.
That is, by the way, 50-60 hours of minimum wage work.
If you would like to learn more of this struggle, which is everyone's, including Canadians' despite a slightly higher minimum wage which does not provide a sustainable living, check out this story and the following video:
H/t trapdinawrpool
As well, last night's post may be of interest if you haven't already seen it.
When I was a teen, a number of my friends worked at MacDonald's and made better money than the babysitting route that I had for "pin" money.
ReplyDeleteI lined up for hours to snag a job at the first Burger King to come to our city and worked there for 4 months while in Grade 12. I needed to earn extra to pay for an overseas high school credit trip in French. It was a horrible job and I only had to do it part-time (although that often meant my arriving home at 2:00 am on a school night). Most of us were on the reduced student minimum wage. I don't know if they differentiate any more.
When I first finished university, I had a job helping new immigrants and refugees find job training or employment and one of the most likely places for a paid position was in the fast food industry. Back then, there was very apparent racism and those clients who were a visible minority had a hard time securing those jobs. I guess the franchisees thought they could still get fresh-scrubbed teens to work at the front of the house and figured they could demand far more experience than was warranted for the back of the house.
On a closing note, I kind of buy into the accusations against Paula Dean.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Beijing. While many have spoken highly of the experience they received working at fast-food restaurants as students, it is horrible work, as you point out; those employed in such positions full-time must find it truly hellish, so I certainly don't begrudge them adequate compensation in place of their current exploitation.
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