As a employee at a fast food restaurant for over a year now, and a manager. I can firmly say that alot of you clearly are out of touch with the current economic situation.
Among the crew-members I manage about half of them graduated from college, are students, and or minors. The problem isn't that they should get low pay because they aren't skilled enough to earn more, it's that since minors get paid less than adults period, $7.40 just isn't acceptable wages for the line of work my employees are in. i'm not sure if this goes for every fast food restaurant but the one I manage is downright hell. You get burned alot, it's A TON of hard physical labor under HARSH conditions, you don't get free meals, crew member get 25 hours a week, and to top it off, right now with the economy nobody in my area is really hiring.
I'm tired of seeing the whole, 'Work harder for a better paying job, get a degree" etc, speaking as if people with degrees aren't struggling at the moment as well. So per say you're underemployed, got a degree, went to a nice school and everything society requested of you...and you're stuck with 0 job opportunities. What do you tell those people? While I do agree the $15 a hour thing is humorous and overblown, I firmly believe that if a company doesn't want to cover the employees insurance, FINE, however if they're gonna give them short hours a modest $1 - $2 in pay would definitely help, and make workers more enthusiastic, trust me, I'm a fucking manager and I only get paid $1 over minimuim wage. Job is stressful as shit and physically demanding and I hate it...but no other options at the moment as I'm still in school.
As a manager I also am responsible for putting up stock trucks...and let's just say our weekly stock comes up to 2k - 2.5k and our weekly payroll is 2.5k - 3k. Total revenue for one week averages out to $31,200. After paying other fees and utilities the restauraunt brings in 20K in profits, EASILY. And the people who literally RUN the business day in and day out get paid $8.50.
I don't know if any of you guys were managers before but it definitely does require skill, patience, and dedication. You're on call 24/7 you're in charge of handling labor, any food gets stolen you pay for it, customer complaints, health inspections, assessments, meetings, shortages, bosses...it's all pretty hectic and to put bluntly. I've worked better jobs, for MORE money, for LESS work.
The fast food industry is making a killing on underemployed people and minorities. If other entry level jobs can pay $8+++ then why the hell can't a fast food joint can't? To put simply it's greed, they don't care about the employees nor the economy, only the profits in the franchise owner's hands....I can't wait to quit this filthy industry to be honest.
