Last week, several employees from different fast food franchises staged walk-outs across the country in protest of their minimum wage salaries and demanded that the rate that they are paid be raised to at least $15 an hour.
Workers took to the streets with signs and chants demanding higher pay, more respect and fairer working conditions. As a paper run strictly by college students, there is no lack of sympathy for the hard working employees who earn minimum wage. Most, if not all, of our editorial staff have been or are currently in similar situations. However, as students who understand what minimum wage work requires we also understand the value of a higher education and the pay off that comes with a degree.
According to USA Today, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which works out to about $15,000 a year for full-time employees. If fast food workers were to make $15 an hour, a full-time employee would make about $31,000 a year. This income would put fast food workers at a comparable salary to laboratory technicians, special education teachers and several other careers that require some sort of higher education or training.
A person is paid for the job they do. When entering a career field that requires extensive training and monetary investments it only stands to reason that they will hopefully make back what they put into it. For fast food employees to expect to make as much money as people who have gone through this higher education process seems to come from a misplaced sense of self-entitlement. No one is questioning the stress and hard work that comes along with a job in the food industry but rather the degree of the pay raise they are demanding.
Imagine if one day you walked into your boss’s office and demanded to be paid more than double what you are making at the moment. If the service you are providing requires time, energy and money outside of the workspace and you are in a field of limited potential employees then an argument could stand to be made. However, in a field such as food industry that requires little to no outside training and a vast pool of applicants, the threat of leaving that position loses its influence on the employer.
An overall raise for those who work in fast food is not unreasonable, in fact it is probably well deserved by most. The jump from $7.25 to $15 an hour is ludicrous. If workers were to suggest a pay increase of ten to 20 percent, their demands might be more likely to happen without resulting in walk-outs and picketing. No one should feel that they need to take to the streets to better their work environment but they should also understand that a drastic change in the way an industry is run is unlikely to happen overnight.