Today, fast food workers in 150 cities across America are walking out on the job, staging sit-ins on corners and in intersections, all for the purpose of strong-arming the industry into paying them $15/hour minimum to do their jobs.
It isn’t a hidden fact that a large number of fast food workers are not working there for a stepping-stone job or extra money. For many (and most, in some areas), this job is what they are expecting to pay all their bills, their living expenses, their livelihood.
Does the fast food industry have a social obligation to make sure that their workers are paid a “living wage”?
I would argue “no” to that. They are legally obligated to follow the laws of the country and state and morally obligated to treat their employees as people. However, they are not obligated to cut their bottom line nor to pay their workers more than the position is actually worth.
Fast Food Workers Protest and Demand $15/hour
Did you catch that? The POSITION. What the POSITION, the JOB is worth. No one is saying that the person holding the position is not worth a living wage. What they’re saying is the job being performed is worth minimum wage and that is all. If the worker needs more money than the job provides, then they need to make plans to go somewhere else.
Do I have sympathy for people who find themselves trapped in these low-paying jobs? Absolutely. But I don’t have sympathy for the ones who are not willing to do anything about it. I have worked for minimum wage. I have taken pay cuts, significant ones, due to life choices, sometimes voluntary, sometimes not. I have gone from making $40/hour to making $13/hour. Did it suck? Yes! Was I worth more than $13/hour? Yes! But the job that I needed to take was not worth more than $13/hour, and therefore I had to work hard and prove myself and claw my way upwards from that position into one that paid more.
The fast food industry is already on the brink of being nearly fully-automated. If the striking workers get their way, what do they envision happening? Do they have stars in their eyes, already spending that extra money in their paycheck? Because here is what I envision happening:
First off, the average SKILLED worker position has a starting salary in the $12-$14 range. Will the fast food companies keep unskilled, sometimes unreliable labor, or will they replace them with the sudden wave of responsible, more professional, skilled workers who will jump ship and flock to the easier jobs with more money?
McDonald’s, specifically, has already been testing out new ordering kiosks. If they suddenly have to pay almost double in worker salaries, how quickly do you think they will be rolling out as much automation as possible? What happens to those $15/hour jobs then? They disappear.
I am not going to comment on the lifestyle choices that seem to be a common theme among the people that keep getting interviewed for all the news articles. Everyone has read them or seen the interviews on the news. They are not college kids complaining that their part-time job doesn’t give them enough beer money. They’re not retirees complaining that the money doesn’t supplement their retirement. They aren’t people who are using the job for extra money for their family’s household.
You don’t need a college degree or fancy education to move up in the world. I work for a company that is hiring constantly and no college education is required. Can’t afford to formally learn new skills? Just buy a couple of books and teach yourself. Can’t afford books? Then park yourself at the library or a Barnes & Noble every weekend until you learn enough skills to pass an interview into an entry-level skilled position.
Author’s Note: Before I get completely blasted as unsympathetic, I will say that I am not against an overall rising of the minimum wages, across all jobs, all states and all circumstances. If studies show that minimum wage needs to be adjusted in conjunction with inflation, and the wage adjustment would trickle up to all workers, then of course I would be all for that. What I am reluctant to support is the doubling of pay for one particular entry-level job in one particular industry.
Back to the striking workers…many of them have been counseled that they may be arrested today. They are willing to accept that; they believe in their cause. But they will not win, even if the wage is raised to $15/hour. Success is not money, folks. Success is achieving happiness and fulfillment through hard work and perseverance. Even if the salary is suddenly higher, that does not equal success. Bullying someone into giving you something that is not deserved is not success. The only way these striking workers can win is to take that rage and passion and turn it towards making their own success in life and not waste their time trying to get others to just give it to them.