Fast Food Workers Striking?!?!?

Something I'm amused about in this thread. The lack of logic. People working in fast food at minimum wage can't afford to even support themselves and their family. So what's the solution being suggested? Get an education. Yes, because people who can't afford to pay rent can certainly afford the thousands of dollars it takes to go to college.

You are obviously unaware of how much assistance is available, and how easy it is to get, for education. Student loans are no problem if you don't qualify for anything else.

And you are obviously unaware of how common it is to rack up thousands in student loan debt and STILL be unable to find a job that pays well. And I'm not just talking about the degrees that are essentially useless, either.

There is a lot to be said about being diligent with your choices, researching market demand, and picking a degree with high demand and forecasted growth.

And I agree wholeheartedly with that. But not every person is suited for the jobs that are in demand. I hate math, for example, so engineering and finance (two jobs that are conceivably always in demand) are not something I could/would pursue. Does that mean I should be regulated to fast food/hospitality? Of course not. I researched my degree and the required further education (MS,PhD etc) needed to get the job I want. I'm not in it for the money, necessarily. I just want a job that I actually enjoy and feel useful in doing. Both parents work at jobs they despise so that their kids wouldn't have to. Spoiler alert: they both currently do. My brother recently graduated from his sheet metal apprenticeship and makes as much as my husband, who is a pharmacist. The only difference is that one of them is 150 grand in debt and the other isn't.

So the implication is that your husband shouldn't have pursued pharmacy, a field that is absolutely critical, because it took hard work and money?

I hate math too, shucks not many people love it. But I'm decently good at it and understand that working in the engineering industry puts my talents in the best possible arena to help people. If I could make as much flipping burgers as I could as an engineer, would I bail on engineering because it was easier? Absolutely not.

Just mah $0.02 :flowerforyou:

No I didn't know you were being sarcastic. Because this is the internet and I can't hear the tone of your voice. Nothing in your post would lead anyone to think you were being sarcastic.

So how about you just admit you have nothing to back up your words and are using the "I was just being sarcastic" cop out to weasel out of the what you've said?

Moving on to the next bad argument...

I just did the math and at a full 40 hours a week at $7.50/hour if you're a single person and need a 1 bedroom apartment, you can live off that no problem.

Not sure where you live but a one bedroom apartment here is anywhere between 1000-1800 dollars a month (admittedly I live in one of those areas with a ridiculously high cost of living). If you're making ~15,000 a year you're hardly covering rent alone.

I got a very nice apartment for $425/month all utilities but electric and phone were included. My electric bill was never higher than $20/month and my phone was a cell phone for $30/month. It wasn't large by any means but it was me and my son. No cable, no internet.

Very nice apartment for 425??? in America? with electric and phone? Are you sure you don't mean a room in a nice apartment and not a whole apartment?

Here's a bizarre idea coming from a silly girl: reward results, not effort.

*mind blown*

:flowerforyou:

Wait wait wait...that is too simple of a concept. It must be wrong.

Read my comment above. If you want to pay them based on results McDonalds is going to owe them a HUGE raise.

These employees are the backbone of their operation and the entire reason they function. They are essential. Without them not $1 gets made. Given the choice between losing the CEO of the company and losing the front line workers the board would choose to get rid of the CEO every time.

They're people working hard and asking to be paid a reasonable wage. They aren't looking for a handout. They're trying to get off public assistance. They are your neighbors and they serve you on a regular basis.

Maybe some of you should stop looking down on them as a cheap way of feeling better about yourselves.

Anyone who thinks minimum wage is not MORE than a fair wage for making a big mac is a few fries short of a happy meal themselves.

A fair living wage is important to everyone, however, I find this offensive! I find it offensive that the fast food workers could potentially make more than me, a degreed paramedic (Paramedicine, BS Bio-Chem, BA Military Studies (history/poli-sci hybrid), BA English Lit and a smattering of AS/AA degrees (just for fun)) still paying off student loans and trying to live on $13/hour, at my HIGHEST paying job, out of the 4 jobs that I have. Or, more than teachers in most systems. Get an education and educate our children. Get an education and work to hold the Grim Reaper to a 'zero day.' Worth LESS than a Big Mac and fries? I just want to scream, "PRIORITIES PEOPLE!" to those threatening to strike. (getting off my soapbox now.) :blushing:

Does anyone complaining about this have a rudimentary understanding of economics or human resources? Jobs pay what they're valued at. If McDonald's doesn't think you're worth $15/hr, you're not worth $15/hr, if these people are worth $15 why don't they go find a job that pays them $15/hr?? Because they can't, minimum effort, minimum education, minimum motivation get you minimum wage. Instead we say "golly this person wants to make $15/hr, why don't we just MAKE mcDonald's pay them $15/hr? even though they're not worth it"....then McDonald's fires all of their worker except for a few cooks and a manager, and replaces them with robots and then we get to hear about "greedy big business replacing humans with machines" Honestly I swear, read a book sometime! I recommend Atlas Shrugs or Wealth of Nations.

I just did the math and at a full 40 hours a week at $7.50/hour if you're a single person and need a 1 bedroom apartment, you can live off that no problem.

Not sure where you live but a one bedroom apartment here is anywhere between 1000-1800 dollars a month (admittedly I live in one of those areas with a ridiculously high cost of living). If you're making ~15,000 a year you're hardly covering rent alone.

I got a very nice apartment for $425/month all utilities but electric and phone were included. My electric bill was never higher than $20/month and my phone was a cell phone for $30/month. It wasn't large by any means but it was me and my son. No cable, no internet.

I pay $600 for a small one bedroom, no heat or lights in a bad neighbor hood. You've got it made. You have no right to complain about what others are being paid and that they should be able to afford necessities on $7.50/hr.

Did I say I was living there now? No. I was living there when I was making $9/hour with a kid and making ends meet. I thankfully wasn't paying daycare but I did have to pay for diapers and wipes and laundry and I made it work. No, you don't have the kind of money to go out to eat or go have a drink or pay a babysitter so you can go out with friends or go out and buy a steak but you make it work. I'm not going to say how much I make now but I will say it's not much more and I have 2 kids and rent that's $200 more and a baby daddy that ran out and can't be found to pay support and because it's a bigger place a bigger electric bill and daycare costs now. I'm still doing it on my own with my job because I went out and found one that's paying more. I don't know where some of you are living that say no one is hiring because there's always a company looking to get rid of someone if the right person comes along. It doesn't hurt to try.

What do you consider "trying?" For 4 months I filled out every single application and handed out every single resume I had to companies that weren't even hiring. In many places the front desk staff came to know me personally. And yet I still ended up in a retail position. There literally were and still are very very very jobs here.