whenever someone is like ‘why do burger-flippers deserve to make the same amount as x?’ and i just ask ‘have you considered that maybe x deserves to be paid more?’ because it never occurs to people that if these people are being underpaid, then there is a chance that so are they.
U flip burgers u dont deserve to make 50 grand a year. It’s a starter job not a life career. At most ur making 20 grand
U wanna make 40+ u gotta be in a physically demanding job. Like the oil feild, construction, lumber, trucking etc.
U wanna make more u gotta be God teir lucky/blessed or have put in the hours with trade schools, and or college(go trade school first its cheaper and GUARANTEED A JOB) and show ur a cut above the rest and have skill fewer people have so it makes u more desirable and well get u a better paycheck
bc this was reblogged from me with this last comment, now I’m obligated to respond and say that the entire premise of ‘burger flipping’ as a “starter job” is, unfortunately, bullshit. Maybe that was the intention, maybe that would be preferable, but it is not reality. The fact is that there are many jobs which are considered ‘unskilled’ because they don’t require specialized or expensive training, but they are still absolutely necessary for everyone else to function with the ease and comfort they expect. Society not only expects but requires “unskilled labor” and cannot function without it. It is not only impossible but undesirable for every worker to be ‘a cut above the rest’ because these ‘basic’ jobs must be performed. That argument is an excuse to exploit people.
If someone works full-time, if society deems their job important enough that it needs to be done full-time, they should be paid enough money to cover their basic necessities, end of.
If it was really a “starter job” you’d almost never see anyone over the age of 17 working at a fast food restaurant and such establishments would rarely be open during school hours and yet…
What is unskilled labor though? Like I mean this as a legitimate question because I can tell you I’ve worked a lot of different jobs and none of them have been “unskilled.” A skill is being able to do something well and there isn’t a fucking job out there that it doesn’t matter if it’s not done well. Even the disabled person standing at the end of a register, bagging your groceries has to do it well, cause I fucking guarantee that if soccer mom Karen with the “I want to speak to your manager” haircut sees that her eggs have been smashed by a watermelon, she isn’t going to let that go.
I’ve never done a job where it didn’t matter how I did things, just as long as they got done. When I worked for a movie rental store, it mattered how or if I turned your movies back into the computer, or else you would get a fee. Being able to do that correctly, required the skill of learning and understanding how the computer program worked and paying attention to what I was checking in.
The person who flips your burgers need the skill of being able to manage a lot of burger patties at the same time, make sure they’re all cooked to the correct, food safe temperature and yet make sure they’re not dried out. They need the skill of being able to understand the orders, make the correct amount of food and assemble it the way you want it.
The cashier at most supermarkets needs to be sociable, needs to understand how to work the register, be able to bag correctly, count out your money, know how and when to check identification, know how to deal with unruly customers, know how to problem solve.
Even a janitor needs to know how the best ways to clean up after everyone being nasty and disgusting because they don’t value the hard work involved in cleaning toilets, picking up trash, and cleaning floors all day and if I have to explain why we NEED that I don’t know how to help you.
If you think there is no hard labour in retail, go unload trucks for a big box store and tell me you didn’t get a work out.
There is no such job as one that is unskilled. Just because you learn your skills on the job, compared to in a classroom, does not make your job any less difficult or unintelligent than anyone else’s.
If you shop there, you should want the person behind the counter to be just as happy and healthy as you are, because they enable you to enjoy a service that you either need or want. You are not better than them.
Let me repeat that YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN THEM.
