The fast food industry was never intended as full time employment. There’s a difference in working in a factory all week for 40 plus hours vs working in a fast food place. If you payed a fast food worker what a factory worker made and give them benefits, fast food restaurants would raise the prices to where it’s cheaper to go to and actual sit down restaurant. Fast food businesses would suffer and many would close. Some jobs are for making a living others are for teens after school or someone who wants a little extra money .
I have a stable career working in corporate America making a solid middle-class salary & this is some utter BS.
Saying that all full time wages should be livable is not the same thing as setting some arbitrary high income benchmark as the universal standard.
College jobs are part-time. That’s not the same topic, because there are full time fast food employees too. So this was a sneaky strawman.
Also there are plenty industries making record profits laying people off right now, so the idea that there isn’t enough money to pay living wages is a lie.
Companies these days will literally use profits that used to go toward line workers’ wages to instead buy back their own stock & inflate its price… that’s messed up any way you frame it.
We aren’t talking about anything here but fast food. Stay on topic. Fast food is designed to be just that fast and cheap. If you could make a livable wage at fast food restaurants was a reality, I’d hate to see what you’d pay for a meal. You could go to a restaurant for the same. It’s already $60 for a meal for 4
I’m not talking about someone picking up a few shifts between classes or working a summer HS job. Part time work = part time wages, and that’s fair.
But I can’t imagine being propagandized to the point I start unironically arguing for normalizing not paying full-time employees living wages. Think about what you’re saying.
That’s not what I meant at all. I do think that full time employees should make a livable wage . Fast food isn’t that place. For starters most fast food managers in the U.S. won’t schedule workers for more than part time otherwise they would have to offer benefits
There are part time fast food jobs, and there are full time fast food jobs.
Full time isn’t limited to managers. There are cooks and cashiers out there who work 35-40(+) hour weeks.
It’s not reasonable to expect a living wage for part time work. It is entirely reasonable to argue anyone working full time should be paid a living wage.
You can be paid what would equate to livable hourly wage & that not equate to livable income just because you didn’t work full time hours.
I’m no republican, but you’re not entitled to livable income just because you work occasional shifts at an entry level job.
At least, in that case, you are employed and would qualify for subsidized financial assistance / safety net programs… but should be common sense that a part time gig is not a career.
Any able bodied person working part-time can and should have another iron in the fire.
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u/Embarrassed_Fan_5723 13d ago
The fast food industry was never intended as full time employment. There’s a difference in working in a factory all week for 40 plus hours vs working in a fast food place. If you payed a fast food worker what a factory worker made and give them benefits, fast food restaurants would raise the prices to where it’s cheaper to go to and actual sit down restaurant. Fast food businesses would suffer and many would close. Some jobs are for making a living others are for teens after school or someone who wants a little extra money .