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Fast food jobs are hard because you have to be on your feet for long period and work quickly. It's draining mentally because the work is repetitive (boring) and customers can be difficult. It does not require any special skills though.
I started my work life working at Baskin Robbins, being on your feet isn't that big of a deal, you get used to it after a week or so. I would trade draining because of bordom for my current draining because of stress and unrealistic expectations any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I started my work life working at Baskin Robbins, being on your feet isn't that big of a deal, you get used to it after a week or so. I would trade draining because of bordom for my current draining because of stress and unrealistic expectations any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I also worked fast food and other similar jobs early in life. It can be tiring work but my point was that while it's not super "easy", it's also not a job that requires special skills.
"requires a tremendous amount of skill to do well" lol, you must have a very low bar for both skill and tremendous. It isn't a job that any teenager off the street can be hired to do because it takes so much skill.
"hard, physically demanding, hot, dirty, stinky" no one argues that, but that doesn't make it a job that anyone with a pulse can't do. Supply and demand impacts the cost of labor just like it does the cost of goods, when there is a bottomless pit of unskilled labor those jobs are never going to pay well.
Fast food jobs are hard because you have to be on your feet for long period and work quickly. It's draining mentally because the work is repetitive (boring) and customers can be difficult. It does not require any special skills though.
Hard is all relative. My work is extremely stressful where my mistakes could cost potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars or even someone's life. Sometimes I watch the low paid workers doing their menial jobs and I long for that kind of simplicity in my work.
A lot of attention recently has been paid to protests for higher minimum wages for entry-level work. The pressure has gotten to McDonald's, Target and Wal-Mart. Wages will be going up. Minimally. What I want to know is why there are some that continue to deride these workers that just want to get paid fairly for what they do?.
The value of your labor is what it is. If you want to increase what you make you need to increase the value of your labor, simply increasing the dollar amount which just represents the value at best will have a very short term benefit. If you're making $7.50 now and can buy a McDonald's meal for $7.50 you're only goin to be able to buy a Mcdonld's meal for one hours worth of labor whether you are making $10, $20 or $50 an hour becsue the cost of that meal necessarily has to increase.
The value of your labor is what it is. If you want to increase what you make you need to increase the value of your labor, simply increasing the dollar amount which just represents the value at best will have a very short term benefit. If you're making $7.50 now and can buy a McDonald's meal for $7.50 you're only goin to be able to buy a Mcdonld's meal for one hours worth of labor whether you are making $10, $20 or $50 an hour becsue the cost of that meal necessarily has to increase.
There's an awful lot of low skilled illegals doing these jobs. I'm here to tell ya, those folks work those jobs like they mean it! Makes it hard to bargain for much of anything.
Hard is all relative. My work is extremely stressful where my mistakes could cost potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars or even someone's life. Sometimes I watch the low paid workers doing their menial jobs and I long for that kind of simplicity in my work.
Of course it is. And you're right, fast food jobs are simple. At the end of your shift you clock out and leave work at work. If you hate the job you can quit and likely find another one at the fast food place down the street. It's not a complicated job by any means. It's a job that just about anyone can do but these jobs are also are not a walk in the park. I remember cleaning a bathroom where some weirdo had an explosive diarrhea incident all over the wall. I remember going home from work smelling like I had swam in a deep fryer. I remember scrubbing trash cans from the inside out. I remember being treated like dirt by members of the general public and sometimes worse by coworkers and managers. The reason why these jobs are low wage is because they are low skill. Many people have them as first jobs and most people do it for awhile and then move on to something that requires a little more skill and something that pays better. Like you said, "hard is all relative".
A lot of attention recently has been paid to protests for higher minimum wages for entry-level work. The pressure has gotten to McDonald's, Target and Wal-Mart. Wages will be going up. Minimally. What I want to know is why there are some that continue to deride these workers that just want to get paid fairly for what they do?
'Cause they're going to lose their jobs.
You just don't get it, do you?
You cannot defy the Laws of Economics and win.
A $4.25/hour worker is exactly that....a $4.25/hour worker.
Putting lipstick on a pig by giving the worker $7.25/hour does nothing except give you a $4.25/hour worker who is over-paid by $3.00/hour (in wage costs, not labor costs which would be higher actually).
What you fail to understand is Opportunity Costs.
By increasing the minimum wage and lower wage levels in general, all you've done is made it worthwhile for White Suburban and Rural Workers to drive into Suburban and Urban areas to displace Urban Workers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saykinriseo
And the vicious cycle will continue until someone steps up and treats workers like they ought to be treated.
Any worker not hell-bent on improving themselves should be scorned and paid in grains of sand.
Economically...
Mircea
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I remember going home from work smelling like I had swam in a deep fryer. I remember scrubbing trash cans from the inside out. I remember being treated like dirt by members of the general public and sometimes worse by coworkers and managers. The reason why these jobs are low wage is because they are low skill. Many people have them as first jobs and most people do it for awhile and then move on to something that requires a little more skill and something that pays better. Like you said, "hard is all relative".
