Hello all,
As you may know, I began work at the age of 15. The first place I was ever hired into was Burger King.
Let me tell you something. That company gets away with so much law breaking and crimes that it is not even funny. I have worked for four years. I started working at $5.50 an hour 5 years ago. I left there, four years later making $7.75. Oh, the raises were only because min. wage was raised up. I was given one raise when I demanded it because they were always understaffed and gave me manager duties even though I was NOT the manager.
Minors are to have breaks. Burger King never gave them. And also, in Michigan, if you are working more than 8 hours, you have to have 2 breaks and a lunch. Do you think I got lunch? Yeah, if they felt like giving to me. I had to stand on my feet for 8 hours straight doing things for them and they could not even give me a lunch.
I busted my a$$ for them. Slacked the fries, took care of customers, did the drive-thru (Which was more hell than all the other responsibilities COMBINED at Burger King), cleaned their floors, cleaned their grease, TRAINED new people-even though I was not a manager, cooked their food, counted their waste, took out their garbage and cleaned the dining room and restrooms and more.
I had only called off on them three times in four years. I came to work, rain or snow.
Yet, they never gave raises. Instead, they gave pay CUTS. And when I asked for a raise, they looked at me like I was stupid. And then would say "Oh! We made $50,000 today!" $50,000 is a LOT of sandwiches that I and other crew had to make.
Dont tell me that they cannot afford to pay better for an employee that does so much for them. And even then, fine. I am 20 and I go to college and live at home. There were people who were trying to make ends meet on this horrible wage. I remember a co worker who had a child and her husband had to get his foot amputated.
Did they have health insurance? Of course not. Burger King did not offer it at affordable wage.
My Burger King got robbed a half a year ago. Did they have any security for the employees to defend themselves? No. Just fake cameras. The robber had a gun to my managers head and demanded the money. A tornado hit my Burger King (And you guys are not going to believe this) and they HAD NO EMERGENCY LIGHTS. It was pitch black. My manager expected all of us to go in the back and save the food from rotting since the tornado had knocked out the power. Hah! Dont tell me Burger King cannot afford to have an emergency pack with a FLASHLIGHT.
They told me to get onions and Burgers from another Burger King OFF THE CLOCK. They told me that since I was not working technically, I had to clock out while driving (gas was around 4 a gallon then) to get things for THEM!
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Fast Forward to now-
I have been working for Target. This is a BRAND NEW Target. I helped stock the shelves. Everyone here is very hardworking and wonderful. We get along very well and like each other.
I get a 100 percent on my speed score every week. My conversion (getting people to open up credit cards-which is hard in this economy) is higher than what they asked for. I am cross trained in all departments except one and the customers always compliments me to my managers.
I know several other employees who are good as well.
The raises we got? .10 cents. For doing everything we can..to HELP THEM make that $70,000 goal PER DAY....we get a .10 cent raise from making $7.40 an hour.
It is a CRIME that these companies make thousands upon thousands a day. Target pays crappy but at least they take care of us. They give us breaks and lunches on time and make sure we are doing good. But STILL!
Burger King needs some serious investigation.
They both need UNIONS to make sure these people who make $50,000-$70,000 a day don't pay their employees CRAP and treat them badly. In addition to that, they should make sure that each and every workplace is equipped in case there is an emergency.
Now I know what you are all thinking. "Why didnt you go get another job?" I tried. Especially because of my age, a lot of people did not want to hire me. Nobody was really hiring. I just finished my associate degree this month though.
I know a lot of Republicans on here say we need to work and work and work for our earnings but when is it enough? How do you expect Americans to get out of this cycle if they are getting paid like this? There is no doubt that they would end up on welfare and become a burden on taxpaying Americans.
I want to get ahead in life. But how do you all expect us too when we are getting paid around 5.95 an hour (after taxes) AND having to pay for car insurance, COLLEGE tuition, food, clothes and more?
I remember several users on this forum making fun of 20 somethings still at home.
So tell me how you expect us to get ahead when we are being taken advantage off? This is exactly why we need labor unions. So then we wont be ripped to pieces and working for peanuts.
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