Minimum Wage workers in Northern VA (a suckers bet) (college, salary)

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by I'm Retired Now

In my experience the staff at Chick-Fil-A is perhaps the best in the area for Fast Food Workers. Friendly, efficient and very polite. I suspect their corporate orientation towards morality and religion brings in a certain type of person and many parents who are religious would rather have their teen age daughter or son work there and would never consider Burger King.

You may well be right about that.

But with the sharp staff and customer service orientation of Chick-Fil-A, I wonder why they don't pay more?

That is a very good rhetorical question.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by tongyang

I'll add that the Springfield and Landmark Chick-Fil-As also have people from different ethnic groups working as well. I was actually surprised about the notion about them only have white kids working there because this thought never occurred to me.

I've been to Chick-Fil-As in mixed neighborhoods where all the employees were white teenagers. It's usually because the owner/franchisee is pretty religious and recruits kids from their churches. Most franchisees today don't want to deal with the scheduling headaches involved in hiring minors, who can only work limited hours and often are fickle about taking on hours when they have other activities going on. A major complaint is that teens apply saying that they can work all year, but then quit or refuse to take hours in the fall. It is just easier to hire a poor person or immigrant who can work longer hours, including late night.

For those that have never worked at a restaurant before, when you close, you have to spend hours cleaning every possible surface in the kitchen. The process takes hours and late into the night, so most minors cannot do it. It is much easier if every employee is an adult and can do it. If a manager screws up and schedules a minor for a close, the manager has to send them home early and will often work very late in the morning cleaning instead. Do that a couple times, and then the manager doesn't want to hire minors anymore. Similarly, a lot of retail stores stock at night, so they need people that can work late at night (not necessarily all the time, but at least for an occassional emergency).

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by slim04

For those that have never worked at a restaurant before, when you close, you have to spend hours cleaning every possible surface in the kitchen. The process takes hours and late into the night, so most minors cannot do it. It is much easier if every employee is an adult and can do it. If a manager screws up and schedules a minor for a close, the manager has to send them home early and will often work very late in the morning cleaning instead. Do that a couple times, and then the manager doesn't want to hire minors anymore. Similarly, a lot of retail stores stock at night, so they need people that can work late at night (not necessarily all the time, but at least for an occassional emergency).

In high school, I worked at Wendy's and always closed. My shift was normally 5-11 (or something like that). Closing doesn't normally take "hours"; only took us about an hour; because much of the cleaning could be done prior to the actual closing time.

In Virginia teens that are at least 16 do not have any restrictions on how late they can work (total number of hours is a different story). Some jurisdictions have curfew laws, but all allow for exceptions for work.

[PK12]

I dont care what kind of people race/ethnicity-wise work there, all I know is they make the best Spicy Chicken sandwich and waffle fries, EVER!!

For that, I do care/hope that the workers should get paid better.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by dkf747

MN? I lived in Minneapolis for 5 years and there were plenty of people of color, and/or immigrants.

Sorry. Maine.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by tongyang

I'll add that the Springfield and Landmark Chick-Fil-As also have people from different ethnic groups working as well. I was actually surprised about the notion about them only have white kids working there because this thought never occurred to me.

I've noticed as well that the Chick Fil A's in Manassas also have predominantly white kids working in them. FOr a long time the Arby's near me at PW Pkway and Liberia was pretty much all white. That one seems to have changed though. Go to any other fast food and you're lucky to find anyone speaking English well or even from the US. Not complaining, just an observation.

[boxus]

Originally Posted by dkf747

MN? I lived in Minneapolis for 5 years and there were plenty of people of color, and/or immigrants.

MN is 83% white, Minneapolis is 63% white.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

You do know that VT is about as white bread as you can get don't you?

Yup. Check out my profile; I lived there for almost 2 years. The McDonalds I first encountered was in SE Vermont in some small town. I'd be surprised if the one in Burlington doesn't have a more diverse workforce. (Burlington is still pretty white, just not as much as the rest of the state. I lived there too but never ate at the golden barfches.)

After thinking about it, I think the relative pallor of the CFA workforce is due to both the low wage and the culture there. A disproportionate percentage of people who work in fast food as a career (other than management) are black/Hispanic; they're depending on their job to feed a family, so they surely scoff at $7/hour when $10 is available elsewhere. But teens don't really *need* the money, and they and their parents are willing to trade the extra dollars for being around people like themselves.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by boxus

MN is 83% white, Minneapolis is 63% white.

Maine = ME not MN. Hope this clears up some confusion between Maine and Minneapolis.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Maine = ME not MN. Hope this clears up some confusion between Maine and Minneapolis.

Eh, they're both freaking cold and full of people who talk funny. Same difference!