Go Ahead and Strike

I see where fast food workers have resumed their quest to be paid $15.00 an hour.  Every time I see this, I laugh.  The mere fact they feel they deserve this much pay shows me just how little they know about the real world.

For starters, unless you are a fast food worker, we all know this is a job you take because it requires the least amount of skill and training.  These are jobs meant to get young people experience in the work world that will hopefully help them on their way toward a life in which they do more important and meaningful work.  They were never meant to be a career or designed to pay all your bills while you raise a family.  Just because the economy went south and resulted in these jobs, like most others, becoming harder to come by does not warrant pay above our minimum wage.  These are jobs that require a minimum of skill and only exist because most Americans are either too busy or too lazy to cook their own meals.

I did a search to see what kinds of jobs out there pay fifteen bucks an hour.  On one list, I found fifteen jobs that pay what disgruntled fast food workers want. One, a rehab counselor, requires a masters degree; three require an AA degree; five require post high school training or apprenticeships; while the remaining six require skills that go far beyond saying, "May I have your order," or "Would you like fries with that?"

Ask those who manage a fast food restaurant how they feel about the work ethic of the young people they hire.  Better yet, go into a fast food joint and see how many prefer to employ seniors who just want to pad their retirement but who also have a work ethic.  They arrive on time, they are courteous to the customers, and they don't just stop coming to work because they decided they don't like their job.

Sure, college has gotten expensive and a job at a fast food chain may not be enough to pay tuition.  Here's a news flash, that's always been the case.  I don't know anyone from my high school class of 77' who managed to pay for their college education working at a McDonalds for $2.25 an hour. A job waiting tables in a restaurant comes with tips but those jobs also require far more people skills, patience, and work than a job at Burger King. 

Go pound nails, dig ditches, paint houses, clean toilets, or mow lawns and see how it feels doing those jobs for nine bucks an hour.  Try being a physical therapy assistant, in home care giver, or night janitor and see how little you are paid.  Better yet, go pick lettuce or any other food item grown in this country and see how rich you get.  Our country needs people who do all of these jobs far more than they need fast food workers.  And don't forget, your jobs are easily automated, leaving you unemployed. 

So go ahead, go on strike.  Block entrances to fast food restaurants and compare your movement to the civil rights movement as some are doing.  Whine until your vocal chords quit on you.  However, if you are smart and willing to sit and read, you may want to learn about what happened when air traffic controllers, a job that requires real training and comes with serious stress, went on strike when Ronald Regan was president.  Maybe then you will rethink just how important your job is to the real world.