EditorWhile the Services Employees International Union’s nearly-six effort to unionize the fast-food industry has not resulted in any union dues for the labor behemoth, the union has scored a handful of victories–among them has been New York’s raising its wages for fast-food workers to $15 per hour.
While one could assume that all fast-food workers would be thrilled with seeing wages rise, here is one Millennial who sees things a little differently:
Did you know that 30 percent of fast-food workers are teenagers and another 30 percent are between the ages of 20 and 24? That means 40 percent of them are 25 or older. As a teenager working in retail, I don’t find this surprising. Most of my peers have some form of minimum wage-level job. The primary reason to get a job as a teenager is to stockpile money for a college fund, not to make a living off of it.
Raising this entire segment of fast-food workers to a $15 an hour wage is absurd. Choosing to not continue education after high school is a common decision of fast-food workers older than 25, and I don’t believe $15 an hour is considered “well earned” for doing a feeble-minded task like simple burger flipping. Perhaps going to college and taking part-time classes is in order to get a degree and a better-paying job.
College students bathe in debt but continue to keep striving while fast-food workers continue to ask for more money with no education to move up in the career world. This is the root problem. The solution is not getting nearly double of what was earned before. [Emphasis added.]
Hopefully, this Millennial’s opinion won’t garner too much hate from those friendly union T.H.U.G.s.
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