Minimium Wage - I Demand $15 an Hour
First, I do want to state that the minimum wage in the United States, has not kept up with inflation. But I also want to state that many of the younger aged people in today’s workforce, really need to step up if they want to earn $15 an hour. An example is the kid at McDonald’s who can’t get the drink correct, or put the lid on the cup correctly. I ordered a Coke and a Diet Coke and I got a Coke and a Dr. Pepper. Now tell me how in the world these two are even close to being confused and to top it off, the lids were about 3/4 of the way on and the little identifier buttons on the top were both selected as Coke. At McDonald’s, a machine does most of the work for the employee.
Now, this is probably one of the easier jobs to do at McDonald’s. In fact, I was working at a local fast food restaurant at 14 1/2 years old in the 80s, working the drive-thru window and it was a one-person job, take the order, take the money, make the drinks, bag the food, and interface with the customer. There wasn’t a fancy drink machine, or someone else to take the money, and back then it was usually all cash, You didn’t have a debit card and no one put a fast food meal on a credit card, in fact, most people didn’t have a credit card, so you had to be able to count money, which is really funny to watch some of these kids try to do today.
But seriously, how do you think that you warrant $15 an hour, which is a 100% raise? If you honestly think that you deserve it then you should at least step up and perform the tasks that your job requires. That means doing the tasks correctly and accurately, with some level of speed, and for god sake, interfacing with the customer.
I went to Subway with my wife this past weekend. The young man behind the counter had zero pride in his work or really himself. He was a large black man, who was very soft-spoken and didn’t talk with any confidence. He was extremely slow at making two subs and pretty much questioned just about every choice. I wanted my bread and cheese toasted and then added the tuna to the bread. He insisted on adding the tuna and then toasting it. He wasn’t too thrilled with me stopping him from putting the tuna on it first. He just didn’t really seem to have any pride in his work or appearance. His hat was very dirty and his name tag was upside down as well. He wore an untucked t-shirt and really looked like a bag of wet rags. It took about 10 minutes for him to make two subs, one 6″ and the other a foot long and we were the only customer in the entire store.
I’m not trying to complain here, but if you want the money, then you need to work for it. They just don’t hand out money for showing up. I get it that you can’t survive off minimum wage, but you also need to understand that you are not supposed to be able to survive off of it. It is designed so you will want to make more money, to better your life. But if you are working at McDonald’s and are able to afford a nice sports car and a luxury apartment, then you will not want to better yourself, why would you? When I started working at 14.5 years old, it was at a local mom-and-pop fast food place in Swanton, Ohio, called Kirk’s Kountry Kitchen. It was a dive, but the locals were there and I was busy all the time. When I was 15, I moved from there to an upscale restaurant in Toledo, called Chuck Muers. I started off washing dishes and worked my way up to the salad bar, to the raw bar, to making pasta, to prep cook, line cook and eventually landing the lead position for the Sunday Brunch. I was in charge of everything, I did all the baking, which I actually liked and I was good at. I was in charge of preparing all the food and I made the omelets on Sunday morning and I was only 18 years old.
When the dishwasher was broken and the entire kitchen was full of dirty dishes, they would usually call me and Matt to come to knock it out once the machine was fixed. That is not because we were being punished, it was because they knew that he and I would knock it out in no time and have the restaurant ready for service when it opened.
Listen up to those that demand $15 an hour, come to work on time, bring your “A” game and you will find yourself getting promoted and making more money. But starting you off at $15 an hour is just insane.
