4 ms·

I still can’t get over the pay people are willing to put up with. I worked at a busy Central PA Red Robin location during high school in the late nineties and u

by dls2016 5y ago

I still can’t get over the pay people are willing to put up with. I worked at a busy Central PA Red Robin location during high school in the late nineties and usually bused tables. Often the dishwasher would be MIA and I would offer to cover, but only after the restaurant slowed down for the evening (so I could collect on the tip-out from servers) and the rate was $10/hr. I could make a few dollars more bussing and the servers could clear $20/hr or more on busy nights. Over 20 years ago! I saw a NY Times article about garbage men who make only $15/hr in southern states. Who in the hell wants to do any of these jobs?

1_player 5y ago
Those that have no other option? I don't get the question at all, not everyone has the chance or luck in life to become a surgeon or a software engineer.
- dls2016 5y ago
  > Those that have no other option? Of course I understand this is the answer. It's more of a rhetorical question to the idiot quotes from the Facebook group about how fast food is a "teenage job". Even as a teenager 20 years ago I wouldn't work for less than $10/hour. What I don't understand is how people don't see the wage pressure exerted by corporate America in the last few decades. NAFTA to remove a bunch of "real jobs", then move remaining manufacturing to "two-tier" systems where new employees can't attain wage rates that their parents would have made at those jobs, then all the shenanigans at low wage places (just-in-time scheduling, wage theft, toxic customers, no benefits, etc. etc. etc.). Don't even get me started on how the American "safety net" forces people to work in these shitty jobs. Dare to make over some ridiculous poverty threshold and you get no assistance.
  - 1_player 5y ago
    > Even as a teenager 20 years ago I wouldn't work for less than $10/hour. Lucky you. Sometimes even teenagers have to provide for their family, for even more ridiculous rates because they're teenagers and thus somewhat exploited by society. Not everyone can afford saying no to bad paying jobs. I'd work for $1 an hour if the alternative was starving or selling my body or dignity. Though in fairness it's much easier and more lucrative to just enter the crime world. No age checks there, but promises of riches and they're always hiring.
    - dls2016 5y ago
      > Lucky you. Or we could remove luck from the equation and decide as a society to support everyone: living wages, food, housing, health care. I recognize my luck, which is why I find society so absurd at times. And I for sure have no problem paying higher taxes to extend the guarantees above to all citizens.

1_player 5y ago

Those that have no other option? I don't get the question at all, not everyone has the chance or luck in life to become a surgeon or a software engineer.

dls2016 5y ago
> Those that have no other option? Of course I understand this is the answer. It's more of a rhetorical question to the idiot quotes from the Facebook group about how fast food is a "teenage job". Even as a teenager 20 years ago I wouldn't work for less than $10/hour. What I don't understand is how people don't see the wage pressure exerted by corporate America in the last few decades. NAFTA to remove a bunch of "real jobs", then move remaining manufacturing to "two-tier" systems where new employees can't attain wage rates that their parents would have made at those jobs, then all the shenanigans at low wage places (just-in-time scheduling, wage theft, toxic customers, no benefits, etc. etc. etc.). Don't even get me started on how the American "safety net" forces people to work in these shitty jobs. Dare to make over some ridiculous poverty threshold and you get no assistance.
- 1_player 5y ago
  > Even as a teenager 20 years ago I wouldn't work for less than $10/hour. Lucky you. Sometimes even teenagers have to provide for their family, for even more ridiculous rates because they're teenagers and thus somewhat exploited by society. Not everyone can afford saying no to bad paying jobs. I'd work for $1 an hour if the alternative was starving or selling my body or dignity. Though in fairness it's much easier and more lucrative to just enter the crime world. No age checks there, but promises of riches and they're always hiring.
  - dls2016 5y ago
    > Lucky you. Or we could remove luck from the equation and decide as a society to support everyone: living wages, food, housing, health care. I recognize my luck, which is why I find society so absurd at times. And I for sure have no problem paying higher taxes to extend the guarantees above to all citizens.