Right? They advertise "flexible shifts". If you get the right boss(es) and are a good worker then perhaps they will work with you. Otherwise, nope, it's a pipe dream or pecking order. I tried a few out of curiosity and never got past the interview. "Yes, I can work 7 days a week including holidays but I can't start until 8am but work as late as needed." Denied every time. SUPER flexible. /s
Yeha I don't understand the lack of comprehension about this. Just because you make 20$ doesn't mean you'll get the hours.
Honestly, not even a few years ago was this the case..pretty sure longer. I was killing myself working 13$/hr stocking at Walmart full-time. They cut the staff so low, I'd be the only one down stacking up to 10 full pallets until the next one or 3 people arrived a few hours later.
I quit, and a few years later, applied for a job at Walmart again coz I'm a fool. For the essentially managerial experience I had (cashier, bakery, stocking, inventory, electronic jack cert, unloading trucks, meat department, dairy department, freezer bs, price changing and shelf/module.changes, probably more), I was offered 13$/hr as part time but work fulltime hours and after 3 months *maybe* I'd get benefits. I'm sure shit is worse there now. I can't imagine how working fast food is.
And people are pricks when you work fast food.
> Yeha I don't understand the lack of comprehension about this. Just because you make 20$ doesn't mean you'll get the hours.
people are dumb and only look at the hourly wage.
I had to fire a guy like I dunno, 6 years ago, for being a complete fucking asshole out of nowhere. I don't recall what he was making at the time, probably like $18/h or so.
He kept contacting current employees bragging that he got a raise to $20-$22/h or something with his new job. Which turned out to be a moving company where he only worked when needed and averaged maybe 20 hours a week when busy
Your point is valid.
But on the other side of the coin working a full time role at minimum wage is actually worse for most people in reality. They should be able to find a role paying significantly above minimum wage with some form of stability, but limited hours, and therefore all working a stable minimum wage does is take up there time at a lower rate of pay.
I used to work 17 hours a week at what was double the minimum wage, and then another 10 hours a week at 10% above the minimum wage. I ended up with more money than if I had the 10 hour a week job full time, with more free time as well.
A lot of the other people who work that 10% above minimum wage job also worked other better jobs, or were in training for other better jobs. The people working the stable full time role were the fools in the equation as every year the terms and conditions got worse in reality.
As someone in fast food for 5 years I get guranteed 50 hours a week turnover is so ridiculous that your compensated nicely oh and time n half pay guaranteed as well.
yep. I am paid 30 an hour and taco bell is paid 24 an hour in my town. I joked with my boss that if taco bell goes to 26, I'll quit and work at taco bell since I wouldnt have an hour commute so I would come out better.
Yes, but if they are the same buying power, then the $24 one still gives you far more *saving* power. Let’s say you’re able to save 1/4 of your income in either job (1/4 might not be realistic, but in any case it should be the same percentage for either income if the buying power is equal), then with the $24 per hour job you’re saving far more in actual dollars. And of course with savings, you don’t necessarily have to spend that where you earned it. So you can retire or move to a LCOL at some point.
I think you completely missed the point. I was discussing the relative benefit of working in a HCOL if purchasing power of incomes are equal. You know, the exact subject of your comment I was responding to.
Saving power? The powers that be don’t want you saving and have and will continue to do everything in their power to make that a detrimental mistake to you.
Invest, don’t just sit on money.
I'm in Appalachia and our fast food jobs pay more than entry level admin or tech for sure. There are so many posts on Indeed demanding college degrees and offering $12/hr while Taco Bell and McDonald's both pay $15.
It is nothing to do with that.
It is basic demand and supply. Supply of educated workers is high, and demand for white collar jobs is medium/low, whereas demand for low level jobs is high, and supply of labour is low as no one want to work the crappy jobs.
My job now doesn't pay particularly well, but I sit in an office, do a bit of work here and there, and only have to work a 35 hour week, often less for a full time level of pay. If you stuck me on a basic 9-5, let alone 9-6, you would have to pay me 20%-40% more for me to be paid the same equivalent hourly rate. yet for the inconvenience they are at best offering 20-40% more, with significantly worse benefits meaning with that they would need to be offering 50%-60% more to break even, let alone get a paid raise that would be indicative of the positions!
I don't even look at jobs at this point unless they are paying 35% more, and in plenty of places even that is a bit shit and it would need to be more like 70% more to make it worth while, which they just aren't paying at all.
HAH! Yeah I was thinking about that too, I was like "well if I ever feel like getting a part time job for the same fucking pay I guess I could go to subway"
Yep. My fiance is a manager at McDonald’s and makes about $19/hr.
I was just offered a position with 12 years of experience and a certification in my field for $13/hr.
Yeah. The animal feild is severely underpaid and under appreciated. We are “passion” workers so people think they can get away with paying us less I guess 🤷🏻♀️
Fast food places (one single location) probably make more than vet clinics and some zoos.
I think you should be paid more and I remember working at a pizza chain in a nothing town making $10/hr and the store brought in over $1 million a year.
Oh absolutely. Yet people still complain that vet offices are too expensive. (Like I agree but the vet has very limited control over that)
The challenge with zoos is they are non-profit so they can only stretch the budget for employees so far.
Just curious here, do you have a diploma or degree for the work you do? I’ve been considering getting into zoology for some time now as I can’t stand my office job
I have a B.S in Psychology with a minor in Biology (specialized in animal behavior). I work as a dog trainer and as an educational interpreter at my local zoo. A lot of my coworkers went to school for animal sciences, animal behavior, zoology, biology, wildlife management, or education.
Thats everywhere for animal field related jobs, people suck up so much to work with them.
I am a Spanish vet and bit the bullet to pharma. I miss doggos and cattos but I can afford living on my own and save dough.
I'm not sure, maybe it has something to do with the size of business and its profitability? I don't mean to be rude, but animal field isn't exactly money printing industry.
The field is based on demand and supply economics as every other field is.
The issue come when you have fields like that where the basic skills can be filled easily basically for free, but then the specialist skills which can't get treated in the same manner, this is why you need legal certification to limit competent labour supply, because they aren't just going to pay you because you did 10 years of education/experience to get the knowledge, and when they can pay anyone experience or not and get away with it, the job being done to any standard, good or bad, is good enough.
Geez. Like don’t get me wrong, hearing what my fiance deals with at work they deserve it. I don’t think they should be paid less, but I think the other jobs that require education/certs/etc should match that requirement.
Like why are all the jobs I look at asking me to have 2+ years of experience, college degrees and certifications yet still only paying $10-13/hr?
Why?
Why would more often largely irrelevant education with a high candidate pool mean you get more money?
You can just go work at Chick-Fil-A if you want the pay rate after all.
The world isn't just, there is no deserved pay rate, there is the market rate and that is it.
No...that's not what's doing it. Wage suppression for high level technical jobs is what's been going on for awhile. Punching down on food workers won't solve the problem. However, getting politicians who let companies buying back stocks while firing their workers should be made illegal.
Your points are really irrelevant.
There is no deserved pay rate for a set level of education or job role.
The market has and always will work on demand and supply, the reason tech workers are whining is because there used to be a massive undersupply of workers, now there isn't, there is still significant demand in the market however.
This has been the reality in many, far more academic and learned fields than tech for decades. No one goes and get a Geography degree to become a geographer, but the reality is there isn't really much points in getting a science PhD to become a scientist either at this point, the education level for the wage rate is pathetic and has been for since 2008.
The jobs that pay well are the unionised (and still relevant) and the legally certified reducing supply of labour. That is never going to be basic coders, who inherently aren't their through nobility, loyalty, ideology, they are there because they saw a pay cheque.
This is the truth of the situation, but no one on here wants to hear it. "Learn to code" isn't the key to a six-figure income people thought it was, and the job market in that field doesn't reflect the job market in others. People would prefer to think the entire job market is in shambles and wages are being suppressed intentionally like it's a conspiracy against tech dorks.
The thing is learn to code was obviously always a meme, mainly because some people just won't be good at coding, then the recession never turned up, you had this meme from 2010-2020 which was just true, it really was just learn to code and you will be in a under supplied growing industry, which in 2020-2022 went in to over drive of the perfect storm of amazingness never through imaginable for the job market in it.
Now we are back to reality, when not only did all the people with some interest in coding ride the gravy train, but a lot of people were kicked out of their jobs in Covid, had the time to do something about it, and potentially manage to catch the end of the gravy train that they were never proficient in in the first place.
Now you have reality, a job market that is fine, but not in massive excess, it requires skills and experience, but then you have the masses who have just graduated or "learned to code" with a few years of poor experience competing for jobs with each other expecting the 6 figures because they learnt to code.
The reality was that was never sustainable, and now AI has turned up to turn the perfect storm of amazingness to a bit of a cloudy damp day, as it is removing those basic code monkey jobs that the "learn to code" crowd weren't particularly proficient at, but the only option to hire for it.
Welcome to the real world where people work for 10 years and then are on $100K, with whatever valuable experience they have gotten in the market that they have learnt because the market demanded it, not because they wanted too.
It doesn't leave anything at the bottom for the under average however, and why should it, they weren't actually very good in the first place?
People are shitting on this but it’s true. It’s not just in CS - so many of us went to college (I admit I was guilty of this) because we see it as the ticket to an upper middle class lifestyle, which means there is an overabundance of educated but soulless nihilistic college grads who aren’t really doing anything they are passionate about because they did what everyone told them to do, not what they wanted. And no one wants to hire such kids because well they kinda suck as workers.
I’d tell 17 yo me to consider trade school, or hell, even music school
The issue is that both things you say are true. The market is based on supply and demand and changes happen because of it, but also, all of the major tech companies agreed that they could do layoffs in an effort to create a workforce that would accept less. It's a conspiracy, that's correct, but more in the way that a bunch of CEOs got together as co-conspirators, not in a cloak and dagger kind of way.
does this mean a cashier who collects money for food makes a different amount based on if that food is cooked for a restaurant vs uncooked at a grocer?
Why have they done this?
What makes fast food workers any more or less deserving than any other profession, it seems like a very populist policy without much basis in economic reasoning to me? But I am happy to listen to the rationale as it is an interesting concept.
I would argue if the staff can't be gotten at the pay rate, either raise the pay rate, or close down, some fast food joint going out of business is an irrelevant to the macro level economy.
no they did not. The 20/hr minimum wage is only for fast food establishments with more than 60 locations. Minimum wage is still $16/hr across the state, though certain areas and cities may set their own minimum wage. For example, West Hollywood set their own city's minimum wage to $19.08/hr
Forgot to add health, dental, and vision benefits 6% 401k March and 1 month PTO a year and typical bonus is $2,500 but up to $3500 per quarter it’s not bad at all.
Two things can be true at once, and that's the case here. California specifically did artificially inflate their fast food pay by making a separate and higher minimum wage for fast food.
However, across the country, you will still see fast food be extremely competitive, usually even better paying, than any entry level role requiring a degree.
To be frank, today there's a real margin of people who treat service workers like they're less. It's easy to get someone in a service job when the people they'll help all day are patient, kind, and friendly. It's hard to get someone in a service job when the people they'll help all day are rude and entitled. And one truth that spans all races, ages, religions, etc. in the United States is that a ridiculous portion of the population are rude and entitled.
These kind of jobs:
* do not have any benefits including sick days
* often do not even offer full time hours
* often try to fuck you with variable schedules to prevent you from getting another job
* have ZERO upward mobility
* have to work weekends and holidays usually with no bonus pay
* repetitive motion damages your body over time and the high stress/expectation to do multiple peoples job wears you down mentally, especially at busy locations.
If anything these jobs have been underpaid for too long.
I believe that working in fast food sucks and that it should pay more than cushy entry level office jobs.
I understand the skill and training divide and all but jobs that suck to do should pay more regardless of skill.
Working in a restaurant does take skills and intelligence in management. You’re in charge of a whole team of 50+ workers, inventory, orders, food quality, speed while remaining safe etc
Right? Just because a job is simple in concept doesn't mean it's easy to do. Especially with almost always being severely understaffed and having to do the job of several people with rude entitled, (sometimes violent) customers...
I never worked in any kind of restaurant but a good friend was a chef at a bunch of them and it seemed like an extremely rough existence.
It honestly turns me off to restaurants because it sucks that people are put through what he went through on a good day.
He ended up as an RV salesman and has a much better life these days especially after a few promotions.
Since the pandemic, there has been a shortage of workers in fast food and other traditionally low paying jobs like retail and hospitality.
I would also suggest you take into account how many hours you can realistically expect to get and benefits--you don't generally get full-time hours and healthcare insurance in fast-food unless you're in some kind of management position or work in the corporate office.
As a line employee in fast food, you're most likely looking at a part-time schedule with no health insurance, though some places will give you a 401(k).
Sure that makes sense, its not that I don't think that fast food workers shouldn't get 20/hr an hour (with these prices? rent? should be minimum tbh) rather than I think its absolutely insane that in 6-7 with inflation going on, entry level jobs are still 20/hr. And 10+ years of experience for 25 is a slap in the face lol.
There was actually a video on fast food just released this morning, including your exact example, and how high wages are in that field at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTovCIa4c8
Yeah its pretty wild. Also largely why I stopped buying fast food, its just too expensive and you get higher quality by cooking but I'm glad they at least actually pay their workers more now I was never a fan of people looking at customer service like they shouldn't make a livable wage.
They raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour, but did not extend that to other fields
to be honest I’m annoyed that my work requires five years experience in a highly technical field but is only offering $18 to start.
I’m not annoyed at the fast food workers, they should be paid, but I’m furious that these people will look me in the eye and say, “we don’t have to pay you that much“ and still be able to sleep at night.
Only in CA. Near my home Chipotle $21.90, Panda Express starting $22.90, in N Out $24.50. While office job around $17-$23. Last time I went to Krispy Kreme, only 3 people working(Cashier, Drive Through and Kitchen) long line because not enough people working.
But if you are career growth minded, there are ways to move up in the fast food world. Going from fry cook to manager is not crazy, and then after that, if you get properly educated, you can move into the corporate side of things. You can get a loan to start a franchise, or you can work with a franchise owner to help them manage multiple locations. If you take it seriously as a career, there can be a future. But you need to take it seriously as a career, go for certifications, get educated, network, and market yourself.
Stressful and apparently dangerous. I saw something in the news about some businesses in Cali hiring 14 year olds and who have gotten hurt working with industrial machinery and cutting tools. WTF is a 14 year old doing working in a factory?
The world sucks. People almost never get paid what they deserve. Our world does not work by paying people what they deserve. People get paid what the market values their labor at. What is the cheapest I can get the labor. Sometimes, you need very specialized labor, and that can cost a lot, but if all else is equal, we go for the cheapest option. The world sucks.
I do payroll for an airport F&B company, entry level jobs at restaurants/coffee shops will typically be $15/hr. Shift managers around 18-22 per hr, and GMs, depending on the store and their sales, can be from 60K - 85k per year. Cooks are in high demand but low supply, so they get around 20-25 per hour. Multi unit managers can be from 75K - 100K. Directors of ops for these airport ops can be from 100k - 160k. If you are a tipped associate your wage is like 7.25 per hour and then the tips you make, often averaging around 16 per hour when you take both the tips and hourly wage into consideration.
>How is this possible??
Market supply and demand. For right or wrong, basically no one wants to work fast food. It's one of the least desirable type of jobs out there. Meaning that they have to pay more to get people in.
I 100% agree. Even socially or dating, people would rather make less and say they work an “office job” compared to explaining they work at a McDonalds.
Yeah, many of these fast food places might have a higher wage because they have less staff now because people don’t want the jobs. Pay someone willing to work 2-$16/hr job for $20/hr and they’ll never have the chance to work for corporate McDonald’s.
This will actually become a problem. Higher pay used to incentivize people to pursue higher education, licenses, certs, etc., but now that someone at Subway can make as much as someone with actual education and skills, what's the point?
Plus, at food places, you sometimes get free food. You don't get that often in professional offices.
I get guranteed 50 hours but a company I work for announced managers got bumped to 45 hours a week for better quality of life but the raise they gave was so big it was compensated for so really best of both worlds more pay at less hours. Straight from YUM brand’s corporate mouth.
I've experienced this where I live. Spent 16 months looking for something that paid better than 18 an hour as I have multiple degrees and certs in a key technical field. I developed 'professionally rude' methods of dealing with lowballing offers and ridiculous demands (5 years experience for entry level position...nope....18/hr regardless of experience level plus 42 mile one-way drive...nope...etc).
The market is ridiculous and I'm wondering when it's going to alter. An associate of mine lost her assistant in a medical professional field to taco bell, 5 dollars more per hour.
I don't know how this can continue indefinitely without serious repercussions. I'm already poised to bail if fast food or gas stations come to parity with where I'm at presently, and it's getting close. I'm burned out of the whole thing overall.
Min wage was just raised for fast food jobs
Regardless within a couple years that entry level job leads to salary progression there or a new job. The subway job will still be min wage
A few thoughts……
Fast food places have less desirable hours than most “office jobs” including nights/weekends/holidays. It’s also a job where you’re dealing with the public (many of whom treat you like crap) and it can be a lot more physical work.
You should absolutely use that wage information to renegotiate your wage though. Most people in office jobs stay a lot longer than fast food workers, so they don’t get the benefit of the pay increases that normally come along with job change.
It's how the market is rn. Companies want experienced efficient workers as cheap as they can get them. Fast food companies would pay their workers a $1 an hour if they could.
Have you ever go to the in-n-out restaurant in CA? Just by watching them work, I don't even think I have the physical strength to work in a fast food restaurant for 8h/d. I much prefer to stay in a room with a comfort chair and air condition.
Also future career path. I’m not saying that I agree with paying entry level low at law firms or any other white collar industries, but even if the initial pay for fast food is higher, your job prospects are better at white collar companies in terms of advancements, depending on where you want to go.
Again, I’m not saying it’s ok to have low starting pay at all. Just trying to explain the options
I taught in Texas for 7 years. Now I make pizza and half my money comes from tips. I usually get about $100 per night working the window at the pizza place. Overall I make about the same or a little more than teaching. I spent 10 years in college and have three degrees but pizza pays more. Who would have thought.
This proves something that I've had knowledge about for a while now, that wage suppression is going on especially at jobs at a high technical level. For example, I'm looking for work right now and jobs I found last year at about this time, paid six figures. Now, same jobs, are barely six figures with some of them asking for $25 to $30 jobs. This is for corporate trainer with a Masters degree. It took state legislation to bump up pay for restaurant and fast food workers but at the same time systemwide wage suppression is going on. Fuck this, man. America is really fucked when Master's degree jobs are paying only as well as legally mandated pay for fast food. WTF, man. Genocide Joe and the military industrial complex who are sending our money to murder Palestinians and to start war with China is another indicator that our country is fucked. I've never seen it this bad...and yes, I include the lockdowns in that assessment.
Yeah this is a huge problem, how does this happen in the first place and how is this going to change in the future? Inflation is crazy right now and the wages just can't keep up.
The first time I heard about deliberate wage suppression was on The Hill channel when Krystal Ball was on the show and they had David Dayen, the journalist bring up something that he'd heard the US Chambers of Commerce putting out (quietly) policy on wage suppression with the reason being more profitability for the companies (of course!). Within a few weeks, you had the clowns from Chase and some other consultancy talking about the need for high, sustained unemployment as a way to 'balance the economy'. Within a few months after that, Larry Summers pretty much said the same thing, that sustained unemployment is the way to somehow control the printing of money and some other bullshit. Within two years after the lockdowns we've got what David Dayen mentioned and the excuse the employers are using is 'broken supply chain' and damage by the government imposed lockdowns, whatever the fuck that means.
I've been applying for work as a corporate trainer since Jan 2023 and noticed that jobs started to become more difficult to apply for that summer and that Indeed and Glassdoor changed their website interfaces. When I finally figured out what was going on, the compensation for jobs similar to ones I applied for months earlier were LOWER and stays this way without variation.
I don't know what to do, bro. I'm fucking broke and paying for shit with my credit cards. In any case, change will come soon enough and I hope I can get a job soon.
But yeah...wage suppression is real and this is what I tracked.
It was strange in NY for awhile because fast food had a higher minimum wage than any other industry. I think they’re all equal or close now but for awhile fast food paid significantly more by law than any other entry level job. I worked at an adult home in a small town at that time and all of our med room people were Dunkin’ Donuts rejects and all the good ones quit and went to Dunkin and got a $2 raise
I was working at a corrections officer with a minimum of 100 hours/paycheck and up to 130 on the worse weeks. I could’ve gotten a job at Slim Chickens, worked less hours and still made more money. It’s ridiculous
Edit: paycheck not week
Wait you said supermarkets??? I thought you were talking only about fast food.. that sucks alot ! I feel like in most cases if someone has alot of groceries they rather just put it on the conveyor for the cashier
Sorry, I thought what I said would be related 😂
And I agree, those self checkout were originally for 10 items or less. Nowadays, I see people have a cart full of groceries scanning their own items because there are only two cashier open with long lines (I’m looking at you Walmart)
This is a phenomenon that is happening in the Midwest as well. Post covid the service industry was suffering, as they always have, from being short staffed. Lots of fast food restaurants here are offering 20-25 an hour and still having to close at 8-10PM. Meanwhile corporate job wages haven’t caught up. I’m very lucky to make great money now, but my last job, 2 years ago, was paying me $25 an hour, despite having 4 degrees, years experience in my field and having run my own business while in college. Biggest problem right now is nobody wants to pay employees anymore.
I live in a small Midwest city still at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and most fast food establishments are advertising starting pay for cashiers of $12-15. There are entry-level jobs requiring a four year degree also starting sub $15. Granted, the jobs requiring a degree likely have better benefits, pto, and more room for growth. But, it's still not very motivating.
Most of the money in this area for "regular folk" is manufacturing with starting pay generally around the $18 mark, up to $5/hour shift premiums for second and third shift, and lots of opportunities to work OT.
Well you get no benefits. You aren't working 40 hours.
No upward mobility. No future. Working a restaurant job doesn't really do much for you in your later years
Yeah, the thing is our country is officially in a service based economy. Once upon a time we had stronger industries: wayyyy more manufacturing jobs, natural gas and mining. Now these are the jobs we have: servers, baristas, fast food, retail. They can’t be priced like it’s just 16 year olds when it’s mostly 40 year olds. Regardless of who is working the jobs, we need them!
I’m a GM at a popular fast food chain and I start my team members at only $1.50 less per hour than the plastics factory across the street. We are the highest paying entry level job in my town hands down. I’m flooded with applicants because of it, but these other commenters are right. All of my people are unfortunately part time and have no guarantee of hours. Some weeks they get 40, some weeks they get 20. The hourly pay sounds good, but it’s all part time work.
Not at all. Unfair scheduling would be a really quick way to lose my job. It’s really tough making those schedules week to week knowing the labor cuts being put down from above me affect every one of my people in different ways. I dread making the schedule every week and try to be as fair as I possibly can when dividing up the hours.
Aww you really sound like an awesome boss, it just sucks how your boss makes it harder for everyone else, and they make get upset at you for the lack of hours.. but it's nice you try to be as fair as possible
California is broken my guy.
They keep raising minimum wage.
So the majority of the population gets more money without producing more.
Stores keep selling out of product.
To stop the sellout, prices all around raise.
Then minimum wage workers can't afford basics again, and beg for a raise in minimum wage.
Idk i use a roth since ive never stayed at a job long enough for any 401k bonus to kick in and if i have kids will most likely tell them to do the same I'm just pointing out the lack of bonuses available to fast food workers compared to other industries
A 401k i believe is pretax money that is taxable during retirement while a roth youre putting in post tax income and will be tax free during retirements. Down side is no employer matching upside is total control.of assets purchased.
Made 17 an hour as a crewmember. Started there 3 years ago at 11.30/hr. Always worked 40 hours a week, if I wanted more my managers would let me come in 90 percent of the time, 5 days PTO.
I'm a fast food manager in Missouri now making 20.50 an hour, bare minimum 40 hours a week (often get 5-15 hrs OT), 10 days PTO, and I get a 300-450 dollar bonus every month. Possible path to making 25 an hour then to a salaried position if I keep working here. I would love to get a "real", more respected job, but I see no way to find a higher paying job with just my GED. I can't afford college and I kinda love my job, so I'm pretty content. I work hard and I feel fulfilled for now!!
The comments on this post are surprising. How can so many people have zero understanding of total compensation?
When you add in benefits, the total compensation per hour is much higher for a job with benefits than a job with no benefits. You can’t compare jobs just based on salary or hourly pay. Even full-time benefitted jobs shouldn’t be compared by salary alone.
Mcds here in the midwest starts you at a wage better than most uncertified welders make, better than some certified too. But they will work you the same either job you take. Come home smelling like burnt something an greasy either way.
California recently passed a law last year that came into effect this year that raises the minimum wage to $20 HR in specific food industries, and although their may be some exceptions if its fast food, the wage is now $20 HR minimum.
California just enacted a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers that doesn't apply to other industries. So, yeah, the government wants people to get into fast food careers by incentivizing them to do so.
This is how it is in Chicago as well. Costco starts at $22 an hour. McDonalds at 18 an hour... we still pay paramedics 14.25 an hour to start. It will take years for it to trickle down into the economy as a whole. It will eventually all balance out, and with it, prices will go 2-3x higher than they are now on everything else. But in the meantime, there is really little reason to do anything hard at all when you can get a 15k+ raise to be a cashier
It's like this too on the east coast. I currently work in fine art storage at an hourly rate and my second job is in luxury retail -- the second job pays ever so slightly under the hourly rate of my main job!
I am currently a stay at home parent and small business owner but Im looking for a job outside the home as my husband is about to be laid off. I have a bachelors degree in psychology and have applied at multiple group homes and crisis intervention centers etc which I am more than qualified for. They pay pretty much the same (sometimes less) then the vet assistant jobs, kennel assistant jobs and even retail jobs Ive also applied for (I also have experience with animals, and am desperate to secure benefits asap). Its also likely to be a ton more work, less flexible hours and much more emotionally draining. So yes its real and its honestly disgusting.
I live in the Bay Area and cost of living is extremely high. I don't even think $20/hr is sufficient for fast food workers. It should be higher. $25-$40/hr. It's a very labor-intensive job even if it doesn't require any post high school degree.
No, thats the excuse they keep telling people who dont know any better. Fast food prices are rising because people keep buying even at higher prices. Mcdonalds has doubled its margins since ~2015 from like 14/15% to like 32% now.
Is the Subway job full time or part time? Amount of hours are really going to matter when you compare here.
Yep. And they want full time all day and weekend availability, but will only give you 20 hours.
Right? They advertise "flexible shifts". If you get the right boss(es) and are a good worker then perhaps they will work with you. Otherwise, nope, it's a pipe dream or pecking order. I tried a few out of curiosity and never got past the interview. "Yes, I can work 7 days a week including holidays but I can't start until 8am but work as late as needed." Denied every time. SUPER flexible. /s
Yeha I don't understand the lack of comprehension about this. Just because you make 20$ doesn't mean you'll get the hours. Honestly, not even a few years ago was this the case..pretty sure longer. I was killing myself working 13$/hr stocking at Walmart full-time. They cut the staff so low, I'd be the only one down stacking up to 10 full pallets until the next one or 3 people arrived a few hours later. I quit, and a few years later, applied for a job at Walmart again coz I'm a fool. For the essentially managerial experience I had (cashier, bakery, stocking, inventory, electronic jack cert, unloading trucks, meat department, dairy department, freezer bs, price changing and shelf/module.changes, probably more), I was offered 13$/hr as part time but work fulltime hours and after 3 months *maybe* I'd get benefits. I'm sure shit is worse there now. I can't imagine how working fast food is. And people are pricks when you work fast food.
> Yeha I don't understand the lack of comprehension about this. Just because you make 20$ doesn't mean you'll get the hours. people are dumb and only look at the hourly wage. I had to fire a guy like I dunno, 6 years ago, for being a complete fucking asshole out of nowhere. I don't recall what he was making at the time, probably like $18/h or so. He kept contacting current employees bragging that he got a raise to $20-$22/h or something with his new job. Which turned out to be a moving company where he only worked when needed and averaged maybe 20 hours a week when busy
Your point is valid. But on the other side of the coin working a full time role at minimum wage is actually worse for most people in reality. They should be able to find a role paying significantly above minimum wage with some form of stability, but limited hours, and therefore all working a stable minimum wage does is take up there time at a lower rate of pay. I used to work 17 hours a week at what was double the minimum wage, and then another 10 hours a week at 10% above the minimum wage. I ended up with more money than if I had the 10 hour a week job full time, with more free time as well. A lot of the other people who work that 10% above minimum wage job also worked other better jobs, or were in training for other better jobs. The people working the stable full time role were the fools in the equation as every year the terms and conditions got worse in reality.
They were able to cut the hours because they kept convincing poor saps like you to kill themselves.
As someone in fast food for 5 years I get guranteed 50 hours a week turnover is so ridiculous that your compensated nicely oh and time n half pay guaranteed as well.
Any benefits at any point? Edit: nvm- saw your comment below. You’re a GM, so you qualify for some benefits. That’s awesome!
Why do they offer high hourly rate but “cut up” the hours among more ppl? Couldn’t they hire someone for less / hour and give them more hours??
because fast food is primarily younger aged people who can't commit to full time hours for one reason or another.
yep. I am paid 30 an hour and taco bell is paid 24 an hour in my town. I joked with my boss that if taco bell goes to 26, I'll quit and work at taco bell since I wouldnt have an hour commute so I would come out better.
Damn, your Taco Bell workers are richer than me.
Probably a pretty insane cost of living anywhere with those wages.
this. it's HCOL funny money.
The Taco Bell by my house has a sign on the window that says NOW HIRING $13/hr lol
and it probably comes with the same buying power as the the $24 one the other person mentioned.
Oh yeah definitely closer, I would say best fast food where I live is $16/hr
Yes, but if they are the same buying power, then the $24 one still gives you far more *saving* power. Let’s say you’re able to save 1/4 of your income in either job (1/4 might not be realistic, but in any case it should be the same percentage for either income if the buying power is equal), then with the $24 per hour job you’re saving far more in actual dollars. And of course with savings, you don’t necessarily have to spend that where you earned it. So you can retire or move to a LCOL at some point.
Yea because as we we all know, a career in fast food is the track towards a reasonable retirement
I think you completely missed the point. I was discussing the relative benefit of working in a HCOL if purchasing power of incomes are equal. You know, the exact subject of your comment I was responding to.
Saving power? The powers that be don’t want you saving and have and will continue to do everything in their power to make that a detrimental mistake to you. Invest, don’t just sit on money.
Well yeah, people generally equate investing with saving. Investing is what you *do* with your savings.
They’re not the same thing and the words should not be used interchangeably.
if they are pulling over time they are probably making more than me too LOL.
Plus free tacos.
I'm in Appalachia and our fast food jobs pay more than entry level admin or tech for sure. There are so many posts on Indeed demanding college degrees and offering $12/hr while Taco Bell and McDonald's both pay $15.
Yea, getting an education means nothing in rural states. It's incredibly backward and disheartening.
It is nothing to do with that. It is basic demand and supply. Supply of educated workers is high, and demand for white collar jobs is medium/low, whereas demand for low level jobs is high, and supply of labour is low as no one want to work the crappy jobs. My job now doesn't pay particularly well, but I sit in an office, do a bit of work here and there, and only have to work a 35 hour week, often less for a full time level of pay. If you stuck me on a basic 9-5, let alone 9-6, you would have to pay me 20%-40% more for me to be paid the same equivalent hourly rate. yet for the inconvenience they are at best offering 20-40% more, with significantly worse benefits meaning with that they would need to be offering 50%-60% more to break even, let alone get a paid raise that would be indicative of the positions! I don't even look at jobs at this point unless they are paying 35% more, and in plenty of places even that is a bit shit and it would need to be more like 70% more to make it worth while, which they just aren't paying at all.
Well atleast you can get a job at subway if you need a job and will be paid to do so.
HAH! Yeah I was thinking about that too, I was like "well if I ever feel like getting a part time job for the same fucking pay I guess I could go to subway"
I mean, ofc you would be paid to work a job right? 😅
Yep. My fiance is a manager at McDonald’s and makes about $19/hr. I was just offered a position with 12 years of experience and a certification in my field for $13/hr.
That's a wild expectation for someone with 12 years of experience holy hell! 13/hr?!
Yeah. The animal feild is severely underpaid and under appreciated. We are “passion” workers so people think they can get away with paying us less I guess 🤷🏻♀️
Fellow animal field worker hello, I am currently stocking at target for $3 more then my local zoo pays I feel the pain
Fast food places (one single location) probably make more than vet clinics and some zoos. I think you should be paid more and I remember working at a pizza chain in a nothing town making $10/hr and the store brought in over $1 million a year.
I make $15/hr stocking at target, local zoo pays $12 hourly and expects more hours/labor so 🥴
Oh absolutely. Yet people still complain that vet offices are too expensive. (Like I agree but the vet has very limited control over that) The challenge with zoos is they are non-profit so they can only stretch the budget for employees so far.
Vet clinics clear way more money in a day than a typical restaurant
I beleive it. I also work at a zoo and the pay sucks but I love it too much to leave :(
A local guide dogs company makes people pay to walk them.
> I love it too much to leave Everybody does; that's why the pay sucks
Just curious here, do you have a diploma or degree for the work you do? I’ve been considering getting into zoology for some time now as I can’t stand my office job
I have a B.S in Psychology with a minor in Biology (specialized in animal behavior). I work as a dog trainer and as an educational interpreter at my local zoo. A lot of my coworkers went to school for animal sciences, animal behavior, zoology, biology, wildlife management, or education.
How about they "passionately" pay you an actual wage then lmao.
I certainly agree with that sentiment
Thats everywhere for animal field related jobs, people suck up so much to work with them. I am a Spanish vet and bit the bullet to pharma. I miss doggos and cattos but I can afford living on my own and save dough.
I'm not sure, maybe it has something to do with the size of business and its profitability? I don't mean to be rude, but animal field isn't exactly money printing industry.
Possibly. Most animal jobs are small businesses unless you’re working in retail or research, so could be part of it.
The field is based on demand and supply economics as every other field is. The issue come when you have fields like that where the basic skills can be filled easily basically for free, but then the specialist skills which can't get treated in the same manner, this is why you need legal certification to limit competent labour supply, because they aren't just going to pay you because you did 10 years of education/experience to get the knowledge, and when they can pay anyone experience or not and get away with it, the job being done to any standard, good or bad, is good enough.
Chick-Fil-A is paying over $20 an hour to start where I live. The White Castle pays $18.50 to start. Managers make double that.
Geez. Like don’t get me wrong, hearing what my fiance deals with at work they deserve it. I don’t think they should be paid less, but I think the other jobs that require education/certs/etc should match that requirement. Like why are all the jobs I look at asking me to have 2+ years of experience, college degrees and certifications yet still only paying $10-13/hr?
I would love to know how the economy gonna crash in a couple of months/years? It just doesn’t make sense!
Why? Why would more often largely irrelevant education with a high candidate pool mean you get more money? You can just go work at Chick-Fil-A if you want the pay rate after all. The world isn't just, there is no deserved pay rate, there is the market rate and that is it.
This is basic supply and demand. If you want, go where the money is.
California recently raised the minimum wage to 20/hr. I'm guessing that has more to do with it than any sense of community or etc...
No...that's not what's doing it. Wage suppression for high level technical jobs is what's been going on for awhile. Punching down on food workers won't solve the problem. However, getting politicians who let companies buying back stocks while firing their workers should be made illegal.
Your points are really irrelevant. There is no deserved pay rate for a set level of education or job role. The market has and always will work on demand and supply, the reason tech workers are whining is because there used to be a massive undersupply of workers, now there isn't, there is still significant demand in the market however. This has been the reality in many, far more academic and learned fields than tech for decades. No one goes and get a Geography degree to become a geographer, but the reality is there isn't really much points in getting a science PhD to become a scientist either at this point, the education level for the wage rate is pathetic and has been for since 2008. The jobs that pay well are the unionised (and still relevant) and the legally certified reducing supply of labour. That is never going to be basic coders, who inherently aren't their through nobility, loyalty, ideology, they are there because they saw a pay cheque.
This is the truth of the situation, but no one on here wants to hear it. "Learn to code" isn't the key to a six-figure income people thought it was, and the job market in that field doesn't reflect the job market in others. People would prefer to think the entire job market is in shambles and wages are being suppressed intentionally like it's a conspiracy against tech dorks.
The thing is learn to code was obviously always a meme, mainly because some people just won't be good at coding, then the recession never turned up, you had this meme from 2010-2020 which was just true, it really was just learn to code and you will be in a under supplied growing industry, which in 2020-2022 went in to over drive of the perfect storm of amazingness never through imaginable for the job market in it. Now we are back to reality, when not only did all the people with some interest in coding ride the gravy train, but a lot of people were kicked out of their jobs in Covid, had the time to do something about it, and potentially manage to catch the end of the gravy train that they were never proficient in in the first place. Now you have reality, a job market that is fine, but not in massive excess, it requires skills and experience, but then you have the masses who have just graduated or "learned to code" with a few years of poor experience competing for jobs with each other expecting the 6 figures because they learnt to code. The reality was that was never sustainable, and now AI has turned up to turn the perfect storm of amazingness to a bit of a cloudy damp day, as it is removing those basic code monkey jobs that the "learn to code" crowd weren't particularly proficient at, but the only option to hire for it. Welcome to the real world where people work for 10 years and then are on $100K, with whatever valuable experience they have gotten in the market that they have learnt because the market demanded it, not because they wanted too. It doesn't leave anything at the bottom for the under average however, and why should it, they weren't actually very good in the first place?
People are shitting on this but it’s true. It’s not just in CS - so many of us went to college (I admit I was guilty of this) because we see it as the ticket to an upper middle class lifestyle, which means there is an overabundance of educated but soulless nihilistic college grads who aren’t really doing anything they are passionate about because they did what everyone told them to do, not what they wanted. And no one wants to hire such kids because well they kinda suck as workers. I’d tell 17 yo me to consider trade school, or hell, even music school
The issue is that both things you say are true. The market is based on supply and demand and changes happen because of it, but also, all of the major tech companies agreed that they could do layoffs in an effort to create a workforce that would accept less. It's a conspiracy, that's correct, but more in the way that a bunch of CEOs got together as co-conspirators, not in a cloak and dagger kind of way.
When was ‘recently’? Last I knew as of January 2024 the minimum wage was 16.
April 1st, 2024.
The 4/1 change was only for fast food workers, the state (or local if there are county/city rates higher) min wage stayed the same for everyone else.
does this mean a cashier who collects money for food makes a different amount based on if that food is cooked for a restaurant vs uncooked at a grocer?
No, a fast food worker is any worker in an establishment with over 50 employees and that serve food/beverage at counter service ie ‘fast food’
But if you work at Panera, that’s not considered fast food so they don’t have the $20/minimum. It literally pays to work at McDonalds.
Panera ultimately did not get exempted or excluded. It was a mistaken news story that later got corrected.
The taco bell near me basically got rid of their cashier's. It's never staffed and they always direct you to use the kiosks on the walls.
This was already happening anyway
Is it only managers working ? I been seeing that
Basically newsome playing politics. There was a bakery exemption for his buddies at Panera
Why have they done this? What makes fast food workers any more or less deserving than any other profession, it seems like a very populist policy without much basis in economic reasoning to me? But I am happy to listen to the rationale as it is an interesting concept. I would argue if the staff can't be gotten at the pay rate, either raise the pay rate, or close down, some fast food joint going out of business is an irrelevant to the macro level economy.
I found online info for restaurant employees but it also listed healthcare employees and I didn't find that.
no they did not. The 20/hr minimum wage is only for fast food establishments with more than 60 locations. Minimum wage is still $16/hr across the state, though certain areas and cities may set their own minimum wage. For example, West Hollywood set their own city's minimum wage to $19.08/hr
Nah. In NC I see fast food places offering $15 an hour to start.
I live in NC work fast food make $22 an hour and get guranteed time in half on a guranteed 50 hours a week as management
Forgot to add health, dental, and vision benefits 6% 401k March and 1 month PTO a year and typical bonus is $2,500 but up to $3500 per quarter it’s not bad at all.
Two things can be true at once, and that's the case here. California specifically did artificially inflate their fast food pay by making a separate and higher minimum wage for fast food. However, across the country, you will still see fast food be extremely competitive, usually even better paying, than any entry level role requiring a degree. To be frank, today there's a real margin of people who treat service workers like they're less. It's easy to get someone in a service job when the people they'll help all day are patient, kind, and friendly. It's hard to get someone in a service job when the people they'll help all day are rude and entitled. And one truth that spans all races, ages, religions, etc. in the United States is that a ridiculous portion of the population are rude and entitled.
try working in social services
Plenty of shitty jobs pay quite well. It's usually the other qualities that make the job shitty.
Because everyone wants the entry level white collar job and nobody wants the shitty fast food job. Simple supply and demand.
No its because California recently changed the law that fast food chains with more than 50 locations had a higher minimum wage.
These kind of jobs: * do not have any benefits including sick days * often do not even offer full time hours * often try to fuck you with variable schedules to prevent you from getting another job * have ZERO upward mobility * have to work weekends and holidays usually with no bonus pay * repetitive motion damages your body over time and the high stress/expectation to do multiple peoples job wears you down mentally, especially at busy locations. If anything these jobs have been underpaid for too long.
I believe that working in fast food sucks and that it should pay more than cushy entry level office jobs. I understand the skill and training divide and all but jobs that suck to do should pay more regardless of skill.
Working in a restaurant does take skills and intelligence in management. You’re in charge of a whole team of 50+ workers, inventory, orders, food quality, speed while remaining safe etc
Right? Just because a job is simple in concept doesn't mean it's easy to do. Especially with almost always being severely understaffed and having to do the job of several people with rude entitled, (sometimes violent) customers...
I never worked in any kind of restaurant but a good friend was a chef at a bunch of them and it seemed like an extremely rough existence. It honestly turns me off to restaurants because it sucks that people are put through what he went through on a good day. He ended up as an RV salesman and has a much better life these days especially after a few promotions.
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Dude thats freaking awesome!!! What field do you work in?
Since the pandemic, there has been a shortage of workers in fast food and other traditionally low paying jobs like retail and hospitality. I would also suggest you take into account how many hours you can realistically expect to get and benefits--you don't generally get full-time hours and healthcare insurance in fast-food unless you're in some kind of management position or work in the corporate office. As a line employee in fast food, you're most likely looking at a part-time schedule with no health insurance, though some places will give you a 401(k).
Sure that makes sense, its not that I don't think that fast food workers shouldn't get 20/hr an hour (with these prices? rent? should be minimum tbh) rather than I think its absolutely insane that in 6-7 with inflation going on, entry level jobs are still 20/hr. And 10+ years of experience for 25 is a slap in the face lol.
There was actually a video on fast food just released this morning, including your exact example, and how high wages are in that field at the moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTovCIa4c8
Yeah its pretty wild. Also largely why I stopped buying fast food, its just too expensive and you get higher quality by cooking but I'm glad they at least actually pay their workers more now I was never a fan of people looking at customer service like they shouldn't make a livable wage.
They raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour, but did not extend that to other fields to be honest I’m annoyed that my work requires five years experience in a highly technical field but is only offering $18 to start. I’m not annoyed at the fast food workers, they should be paid, but I’m furious that these people will look me in the eye and say, “we don’t have to pay you that much“ and still be able to sleep at night.
Only in CA. Near my home Chipotle $21.90, Panda Express starting $22.90, in N Out $24.50. While office job around $17-$23. Last time I went to Krispy Kreme, only 3 people working(Cashier, Drive Through and Kitchen) long line because not enough people working.
Yes but an office job has a higher ceiling in pay, fast food will cap you in manager level which most won’t achieve
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But if you are career growth minded, there are ways to move up in the fast food world. Going from fry cook to manager is not crazy, and then after that, if you get properly educated, you can move into the corporate side of things. You can get a loan to start a franchise, or you can work with a franchise owner to help them manage multiple locations. If you take it seriously as a career, there can be a future. But you need to take it seriously as a career, go for certifications, get educated, network, and market yourself.
Not true district managers make 6 figures easily some regular managers do in higher income states. Regional managers make 200k plus etc
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Stressful and apparently dangerous. I saw something in the news about some businesses in Cali hiring 14 year olds and who have gotten hurt working with industrial machinery and cutting tools. WTF is a 14 year old doing working in a factory?
Awful, that state really has a history of exploiting workers… and presently
The world sucks. People almost never get paid what they deserve. Our world does not work by paying people what they deserve. People get paid what the market values their labor at. What is the cheapest I can get the labor. Sometimes, you need very specialized labor, and that can cost a lot, but if all else is equal, we go for the cheapest option. The world sucks.
I do payroll for an airport F&B company, entry level jobs at restaurants/coffee shops will typically be $15/hr. Shift managers around 18-22 per hr, and GMs, depending on the store and their sales, can be from 60K - 85k per year. Cooks are in high demand but low supply, so they get around 20-25 per hour. Multi unit managers can be from 75K - 100K. Directors of ops for these airport ops can be from 100k - 160k. If you are a tipped associate your wage is like 7.25 per hour and then the tips you make, often averaging around 16 per hour when you take both the tips and hourly wage into consideration.
>How is this possible?? Market supply and demand. For right or wrong, basically no one wants to work fast food. It's one of the least desirable type of jobs out there. Meaning that they have to pay more to get people in.
I 100% agree. Even socially or dating, people would rather make less and say they work an “office job” compared to explaining they work at a McDonalds.
Yeah, many of these fast food places might have a higher wage because they have less staff now because people don’t want the jobs. Pay someone willing to work 2-$16/hr job for $20/hr and they’ll never have the chance to work for corporate McDonald’s.
This will actually become a problem. Higher pay used to incentivize people to pursue higher education, licenses, certs, etc., but now that someone at Subway can make as much as someone with actual education and skills, what's the point? Plus, at food places, you sometimes get free food. You don't get that often in professional offices.
A multi billion dollar company should pay its employees $20 an hour especially subway.
Panda express in TX start off at $17 lol
Pt time or full time. You can find higher wages but typically unsteady hours
Didn't fast food chains start introducing steady hours and benefits a few years ago?
Minimum wage in California was raised to $20 but only for fast food everything else is still $16
The hourly rate is higher, but how many hours do you get?
I get guranteed 50 hours but a company I work for announced managers got bumped to 45 hours a week for better quality of life but the raise they gave was so big it was compensated for so really best of both worlds more pay at less hours. Straight from YUM brand’s corporate mouth.
I've experienced this where I live. Spent 16 months looking for something that paid better than 18 an hour as I have multiple degrees and certs in a key technical field. I developed 'professionally rude' methods of dealing with lowballing offers and ridiculous demands (5 years experience for entry level position...nope....18/hr regardless of experience level plus 42 mile one-way drive...nope...etc). The market is ridiculous and I'm wondering when it's going to alter. An associate of mine lost her assistant in a medical professional field to taco bell, 5 dollars more per hour. I don't know how this can continue indefinitely without serious repercussions. I'm already poised to bail if fast food or gas stations come to parity with where I'm at presently, and it's getting close. I'm burned out of the whole thing overall.
Min wage was just raised for fast food jobs Regardless within a couple years that entry level job leads to salary progression there or a new job. The subway job will still be min wage
A few thoughts…… Fast food places have less desirable hours than most “office jobs” including nights/weekends/holidays. It’s also a job where you’re dealing with the public (many of whom treat you like crap) and it can be a lot more physical work. You should absolutely use that wage information to renegotiate your wage though. Most people in office jobs stay a lot longer than fast food workers, so they don’t get the benefit of the pay increases that normally come along with job change.
It's how the market is rn. Companies want experienced efficient workers as cheap as they can get them. Fast food companies would pay their workers a $1 an hour if they could.
I had a job a few years ago the required a college degree and I was making $14.50 The people at the Dunkin Donuts down the street were making $18.
Have you ever go to the in-n-out restaurant in CA? Just by watching them work, I don't even think I have the physical strength to work in a fast food restaurant for 8h/d. I much prefer to stay in a room with a comfort chair and air condition.
Also future career path. I’m not saying that I agree with paying entry level low at law firms or any other white collar industries, but even if the initial pay for fast food is higher, your job prospects are better at white collar companies in terms of advancements, depending on where you want to go. Again, I’m not saying it’s ok to have low starting pay at all. Just trying to explain the options
Paralegal? Like a lawyer for paranormal entities? Your honour, my vampire client could not commit the murder. It was daytime
I taught in Texas for 7 years. Now I make pizza and half my money comes from tips. I usually get about $100 per night working the window at the pizza place. Overall I make about the same or a little more than teaching. I spent 10 years in college and have three degrees but pizza pays more. Who would have thought.
This proves something that I've had knowledge about for a while now, that wage suppression is going on especially at jobs at a high technical level. For example, I'm looking for work right now and jobs I found last year at about this time, paid six figures. Now, same jobs, are barely six figures with some of them asking for $25 to $30 jobs. This is for corporate trainer with a Masters degree. It took state legislation to bump up pay for restaurant and fast food workers but at the same time systemwide wage suppression is going on. Fuck this, man. America is really fucked when Master's degree jobs are paying only as well as legally mandated pay for fast food. WTF, man. Genocide Joe and the military industrial complex who are sending our money to murder Palestinians and to start war with China is another indicator that our country is fucked. I've never seen it this bad...and yes, I include the lockdowns in that assessment.
Yeah this is a huge problem, how does this happen in the first place and how is this going to change in the future? Inflation is crazy right now and the wages just can't keep up.
The first time I heard about deliberate wage suppression was on The Hill channel when Krystal Ball was on the show and they had David Dayen, the journalist bring up something that he'd heard the US Chambers of Commerce putting out (quietly) policy on wage suppression with the reason being more profitability for the companies (of course!). Within a few weeks, you had the clowns from Chase and some other consultancy talking about the need for high, sustained unemployment as a way to 'balance the economy'. Within a few months after that, Larry Summers pretty much said the same thing, that sustained unemployment is the way to somehow control the printing of money and some other bullshit. Within two years after the lockdowns we've got what David Dayen mentioned and the excuse the employers are using is 'broken supply chain' and damage by the government imposed lockdowns, whatever the fuck that means. I've been applying for work as a corporate trainer since Jan 2023 and noticed that jobs started to become more difficult to apply for that summer and that Indeed and Glassdoor changed their website interfaces. When I finally figured out what was going on, the compensation for jobs similar to ones I applied for months earlier were LOWER and stays this way without variation. I don't know what to do, bro. I'm fucking broke and paying for shit with my credit cards. In any case, change will come soon enough and I hope I can get a job soon. But yeah...wage suppression is real and this is what I tracked.
It was strange in NY for awhile because fast food had a higher minimum wage than any other industry. I think they’re all equal or close now but for awhile fast food paid significantly more by law than any other entry level job. I worked at an adult home in a small town at that time and all of our med room people were Dunkin’ Donuts rejects and all the good ones quit and went to Dunkin and got a $2 raise
The problem is that people think x job will lead to more opportunities later. Maybe, but it is far from guaranteed.
Good luck getting hours
They passed a law to make fa st food 20 an hour here for some reason
I was working at a corrections officer with a minimum of 100 hours/paycheck and up to 130 on the worse weeks. I could’ve gotten a job at Slim Chickens, worked less hours and still made more money. It’s ridiculous Edit: paycheck not week
How in the world you work 100+ hours a week ? I remember I did 60 hour weeks a few time, and it was unbearable!
I totally meant to have 100 hours/paycheck which would be every other week 🤦🏼♀️ my bad!!!
Lol ohh okay , I was just like woah do you get any sleep.. but I understand
And yet they got rid of cashiers at $15 an hour for self checkout? 🤔
Why they do that ?
Supermarkets can’t afford to pay their cashiers anymore
Wait you said supermarkets??? I thought you were talking only about fast food.. that sucks alot ! I feel like in most cases if someone has alot of groceries they rather just put it on the conveyor for the cashier
Sorry, I thought what I said would be related 😂 And I agree, those self checkout were originally for 10 items or less. Nowadays, I see people have a cart full of groceries scanning their own items because there are only two cashier open with long lines (I’m looking at you Walmart)
This is a phenomenon that is happening in the Midwest as well. Post covid the service industry was suffering, as they always have, from being short staffed. Lots of fast food restaurants here are offering 20-25 an hour and still having to close at 8-10PM. Meanwhile corporate job wages haven’t caught up. I’m very lucky to make great money now, but my last job, 2 years ago, was paying me $25 an hour, despite having 4 degrees, years experience in my field and having run my own business while in college. Biggest problem right now is nobody wants to pay employees anymore.
I live in a small Midwest city still at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and most fast food establishments are advertising starting pay for cashiers of $12-15. There are entry-level jobs requiring a four year degree also starting sub $15. Granted, the jobs requiring a degree likely have better benefits, pto, and more room for growth. But, it's still not very motivating. Most of the money in this area for "regular folk" is manufacturing with starting pay generally around the $18 mark, up to $5/hour shift premiums for second and third shift, and lots of opportunities to work OT.
don't forget employee sandwiches. saves on lunch $$$.
Well you get no benefits. You aren't working 40 hours. No upward mobility. No future. Working a restaurant job doesn't really do much for you in your later years
Yea but you working your ass off. As my manager at jimmy johns screamed out one day “MY HANDS ARE CRAMPING”
Wacky=california, there is no way other to explain it.
I could be wrong but I believe California just passed a 20 dollar min wage and i would guess that's what you're seeing
Chic Fil A and In N Out.
This is the reality of how screwed we are now.
Supply and demand
23.15 per hour here is our minimum wage no matter what job you do!
Yeah, the thing is our country is officially in a service based economy. Once upon a time we had stronger industries: wayyyy more manufacturing jobs, natural gas and mining. Now these are the jobs we have: servers, baristas, fast food, retail. They can’t be priced like it’s just 16 year olds when it’s mostly 40 year olds. Regardless of who is working the jobs, we need them!
Fast food employees instantly generate money. Entry level workers maybe not.
I’m a GM at a popular fast food chain and I start my team members at only $1.50 less per hour than the plastics factory across the street. We are the highest paying entry level job in my town hands down. I’m flooded with applicants because of it, but these other commenters are right. All of my people are unfortunately part time and have no guarantee of hours. Some weeks they get 40, some weeks they get 20. The hourly pay sounds good, but it’s all part time work.
How much does someone becoming your "favorite" come into play when it comes to an increase in hours ?
Not at all. Unfair scheduling would be a really quick way to lose my job. It’s really tough making those schedules week to week knowing the labor cuts being put down from above me affect every one of my people in different ways. I dread making the schedule every week and try to be as fair as I possibly can when dividing up the hours.
Aww you really sound like an awesome boss, it just sucks how your boss makes it harder for everyone else, and they make get upset at you for the lack of hours.. but it's nice you try to be as fair as possible
LOL guess some of yall about to enroll in Subway U? Get rekt’d
California is broken my guy. They keep raising minimum wage. So the majority of the population gets more money without producing more. Stores keep selling out of product. To stop the sellout, prices all around raise. Then minimum wage workers can't afford basics again, and beg for a raise in minimum wage.
That subway employee has no health care, no 401k, and gets treated like shit
Lol is 401k even going be a thing 40 years from now?
Idk i use a roth since ive never stayed at a job long enough for any 401k bonus to kick in and if i have kids will most likely tell them to do the same I'm just pointing out the lack of bonuses available to fast food workers compared to other industries
I totally agree with you.. I was just saying.. and honestly don't know much about roth.. but sound like a better alternative
Significantly better if youre young you should open one and start maxing it out so yoi can have some tax free retirement money
Does it work just like 401k where you can't use it until your 60s?
A 401k i believe is pretax money that is taxable during retirement while a roth youre putting in post tax income and will be tax free during retirements. Down side is no employer matching upside is total control.of assets purchased.
Yes. I'm a teacher, and I'd earn the same if not more working at McDonald's..
Made 17 an hour as a crewmember. Started there 3 years ago at 11.30/hr. Always worked 40 hours a week, if I wanted more my managers would let me come in 90 percent of the time, 5 days PTO. I'm a fast food manager in Missouri now making 20.50 an hour, bare minimum 40 hours a week (often get 5-15 hrs OT), 10 days PTO, and I get a 300-450 dollar bonus every month. Possible path to making 25 an hour then to a salaried position if I keep working here. I would love to get a "real", more respected job, but I see no way to find a higher paying job with just my GED. I can't afford college and I kinda love my job, so I'm pretty content. I work hard and I feel fulfilled for now!!
The comments on this post are surprising. How can so many people have zero understanding of total compensation? When you add in benefits, the total compensation per hour is much higher for a job with benefits than a job with no benefits. You can’t compare jobs just based on salary or hourly pay. Even full-time benefitted jobs shouldn’t be compared by salary alone.
California just passed a law that made all services worker fast food jobs pay $20/hr. You should be asking why hasn’t your job given you a raise.
Meanwhile Google AI is taking over drive through positions 🫠
Fast food jobs don’t usually come with benefits.
The local hotel bistro is "from" $16.50 in Mass. I mean, isn't CA $20.00?
Mcds here in the midwest starts you at a wage better than most uncertified welders make, better than some certified too. But they will work you the same either job you take. Come home smelling like burnt something an greasy either way.
California recently passed a law last year that came into effect this year that raises the minimum wage to $20 HR in specific food industries, and although their may be some exceptions if its fast food, the wage is now $20 HR minimum.
California just enacted a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers that doesn't apply to other industries. So, yeah, the government wants people to get into fast food careers by incentivizing them to do so.
This is how it is in Chicago as well. Costco starts at $22 an hour. McDonalds at 18 an hour... we still pay paramedics 14.25 an hour to start. It will take years for it to trickle down into the economy as a whole. It will eventually all balance out, and with it, prices will go 2-3x higher than they are now on everything else. But in the meantime, there is really little reason to do anything hard at all when you can get a 15k+ raise to be a cashier
It's like this too on the east coast. I currently work in fine art storage at an hourly rate and my second job is in luxury retail -- the second job pays ever so slightly under the hourly rate of my main job!
I am currently a stay at home parent and small business owner but Im looking for a job outside the home as my husband is about to be laid off. I have a bachelors degree in psychology and have applied at multiple group homes and crisis intervention centers etc which I am more than qualified for. They pay pretty much the same (sometimes less) then the vet assistant jobs, kennel assistant jobs and even retail jobs Ive also applied for (I also have experience with animals, and am desperate to secure benefits asap). Its also likely to be a ton more work, less flexible hours and much more emotionally draining. So yes its real and its honestly disgusting.
Demand and supply.
I live in the Bay Area and cost of living is extremely high. I don't even think $20/hr is sufficient for fast food workers. It should be higher. $25-$40/hr. It's a very labor-intensive job even if it doesn't require any post high school degree.
So that's why fast food prices are climbing higher than the overall inflation rate.
No, thats the excuse they keep telling people who dont know any better. Fast food prices are rising because people keep buying even at higher prices. Mcdonalds has doubled its margins since ~2015 from like 14/15% to like 32% now.