While promoting his new book, Watters talked about fast-food workers’ wages.One particular remarkcaught much attention. “If you’re making $20 an hour to work in a fast-food restaurant, is that six figures?” Watters asked, prompting people to wonder whether he was justawfully out-of-touchor couldn’t do simple math.
Wages for fast-food workers can range from $12 to $20 per hour
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Fox News host Jesse Watters recently came under fire for saying that a $20-an-hour salary equals “six figures” per year
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Jesse Watters: “You’re very good at math, so see if you can do this in your head. You probably can. If you’re making $20 an hour to work at a fast food restaurant, alright. Is that six figures? Are you making six figures?”
Patrick Bet-David: “No, no, $40,000 a year.”
Jesse Watters: “So, if your husband or wife is also there, you’re making $100,000 as a family. Both working at McDonald’s.”
“OK, that’s crazy. That is crazy. Because that job really doesn’t require much. So, it’s inflating the entire, you know, labor sector and the Happy Meal.”
The clip where Watters made the slip went viral and got over 770k views in less than a week
Fox News’ Jesse Watters: “If you’re making $20 an hour to work at a fast-food restaurant … Is that six figures?”pic.twitter.com/qe59BWA6je
— The Recount (@therecount)April 11, 2024
Fast food workers earn a minimum of $20 an hour only in California, thanks to a new 2024 law
Fast-food industry workers have been fighting for an industry-wide pay floor for a long time. In 2012, in the campaign “Fight for $15,” fast-food workers advocated for a minimum wage of $15 per hour. And it was somewhat successful: six states and many cities, among which were San Francisco,New York City, and Seattle, implemented laws that secured the minimum wage for fast-food workers.
On April 1st this year, a minimum wage law took effect inCalifornia. From then on, the minimum salary for fast-food workers in the state is $20 an hour. The co-chair of the Labor Center at the University of California, Berkeley, Ken Jacobs, toldABC Newsthat this is now the new benchmark. “We went through the Fight for $15 and now $20 is out there as a new target wage.”
In contrast, the minimum wage for all other workers in California is $16 an hour. Experts worry that this win for fast-food workers might have a spillover effect. Wanting to retain their workers, other employers might have to raise their wages as well. “Anyone in California making less than the new minimum wage in fast food will say, ‘Hey, I can get a job at Wendy’s, McDonald’s, or Taco Bell and make more money,'” Jacobs explained.
Image credits:Visual Karsa (not the actual photo)
There is still a lot of stigma around fast-food work
Another remark from Watters that people called out was when he implied that fast-food workers make too much money. “That job really doesn’t require much,” he said. “That’s crazy,” referring to the fact that a fast-food worker might be making $40,000 a year. According to Watters, “It’s inflating the labor sector.”
Why is it that we look down onfast-food workersthis much? The work is certainly less than glamorous. The pay is low, dealing with difficult customers can drive you crazy, and the constant standing can be pretty taxing on your feet.
After all, working at a fast-food restaurant comes with many physical demands, as it’s a high-paced environment. Customers come and go, and queues form pretty quickly, so employees have to be quick and on their feet.Indeedwarns those who are looking to start working in fast-food restaurants that they’ll need to make sure to eat and hydrate throughout the day and use their breaks to rest their feet and stretch.
Not to mention entitled and rude customers who always think they know better. Social media is full of instances where fast-food workers get disrespected. In 2019,one mangot called a “Slow a**,” and a picture of a tiredPopeyes workerwas deemed funny and sparked countless memes. In another video, a persontook advantageof the situation when a worker passed out in the kitchen.
One McDonald’s employee wrote about her experience, explaining how sometimes she’s ashamed to admit that working in a fast-food restaurant is her “anchor” job. “Our country supposedly values hard work but somehow making an honest living, even if in service work, has become ridiculed,” the worker, Adriana Gomez-Weston,observed.
During the pandemic,fast-food restaurantworkers were among other essential employees who had to keep going to work amid the coronavirus outbreak. Millions of people everyday use their services because it’s an affordable and speedy way to eat. Doesn’t that warrant at least some respect?
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