Recently I noticed a Facebook post that has been circulating throughout the internet, essentially refuting the worth of fast food workers. The post, by Amy Miller Womack of Anderson City, Ky., declares that, as an ambulance driver, she should be making more than the fast food worker who always screws up her and her children's orders. She expresses her disapproval of their request for $15 an hour because they apparently have an easy job, and even screw that up. Her basic claim is that the work they do does not match the value they desire.
How can a fast food worker and an ambulance driver be compared? That's an impossible question to answer. It's difficult to compare any profession because each person values things differently. Some people may say that a doctor's job is more important than that of a writer because he is saving lives. However, to the writer, she has the power to provoke social change, question cultural norms and save lives in an entirely different way. How can we say one is more important than the other?
To simply say that fast food workers do not deserve to earn a certain amount just isn't fair. While some may just be teenagers who do not take the job seriously, others could be hardworking single parents who need the money to just reach above poverty level.
There are so many reasons a fast food worker -- or even a server at a restaurant --could have gotten your order wrong, or may not be delivering the best service. Do you give 100 percent at your job every second of every day? I doubt it. We've all had those days where everything goes wrong and we just can't seem to get anything right or focus on the task at hand.
As a server, I know that customers get nasty without any provocation and you have plaster that smile on your face and continue to be polite when all you want to do is spill their seltzer with a splash of cranberry juice and three and half limes right in their lap. To continue to be nice to someone who has been rude to you and continue to work throughout a shift without any error is not easy.
Imagine being financially penalized for every mistake you made at work. Imagine someone telling you you're not worthy of a certain amount of money -- a certain amount of money that allows you just to get by, to be able to live in a consumer society. This is what Womack is saying fast food workers do not deserve. But any hardworking human being deserves to be able to be free of poverty. They're not asking to be rich; they're asking to be able to feed and shelter themselves. So how can we say they're not worthy?
